War Hysteria!

CrossFireArabia
Opinion
March 3, 2026

By Ahmad Theiban

The strange thing is that the same scenario is being repeated from the recent war launched by Israel and the United States against Iran on 28 February. That war began with the assassination of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, along with dozens of military and civilian leaders, in a single strike during a meeting he was chairing. This is the same scenario that unfolded in the 12-day war in June 2025, which began with the elimination of military leaders and nuclear scientists in that first strike!

Moreover, and this is another paradox, the June 2025 war began during negotiations between Washington and Tehran on the nuclear issue. The same scenario is repeating itself in the current war in 2026, while nuclear negotiations between the two sides were ongoing, with a new date set for them this week!

It is also noteworthy that the image of Khamenei after his assassination, under the rubble, reached the Israeli government and spread on social media, indicating a human breach that leaked the image to Israel!

It seems the Iranian regime has lost its composure and reached an unprecedented state of hysteria. It has targeted all the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE, Bahrain, and Qatar) with ballistic missiles. Even Oman, which was leading mediation efforts between Washington and the Iranian regime, was not spared. Iranian drones bombed one of its ports, and the missiles targeted civilian sites, residential areas, and airports, despite the regime’s claim that the missiles were aimed at American bases in the region.

Ironically, all the Arab Gulf states were pushing to avoid a new war with Iran, but it seems the Iranian regime has failed to learn its lesson!

The strange irony is that the same scenario played out when Israel assassinated Hassan Nasrallah, the former leader of Hezbollah. Israeli intelligence learned of his location in a multi-story underground building in Haret Hreik in Beirut’s southern suburbs. The same thing happened with his expected successor, Hashem Safieddine, and dozens of Hezbollah’s top military and political leaders. This also points to a significant human infiltration within Hezbollah, where crucial information about the whereabouts of its leaders was leaked.

Here, I’d like to borrow a term attributed to the late Hassan Nasrallah, used in the context of a threat to Israel. He declared that the occupying state was “on its knees,” fearing a Hezbollah invasion of the Galilee region in northern occupied Palestine. I believe this expression can aptly be applied today to describe the escalating conflict between the United States and Israel on one side, and Iran on the other. Or, more accurately, the world is on tenterhooks awaiting the outcome of this war.

It was clear to anyone with even a basic understanding of politics that the massive US naval buildup, including two giant aircraft carriers—the USS Gerald R. Ford, which arrived at the port of Haifa in northern Israel, and the USS Abraham Lincoln—could accommodate approximately 180 fighter jets of various types, including helicopters. This buildup, along with the deployment of F-22 fighter jets to Israel, was part of a broader effort to bolster the US military presence in the Middle East. Furthermore, at least 14 US Air Force refueling aircraft also arrived in Israel, all in preparation for an attack on Iran. This entire force was not there for tourism!

President Trump himself declared during his State of the Union address last Tuesday: “One thing is certain: I will never allow the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism to possess a nuclear weapon. It cannot be allowed to happen. No nation should ever doubt America’s resolve.” He warned: “We have the most powerful military on earth.” Yet, the Iranian regime failed to grasp the message.

For weeks, the US and Israel have been threatening military action against Iran to force it to abandon its nuclear and missile programs and its proxies in the region—the militias that Iran has created, trained, and armed.

Despite the overwhelming US military power, the campaign against Iran continues to present complex challenges. With the prospects for a diplomatic breakthrough significantly diminished, the new war against Iran is now in its third day.

Despite President Trump’s repeated pronouncements of preferring diplomacy and negotiations, Vice President Vance’s meeting with the Omani Foreign Minister to encourage him to continue negotiations, and Secretary of State Rubio’s assertion that diplomacy remains President Trump’s preferred option, it seems no one in Tehran is listening. The only discourse there is a reiteration of rigid principles and ideologies.

This article is a translation of its Arabic version that appeared in Al Rai daily in Jordan.

CrossFireArabia

Dr. Marwan Asmar holds a PhD from Leeds University and is a freelance writer specializing on the Middle East. He has worked as a journalist since the early 1990s in Jordan and the Gulf countries, and been widely published, including at Albawaba, Gulf News, Al Ghad, World Press Review and others.

Opinion

Netanyahu, Mount Hermon and Arab Silense

Heba
September 13, 2026

By Awni al-Rajoub

What is happening? What remains of the dignity of an Arab nation that stands before such a grave scene and then moves on as if nothing has happened?

For Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to enter Syrian territory and reach the Mount Hermon area, forcibly and under the protection of occupation forces, without hesitation or shame, is not merely a passing provocation, nor a fleeting political maneuver that can be dismissed as media posturing.

