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The Hindu
13 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
Israel has failed to solve the Persian puzzle
The wedding of Edmure Tully and Roslin Frey at The Twins in the northern riverlands is one of the most consequential events in Game of Thrones. Known as the Red Wedding, it is the setting for the massacre of Robb Stark, King in the North and Lord of Winterfell, along with his pregnant wife, his mother, and most of his banner-men. This brutal betrayal shattered the Starks' military power and ended their bid for independence from the Iron Throne, reshaping the political landscape of Westeros, the fictional continent in the series. When Israeli fighter jets began bombing Iran, in the early hours of June 13, 2025, Israeli generals reportedly dubbed a part of the operation as the 'Red Wedding' — a pointed reference to what they wanted to achieve in the strike. Israel's primary target was Iran's nuclear facilities. But Israel knew that if it started a war, Iran — a country many times its size and armed with thousands of ballistic missiles — would strike back. So there were three targets — Iran's nuclear facilities, nuclear scientists and the leadership of Iran's armed forces. Much like House Frey slaughtered the banner-men and the leaders of House Stark, Israel had the aim of wiping out Iran's military command, believing that it would cripple Tehran's military response. Israel had pulled off a similar strategy in the past. On June 5, 1967, it launched a massive air strike against Egypt's air force, causing much damage to it on the ground. Egypt never recovered from the initial blow, and Israel claimed a sweeping victory over Egypt, Jordan and Syria in just six days. But in June 2025, the outcome was different. Operational success From an operational standpoint, Israel's attack can be seen as a success. Israel had been preparing for a strike on Iran's nuclear programmes for years, a plan that gained momentum after the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas. Israel, which immediately launched a war against Hamas in Gaza, eventually expanded it to a mini-regional war that was aimed squarely at Iran. It dealt a blow to Hezbollah. It bombed the Iranian embassy in Damascus in April 2024, and killed several Iranian commanders in Syria. Its relentless bombings in Syria expedited the collapse of Bashar al-Assad's regime. The return of Donald Trump to the White House further hardened Israel's resolve to test the military option. On June 13, while Tehran was still engaged in talks with the Trump administration, Israel struck Iran's Natanz and Isfahan nuclear facilities, killed at least 10 nuclear scientists, and assassinated many top commanders. Executing such a complex operation in a vast country about 2,000 kilometres away was no small feat. Yet, the problem for Israel was that this operational success failed to deliver the desired strategic outcome. For Israel, which has established credible deterrence against the surrounding conventional Arab armies, Iran has always remained a puzzle. Despite its sanctions-hit economy and enduring hostility from the West, Iran managed to build a wide network of influence in the region through non-state actors, while developing an advanced ballistic missile programme and pursuing its nuclear ambitions. Israel had long nurtured the idea of regime change in Iran — if the Islamic Republic falls, Israel's last remaining conventional threat in West Asia would vanish. Israel prefers a weaker, broken-up Iran, much like today's Iraq, Libya, Syria or Lebanon, which would set the stage for a unipolar West Asia that is dominated by Israel and the U.S. The post-October 7 wars substantially weakened Iran's allies in the region. Still, Iran, with its ballistic missiles and nuclear programme, remained a rebel counterweight to Israel. In the early days of the 12-day war, Mr. Netanyahu declared that Israel's operation 'could certainly' lead to regime change, insisting that 'Iran is very weak'. He also urged the Iranians to 'to act, to rise up' against the 'evil regime'. During the war, Israel killed at least 30 Iranian security chiefs, threatening to disrupt the entire chain of command. But the Iranian government and the military recovered with remarkable speed, with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps taking the lead in mounting a counter-attack. Iran launched a sustained campaign of drones and ballistic missile strikes that exposed vulnerabilities in Israel's much-vaunted, multi-layered, American-assisted defence systems. Within days, Mr. Netanyahu was forced to turn to Washington for help. That help came on June 21 when U.S. President Donald Trump ordered U.S. air strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites, including Fordow, the most heavily fortified facility. Mr. Trump, however, was not interested in a long war with Iran. After the strikes, he claimed that Iran's nuclear facilities had been 'obliterated', declared victory and announced a ceasefire between Israel and Iran. Mr. Netanyahu had no choice