Iranian missile strike on Jerusalem, 16 June © Abir Sultan / EPA / EFE
The escalation of the war in the Middle East opens Pandora’s Box, Israel bombarded Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities, killing nuclear scientists and military leaders, and Tehran responded launching ballistic missiles over Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Donald Trump left the G7 summit in Canada to return to the White House and from there compel the ayatollahs’ regime to total surrender, moving refuelling tankers to bases in Europe in anticipation of a United States intervention in the conflict. During his time as a real estate developer, the current president published The Art of the Deal, a book in which he defended intimidation, something he also practiced as a TV star, but that entails huge risks in the context of geopolitics. At the time we described his signing of executive orders as performances worthy of an art biennial, and now The Economist calls Trump a performance artist at the helm of an army, a clear danger for American democracy and for world stability.
The influential weekly expressed this opinion after the deployment of the National Guard in California, but those intimidating tactics are even more relevant when extended from tariffs to a military endeavor to trigger a regime change in another country. Unfortunately, previous experiences have led to failed States or have had the opposite effect, but this does not seem worry Trump or Netanyahu. Since Hamas’s terrorist attack of 7 October 2023, Israel embarked on a spiral of war that gradually went from self-defense to a massacre of the Palestinian people, a reaction which has drawn widespread criticism, greatly damaging the country’s reputation, and causing outbreaks of antisemitism. At that moment we used a biblical reference to describe the situation, that of an eyeless Samson destroying the temple and perishing with it, and unfortunately the turn of events has confirmed that Israel’s formidable military power acts with a historical blindness that will end up harming it.
To the material destruction of buildings in Gaza, with a tragic toll of victims, the violent colonization of the West Bank and the attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon or the Houthis in Yemen we must now add the war with Iran, a conflict much greater in dimension, which affects an important ally of Russia and where a hypothetical participation of the United States could lead to a devastating war in the region. The intimidation practiced by the air and navy forces moved to the area can harass the Iranian regime but, in the absence of significant combats, it is unlikely to cause its fall through the unconditional surrender demanded by Trump. While uncertainty grows, verbal threats from both sides continue, and many will be tempted to dismiss these hostile messages as fireworks. However, these fires of June are very real, and the trail of missiles in the sky outlines a landscape which is as immaterial and ephemeral as it is a sure harbinger of destruction and death.
Israeli attack on Tehran © Mehr News Agency
