caitlin speaks about the current war in the mid east and its potential directions;

Conventional wisdom is that Israel would prefer to avoid a major new war while its forces remain tied up in Gaza, but it certainly isn’t acting like a nation that’s trying to avoid a new war.

Israel has been on another assassination spree, killing Hamas political leader Ismael Haniyeh on Wednesday with an airstrike while he was in Tehran for the swearing in of the new Iranian president. Israel also claims to have killed Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in an airstrike on Beirut on Tuesday evening.

Iran and Lebanon will now have to decide how to respond to these incendiary aggressions. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has promised “harsh punishment” for the strike on Iranian soil, appearing to place the attack on the same level as Israel’s assassination of Iranian officials in Damascus this past April which drew a massive drone and missile retaliation from Iran. 

“The response to an assassination will indeed be special operations — harder and intended to instill deep regret in the perpetrator,” reads an official statement from an Iranian government Twitter account.

According to Barak Ravid of Axios, Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant told US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin that “Israel does not seek war” but “the IDF remains prepared to respond to any attack by Hezbollah,” which is the sort of victim-LARPing only an Israeli official could perform after two straight high-profile assassination strikes.....more......