but to accept the ceasefire, with the Iranian government still standing with much of its capabilities. Strategic labyrinth Early assessments by the U.S. intelligence community claimed that Iran's nuclear programme had not been destroyed by U.S. strikes, but set back by 'a few months'. Even if the nuclear facilities were destroyed, there is no certainty that Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium and all advanced centrifuges have been destroyed. There were reports, based on European intelligence assessments, that Iran had dispersed its enriched uranium well before the Israeli-American strikes. According to Rafael Mariano Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran has the industrial and technological capacity to resume enriching uranium in a few months. This leaves Israel in a strategic labyrinth. The Iranian state refused to flinch throughout the war despite the heavy blows it suffered. The air strikes failed to destroy Iran's nuclear programme, let alone its nuclear capabilities. Third, the war exposed Israel's over-reliance on the U.S., in both defence and offence, which was not the case in 1967 when Israel claimed its biggest victory. Survival of the weak Even though Mr. Trump joined the war on behalf of Israel, there is a clear distinction between the American and the Israeli approaches towards the Persian puzzle. Israel's ultimate objective is regime change but it does not have the resources or the capabilities to achieve regime change. The U.S. does not want a nuclear Iran, but it does not want to get entangled in another prolonged war in West Asia either. Mr. Trump's own MAGA (Make America Great Again) base was revolting against America's intervention in Iran. For Iran, the Israeli-American attack was another Mosaddegh moment — a reminder of the 1953 Central Intelligence Agency-backed coup that toppled its elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh. Iran once made a deal with the U.S. and other world powers over its nuclear programme, only to see it torn up by President Trump in his first term. When Tehran returned to talks with Washington again, it ended up facing an Israeli-American war instead. Iran is now racing to rebuild its military capabilities and restore deterrence. Iran's leaders will also find a greater incentive than ever to pursue a nuclear weapon as many in Iran today argue that if Tehran had possessed a bomb, like North Korea, Israel and the U.S. would not have dared launch this war. In Game of Thrones, the Red Wedding was not the end of House Stark. When Arya Stark, the younger sister of Robb Stark, extracts revenge for the Red Wedding by orchestrating a massacre at House Frey, she declares: 'You didn't slaughter every one of the Starks. That was your mistake. You should have ripped them all out, root and stem.' The 12-day war did not destroy the Iranian regime. Nor did it tear out the Iranian nuclear programme, root and stem. Beneath its rhetoric of victory, Israel, which is now asking the international community to stop Iran from getting a nuclear bomb, knows this all too well. It will only grow more paranoid, closely monitoring Iran's every move, while Tehran replenishes its arsenal, readying itself to fight another day. This war is far from over.
IOL News
2 days ago
- Politics
- IOL News
Red Wedding Warfare: How Israel Turned War Into A Spectacle To Conceal The Gaza Genocide
A woman mourns over the shrouded body of a Palestinian killed during a reported Israeli strike on a humanitarian aid distribution warehouse in the Sabra neighbourhood in Gaza City, in the central Gaza Strip on June 30, 2025. The global silence on Gaza is not accidental. It is rooted in decades of settler colonial ideology, dehumanisation, and the strategic rebranding of oppression as self-defence, says the writer. Image: AFP Phakamile Hlubi-Majola In June 2025, the Israeli military executed a strike so surgically devastating it borrowed its name from the popular television series, Game of Thrones. It was named the 'Red Wedding' operation, a name inspired by one of the most brutal betrayals in TV history. Just a brief recap, the Red Wedding was a massacre that occurred in Game of Thrones during the wedding of Edmure Tully and Roslin Frey. Lord Walder Frey orchestrated the event as revenge against Robb Stark for breaking a marriage pact that had been forged between the House of Stark and the House of Frey. The guests had their guard down as a result of the wedding celebration, and they were unable to respond decisively to defend themselves against a bloody ambush. This was the impact that Israel hoped to have on Iran. