When US President Donald Trump arranged a ceasefire between India and Pakistan, the details could be handled by the Directors General Military Operations of both countries, an Indian lieutenant-general and a Pakistani major general, but apparently there is no parallel mechanism between Israel and Iran, for he has to perform monitoring duties himself. On the other hand, it seems that in the Indo-Pak conflict, while he had an unstable and unreliable ally in Indian PM Narinder Modi, in Israel, the PM, Benjamin Netanyahu is quite clearly certifiable. It was only Mr Trump’s personal intervention, combined with a dressing-down, that made Mr Netanyahu abort a bombing mission by Israeli planes that would have made nonsense of the ceasefire, for then Iran might well have felt honourbound to reply with a missile strike. If the missile strike had inflicted casualties, as they have been doing, Israel might have felt it necessary to respond by further bombings and missile launches, and the whole cycle of attack and counterattack would have started once again.
Mr Trump should now realize why the truce in the Gaza Strip broke down: because Israel repeatedly violated the truce for some petty advantage. All Mr Netanyahu would have got for violating the ceasefire would have been bragging rights, about how he had had the last word, and was thus the best guardian of Jews against the Goyim. It is almost uncanny how he mirrors the antics of Mr Modi, whose greatest loss in the recent encounter with Pakistan was as the invincible defender of the Hindu rashtra against Muslims. However, Mr Netanyahu probably knew that he would not suffer any loss of credibility, because Mr Trump’s backing of Israel has amounted to becoming a booster for Israel during the conflict.
The major problem is that the ceasefire does not address certain crucial issues, centring around Iran’s quest for a weapon (according to Israel and the USA, though without any evidence) or technological capability (according to itself). Iran has vowed to continue its efforts, and though the destruction has been immense, if Iran puts in the required funds, facilities can be rebuilt. Unless knowledge of the nuclear process disappears from the world, scientists can be trained to take their murdered colleagues’ places. All it requires is political will, and there is no sign that Iran’s has been broken.
