The recent Israeli attack on the South Pars gas field was a calculated move to deepen American entanglement, and provoke a direct confrontation between Iran and the Gulf Arab states. Announcing the raid, Israeli officials claimed the strike was coordinated with, and approved by the U. S., implicitly tying Washington to this action. Yet within hours, Donald Trump pleaded ignorance and, for the second time, demanded that Israel halt its targeting of energy facilities. Soon thereafter, Benjamin Netanyahu hastily convened a press briefing, professing that the attack did not involve the U.S.. This contradiction indicates either another Israeli-manufactured lie, or a calculated division of roles that allows Trump to deny foreknowledge and thereby assuage Gulf states’ concerns over targeting energy infrastructures, which could incite a similar Iranian response.

The Israeli strike on the major gas hub marks a dangerous strategic escalation. The choice of target reflects not an unintended move, but a purposeful attempt to instigate a broader war.

The Israeli strike on the major gas hub marks a dangerous strategic escalation. The choice of target reflects not an unintended move, but a purposeful attempt to instigate a broader war.

It is part of a long standing sinister Israeli effort to perpetuate permanent chaos in the Gulf and Middle East. With that in mind, and wasting no time, the Israeli prime minister is cynically positing Israel as a possible alternative energy corridor to bypass the Strait of Hormuz. That aside, and beyond expanding the war, further Iranian retaliations against countries hosting American bases, could also trigger a wider economic war severely disrupt global energy markets and upend the world economy. An eerily reminiscent of the world’s recession that followed the oil embargo in the aftermath of the 1973 war.

READ: Iran says Strait of Hormuz ‘open,’ but ships fear passage

More importantly, assuming he acted alone, Netanyahu may be signaling to Trump who truly dictates the pace and scope of this war. By declaring that “there has to be a ground component,” he, more or less, “instructed” the U.S. president to dispatch Marine amphibious assault warships, exposing Trump’s servile role.

Time and again, it has become more palpable: this is Netanyahu’s war; he alone dictates its course, has........

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