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed he was compelled to attack because Iran was on the verge of building a nuclear weapon. But this excuse is wearing thin. For nearly 30 years, Israel has claimed Iran was 'months away' from a bomb, but there is still no bomb. Meanwhile, Israel holds a nuclear arsenal of its own, which is undeclared, unchecked, and untouched. Both the U.S. intelligence community and the International Atomic Energy Agency have confirmed that Iran is not building nuclear weapons. What we witnessed was not a genuine call for disarmament, but rather, it was about domination. We have seen this play out before in 2002 when Netanyahu misled the U.S. and the U.K. that Iraq was manufacturing 'weapons of mass destruction' to push Western allies into attacking Iraq. This is the same script, just a different cast. The Red Wedding was an ambush against key leaders of Iran's military. Over 200 Israeli fighter jets took off quietly, targeting 100 sites inside Iran. The strike eliminated some of Iran's most senior defence officials. Among the dead were General Hossein Salami, the head of the Revolutionary Guard; Iranian military chief Mohammad Bagheri; and Gholam Ali Rashid from the emergency command. The outcome was devastating. Iran lost several key military leaders within hours. At the same time, they launched Operation Narnia, a parallel mission that killed nine of Iran's leading nuclear scientists. It was a fast, unexpected, and ruthless attack. Within hours, Iran's nuclear and military elite were shattered, and hundreds, if not thousands, of civilians had been killed. It was swift, cold and calculating. And it was branded like prime-time television. It is deeply disturbing when a state-sponsored military assault is packaged with a pop culture metaphor, soaked in betrayal and carnage. This demonstrates that for Israel, war is not only a strategy, but also a spectacle. And in the shadow of this 'performance' is the ongoing genocide of Palestinians, whose destruction continues largely untelevised. The 'Red Wedding strike' and 'Operation Narnia' were not just military operations designed to neutralise threats. The goal was to dominate the narrative by playing on Hollywood-style theatrics. Israel was sending an ominous message: We can strike with impunity, and we will find you in any corner of the world. But more importantly, it was designed to distract from the ongoing state-sanctioned ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. To emphasise this, U.S. President Donald Trump reportedly views the war between Iran and Israel as 'the perfect war'. This is a reflection that, in his mind, it is the kind of war that captured imaginations, because it presented strength. Note that Trump is not at all concerned with peace or diplomacy, only the entertainment value of destruction. But this is not entertainment. Real people died. Over 1,100 Iranians were killed and thousands more wounded. And this is not an isolated event; it is part of a long and dangerous pattern of framing militarised violence as bold leadership, and the erasure of its human cost, by disguising it beneath the language of precision and power. Meanwhile, Gaza continues to bleed, largely off-camera. Since its campaign in Gaza in October 2023, Israel has killed over fifty-six thousand people and uprooted nearly the entire population of 2.3 million people, according to Al Jazeera. More than 16,750 children have been murdered, and over 1,000 have lost limbs, many amputated without anaesthesia due to Israel's deliberate targeting of Gaza's medical infrastructure. Hospitals have been bombed, and doctors and nurses are targeted by the military and attacked. Aid convoys and food have been blocked from entering. Those who have miraculously survived are slowly starving to death. The UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner issued a report that even if Palestinians can reach food distribution points, the 'Israeli military has shelled and shot Palestinians trying to reach the distribution points, leading to many fatalities'. This is not a tragedy. It is deliberate, systemic, state-sponsored ethnic cleansing. There is an attempt to distract the world's attention by focusing on the 'Red Wedding', a spectacle designed to dominate headlines while war crimes against Palestinians are reduced to background noise. This kind of selective outrage reveals the machinery beneath global diplomacy. Israeli military aggression toward Iran is applauded, but its sustained violence against Palestinians is ignored and even justified. What we are witnessing is not just hypocrisy; it is complicity. The global silence on Gaza is not accidental. It is rooted in decades of settler colonial ideology, dehumanisation, and the strategic rebranding of oppression as self-defence. From Washington to Brussels, the narrative is tightly controlled, and platforms like TikTok have joined the censorship regime. Creators documenting the Palestinian crisis face shadow bans or content removal for using words like genocide. To stay visible, activists now spell it as 'g3nocide' or 'g*nocide', a digital code for what many in power refuse to name aloud. It was Chinese philosopher Confucius who said, 'The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their proper name'. And so those of us who know the truth, and who survived Apartheid in South Africa, must act with courage and call it what it is. It is genocide, erasure and Apartheid. There is no other vocabulary that captures the scale and intent of what is unfolding against Palestinians.
