What a pity Benjamin Netanyahu remains at large after an international arrest warrant for alleged war crimes committed in Gaza was issued in 2024. Had he been detained, as he certainly should have been, the peoples of Iran, Lebanon, the Gulf – and Israel itself – might have been spared much present-day pain and suffering.

The Israeli prime minister’s lifelong, passionate obsession with eradicating the real and imagined threats posed by Iran was reportedly a key factor in prompting Donald Trump’s abrupt, unprovoked plunge into all-out war. Netanyahu should be in jail, not committing more crimes while the powerful but ego-driven US president negligently looks on.

Netanyahu ridicules claims that he dragged the US into war. “Does anyone really think that someone can tell President Trump what to do?” he asked this week. “He didn’t need any convincing.” But Oman’s foreign minister flatly contradicts him, saying Netanyahu’s opposition convinced Trump to abandon indirect talks with Iran, overseen by Oman in Geneva, that were close to success.

Israel’s plan of campaign has rapidly taken on a life of its own since joint operations with the US began on 28 February, with the Israeli air force and army inflicting death and destruction on an ever-expanding range of military and civilian targets across Iran and Lebanon. But this week’s Israeli bombing of Iran’s South Pars gas field – a significant escalation that led to further spikes in global energy prices and fierce Iranian retaliatory strikes against Gulf countries’ oil and gas facilities – was a step too far. It was disowned by Trump, who claimed he knew nothing about it in advance. That was contradicted by anonymous US and Israeli officials.

The episode provoked a spate of reports about how US and Israeli war aims are diverging. One basic difference concerns Iran’s future governance. Netanyahu is unequivocally seeking to totally collapse Iran’s regime. Though his stated aims change daily, Trump has indicated he could do a........

© The Guardian