From Saddam to Iran's militias: Iraqis cannot suggest ties with Israel

• Author: SETH J. FRANTZMAN
• Published date: 29 September 2021

The uproar is not surprising. It is part of posturing in Baghdad against Israel. Underpinning the reaction is not Iraq's bureaucracy or even average Iraqis, but rather the hand of Iran and its militias in Iraq who want to use the country as a platform for attacks on Israel, the US and others.

It is important to understand the background here. Iraq has attempted to posture as being at the forefront of anti-Israel struggles in the region in the past. Under Saddam Hussein's regime the country led regional rhetoric against Israel, even firing Scud missiles at Israel during the Gulf War. The Scud missiles were the last gasps of a failing regime that had already spent itself invading Kuwait and threatening Saudi Arabia, provoking a large US-led coalition that ejected Saddam from Kuwait and led Iraq to ruin.

cnxps.cmd.push(function () { cnxps({ playerId: '36af7c51-0caf-4741-9824-2c941fc6c17b' }).render('4c4d856e0e6f4e3d808bbc1715e132f6'); });

>

But Saddam's threat was more serious than the Scuds. The regime was once a regional powerhouse in the 1980s. It had attempted a push for nuclear weapons that led to the Israeli strike on the Osirak reactor in 1982. More than that, Iraq had participated in three wars against Israel, in 1948, 1967 and 1973. Iraq's participation in the 1948 war included sending small forces as far as the Jenin area.

In 1973 a more serious Iraqi threat emerged when the country sent elements of its 3rd Armored Division to Syria to aid the war against Israel. The Iraqi forces were decimated between October 11 and 14, 1973. Iraq also acted against its Jewish minority, seeking to punish their remnants for the existence of Israel. In 1969 fourteen Jews were hanged in Iraq, accused of being "spies."

This is the background of Iraq's anti-Israel stance. It is a stance in which Iraq is the aggressor, a country that has waged war against Israel since the 1940s and sought to take the lead in regional efforts against Israel. Where once this was waged under the banner of Arab nationalism or Saddam Hussein's attempt to control the Middle East, this has now shifted as a much weaker Iraq is now being infiltrated by Iranian-backed militias.

There is no real evidence the average Iraqi cares much about Israel or thinks about Israel often. Iraq is a country suffering extreme deprivation, economic woes, environmental catastrophes and occupation by pro-Iranian militias that target academics, media and others who dare to critique Tehran. It is also a very divided society...