IOL News
2 days ago
- Politics
- IOL News
Red Wedding Warfare: How Israel Turned War Into A Spectacle To Conceal The Gaza Genocide
A woman mourns over the shrouded body of a Palestinian killed during a reported Israeli strike on a humanitarian aid distribution warehouse in the Sabra neighbourhood in Gaza City, in the central Gaza Strip on June 30, 2025. The global silence on Gaza is not accidental. It is rooted in decades of settler colonial ideology, dehumanisation, and the strategic rebranding of oppression as self-defence, says the writer. Image: AFP Phakamile Hlubi-Majola In June 2025, the Israeli military executed a strike so surgically devastating it borrowed its name from the popular television series, Game of Thrones. It was named the 'Red Wedding' operation, a name inspired by one of the most brutal betrayals in TV history. Just a brief recap, the Red Wedding was a massacre that occurred in Game of Thrones during the wedding of Edmure Tully and Roslin Frey. Lord Walder Frey orchestrated the event as revenge against Robb Stark for breaking a marriage pact that had been forged between the House of Stark and the House of Frey. The guests had their guard down as a result of the wedding celebration, and they were unable to respond decisively to defend themselves against a bloody ambush. This was the impact that Israel hoped to have on Iran. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed he was compelled to attack because Iran was on the verge of building a nuclear weapon. But this excuse is wearing thin. For nearly 30 years, Israel has claimed Iran was 'months away' from a bomb, but there is still no bomb. Meanwhile, Israel holds a nuclear arsenal of its own, which is undeclared, unchecked, and untouched. Both the U.S. intelligence community and the International Atomic Energy Agency have confirmed that Iran is not building nuclear weapons. What we witnessed was not a genuine call for disarmament, but rather, it was about domination. We have seen this play out before in 2002 when Netanyahu misled the U.S. and the U.K. that Iraq was manufacturing 'weapons of mass destruction' to push Western allies into attacking Iraq. This is the same script, just a different cast. The Red Wedding was an ambush against key leaders of Iran's military. Over 200 Israeli fighter jets took off quietly, targeting 100 sites inside Iran. The strike eliminated some of Iran's most senior defence officials. Among the dead were General Hossein Salami, the head of the Revolutionary Guard; Iranian military chief Mohammad Bagheri; and Gholam Ali Rashid from the emergency command. The outcome was devastating. Iran lost several key military leaders within hours. At the same time, they launched Operation Narnia, a parallel mission that killed nine of Iran's leading nuclear scientists. It was a fast, unexpected, and ruthless attack. Within hours, Iran's nuclear and military elite were shattered, and hundreds, if not thousands, of civilians had been killed. It was swift, cold and calculating. And it was branded like prime-time television. It is deeply disturbing when a state-sponsored military assault is packaged with a pop culture metaphor, soaked in betrayal and carnage. This demonstrates that for Israel, war is not only a strategy, but also a spectacle. And in the shadow of this 'performance' is the ongoing genocide of Palestinians, whose destruction continues largely untelevised. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ The 'Red Wedding strike' and 'Operation Narnia' were not just military operations designed to neutralise threats. The goal was to dominate the narrative by playing on Hollywood-style theatrics. Israel was sending an ominous message: We can strike with impunity, and we will find you in any corner of the world. But more importantly, it was designed to distract from the ongoing state-sanctioned ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. To emphasise this, U.S. President Donald Trump reportedly views the war between Iran and Israel as 'the perfect war'. This is a reflection that, in his mind, it is the kind of war that captured imaginations, because it presented strength. Note that Trump is not at all concerned with peace or diplomacy, only the entertainment value of destruction. But this is not entertainment. Real people died. Over 1,100 Iranians were killed and thousands more wounded. And this is not an isolated event; it is part of a long and dangerous pattern of framing militarised violence as bold leadership, and the erasure of its human cost, by disguising it beneath the language of precision and power. Meanwhile, Gaza continues to bleed, largely off-camera. Since its campaign in Gaza in October 2023, Israel has killed over fifty-six thousand people and uprooted nearly the entire population of 2.3 million people, according to Al Jazeera. More than 16,750 children have been murdered, and over 1,000 have lost limbs, many amputated without anaesthesia due to Israel's deliberate targeting of Gaza's medical infrastructure. Hospitals have been bombed, and doctors and nurses are targeted by the military and attacked. Aid convoys and food have been blocked from entering. Those who have miraculously survived are slowly starving to death. The UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner issued a report that even if Palestinians can reach food distribution points, the 'Israeli military has shelled and shot Palestinians trying to reach the distribution points, leading to many fatalities'. This is not a tragedy. It is deliberate, systemic, state-sponsored ethnic cleansing. There is an attempt to distract the world's attention by focusing on the 'Red Wedding', a spectacle designed to dominate headlines while war crimes against Palestinians are reduced to background noise. This kind of selective outrage reveals the machinery beneath global diplomacy. Israeli military aggression toward Iran is applauded, but its sustained violence against Palestinians is ignored and even justified. What we are witnessing is not just hypocrisy; it is complicity. The global silence on Gaza is not accidental. It is rooted in decades of settler colonial ideology, dehumanisation, and the strategic rebranding of oppression as self-defence. From Washington to Brussels, the narrative is tightly controlled, and platforms like TikTok have joined the censorship regime. Creators documenting the Palestinian crisis face shadow bans or content removal for using words like genocide. To stay visible, activists now spell it as 'g3nocide' or 'g*nocide', a digital code for what many in power refuse to name aloud. It was Chinese philosopher Confucius who said, 'The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their proper name'. And so those of us who know the truth, and who survived Apartheid in South Africa, must act with courage and call it what it is. It is genocide, erasure and Apartheid. There is no other vocabulary that captures the scale and intent of what is unfolding against Palestinians.
