The war that Israel and the United States launched against Iran on February 28 is in a lull, not at an end.
asserted
Israel → launch → end
Major combat has paused, diplomacy has stalled and both sides are preparing for the next round.
asserted
sides → pause → round
To understand why the fighting will soon resume, we need to understand the motivations of the two governments that started it.
asserted
that → understand → it
Neither of them wants peace.
asserted
Neither → want → peace
Israel’s leadership seeks domination over the Middle East, and the United States seeks to preserve its domination over the world.
asserted
States → seek → world
Simply to state these aims is to underscore that both governments are operating in a world of delusion.
asserted
governments → state → delusion
Israel’s political leadership is consumed by the belief that Israel’s survival depends on its military supremacy over the Arab world and on the permanent subjugation or elimination of the Palestinian people.
asserted
survival → consume → people
This belief is a form of collective madness, yet it is the doctrine that governs Israeli policy.
asserted
that → govern → policy
Israel’s leaders cannot accept that peace is within reach.
asserted
peace → accept → reach
In the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002, the Arab states offered Israel full normalisation in return for a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, and that offer still stands.
asserted
offer → offer → borders
Peace cannot be built on genocide in Gaza or on hatred of the Palestinian people and the drive to remove them from their land.
asserted
Peace → build → land
Yet that is the path Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has chosen, and he now campaigns on it openly, with his “national religious” allies, including Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, who twist religion in the service of hatred and killing.
asserted
who → choose → hatred
The United States is consumed by its declining power.
asserted
States → consume → power
In 1953, the CIA and British intelligence overthrew Iran’s elected prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, after he nationalised Iran’s oil.
asserted
he → overthrow → oil
The United States then installed the shah and backed his police state until the Iranian people overthrew it in 1979.
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people → instal → 1979
The US has never forgiven Iran for escaping from US domination.
asserted
US → forgive → domination
The US backed Saddam Hussein’s deadly war against Iran in the 1980s, and followed with four decades of economic warfare, covert operations, cyberattacks and assassinations.
asserted
US → back → warfare
Trump tore up the 2015 nuclear agreement in 2018, bombed Iran’s nuclear sites in June 2025, and then, in February of this year, joined Israel in open war, killing Iran’s supreme leader in the opening strikes.
asserted
Trump → tear → strikes
In The Grand Chessboard (1997), Zbigniew Brzezinski named Iran one of five “geopolitical pivots,” states that matter less for their own power than for where they sit.
asserted
they → name → power
Iran commands the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.
asserted
Iran → command → Hormuz
Brzezinski wrote that an “antihegemonic” coalition of China, Russia and Iran could emerge “only if the United States is shortsighted enough to antagonize China and Iran simultaneously.”
uncertain
States → write → China
The signs that the war will restart are not hidden.
asserted
war → restart → ?
This week, War Secretary Pete Hegseth visited Israel to discuss renewed joint strikes, and Israeli sources report that the plans target Iran’s petrochemical facilities and nuclear sites.
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plans → visit → facilities
The White House has promised that the United States will not attack Iran before the November 3 midterm elections, which is another way of announcing a timetable for war.
asserted
which → promise → war
The US naval blockade of Iran’s ports has passed its 100th day.
asserted
blockade → pass → day
Trump rejected Iran’s proposal for a seven-day ceasefire in September, even though Tehran says the offer remains on the table.
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offer → reject → table
Israel’s October 27 election adds fuel to the fire.
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election → add → fire
On October 18, Trump endorsed Netanyahu, saying the United States would “finish the job” against Iran only with Netanyahu in charge.
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Netanyahu → endorse → charge
On October 21, at a rally in Dimona (home to the reactor where Israel secretly built its own nuclear arsenal), Netanyahu declared that the only way to end the Iranian threat is to overthrow the regime and said he had issued that directive to the army, Mossad and the security services.
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he → build → army
Iran has understandably drawn its own conclusions.
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Iran → draw → conclusions
Its commanders have announced a new offensive doctrine that includes preemptive strikes and attacks on bases in neighbouring countries used for operations against Iran, and they warn that renewed attacks would bring a global energy crisis.
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attacks → announce → crisis
Attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz reached a new peak this month.
asserted
Attacks → reach → peak
This is the reality that the Arab world, especially the Gulf countries, now faces.
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world → face → that
The US bases across the Gulf did not bring security in this war.
asserted
bases → bring → war
They turned their host nations into targets.
asserted
They → turn → targets
The US-Israeli strategy of divide and conquer, which cast Iran as the region’s permanent enemy and invited the Arab states to shelter under American power while accepting Israeli hegemony, has brought war to the region, economic loss to the Gulf, and mass killings in Palestine and Lebanon.
asserted
which → conquer → Palestine
The only way to stop this madness is for the Arab world to tell the United States that enough is enough.
asserted
enough → stop → States
The Arab states should declare that they will never accept Israeli hegemony, that there must be a sovereign State of Palestine and that the region’s security will come from regional cooperation rather than from Washington.
asserted
security → declare → Washington
What matters is that Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs, each about eight million people, live in peace, safety and self-determination.
asserted
Jews → matter → peace
Qatar has called for a regional dialogue among the Gulf Cooperation Council states, Turkiye and Pakistan, and Qatar, Pakistan and Oman have kept the channels of mediation with Tehran open throughout the war.
asserted
Qatar → call → war
…and 7 more, not listed.
The Aporia