It is a scene that encapsulates the extent of Israeli arrogance and disregard for all international rules, norms, and conventions.

What audacity! What kind of arrogance allows the head of the occupation government to enter the territory of a sovereign Arab state as if it were unclaimed land?

Who gave him the right? Who said that power grants its possessor the right to violate the borders of states? Who said that the occupation can impose its own law on the region, while others are required to abide by international law?

What is happening can no longer be glossed over or addressed with cold diplomatic language. There is an occupation that acts according to the logic of force, and there is an Arab silence that grows heavier and more painful.

Netanyahu did not enter Mount Hermon because he doesn’t know it’s Syrian territory. Nor did he cross the border because he misread the map.

He knows perfectly well where he stands, he knows perfectly well what this move means, and he knows that the message is not just for Syria.

The message is for the entire region.

A message that says Israel is ready to advance whenever it finds the way open, to impose a new reality by force, and to test the limits of Arab and international reaction each time.

And therein lies the tragedy. The problem is not only with the one advancing, but with the one who allows him to advance without paying a real political price. We have reached a point where the question has become more painful than the event itself:

Is there still an Arab nation?

A nation that sees the land of an Arab state violated, the borders of an Arab state transgressed, and the sovereignty of an Arab state trampled upon, and then finds nothing in the face of this scene but silence, statements, and positions that change nothing on the ground?

We don’t want random wars, military adventures, or empty slogans. But we do want at least one thing:

For the Arabs to take a stance commensurate with the magnitude of the danger.

A genuine political stance. A genuine diplomatic stance. A stance that makes the occupation understand that every transgression has a price, that the region is not without will, and that the Arabs are not so powerless.

What is happening today in Syria should not be viewed as an internal Syrian matter or an isolated incident.

It is a matter of Arab sovereignty.

If violating the borders of an Arab state becomes something that can be overlooked with silence, what prevents it from happening again elsewhere?

Today it’s Mount Hermon.

And tomorrow, what?

Where will this project end?

The most dangerous thing facing the nation is not only the strength of the enemy, but the nation’s habituation to retreating before it. For occupation to become commonplace. For raids to become routine. For incursions to become routine. That violations of sovereignty become mere news items that pass through the news bulletins and are then forgotten.

This is the true catastrophe. Nations are not only defeated when they lose their battles, but also when they lose sight of the gravity of what is happening to them.

Netanyahu’s incursion into Syrian territory in this manner should awaken a profound question within us:

What do we want for the future? Do we accept that the map of the region be drawn by force?

Do we accept that Arab borders become subject to change whenever one party possesses military power?

Do we accept that sovereignty becomes a mere word in statements, while facts on the ground are imposed by force?

And will we continue to stand idly by as this saga of Israeli arrogance unfolds before our very eyes?

For how long? It is time to state it clearly:

Israel does not act with such arrogance in a vacuum. It does so because it senses that the cost of defiance is low, that reactions are limited, that the Arab world is mired in its crises and disputes, and that every country is preoccupied with its internal affairs.

And here we must pause. Arab disputes must not be allowed to become an open opportunity for others. Nor must Arab divisions be a bridge for occupation to cross into more Arab lands. We are facing a moment that demands we ask ourselves honestly:

Where is the Arab decision? Where is the Arab will? Where is the ability to transform anger into action? Where is the capacity to utilize politics, diplomacy, law, economics, and all available means of pressure?

No one is asking the impossible. No one is asking the Arabs to go to war. But what is required is that the nation not remain a mere spectator. For prolonged silence in the face of arrogance ultimately becomes a green light.

And here I fear that a day will come when the question will no longer be:

Why did Netanyahu enter Mount Hermon?

But rather:

Why did we let him go even further?

The Arab nation’s brow is not only stained when its land is occupied, but also when it witnesses repeated aggression and lacks the will to stop it.

And the shame lies not in the nation’s weakness at any point in its history; Weakness can afflict nations.

But the true shame is for a nation to become accustomed to its weakness, and to treat humiliation as an unchangeable fate.

It is high time the Arab nation regained its self-confidence. To understand that the respect others have for it begins with its respect for its sovereignty. And to realize that Arab national security is not a slogan to be raised on special occasions, but a historical responsibility.

As for Netanyahu, he must understand that the region does not belong to him, that history will not grant him a deed to possess land that does not belong to him, and that military power, however great, cannot grant occupation perpetual legitimacy.

Mount Hermon is not just a mountain.

It is a symbol of land, sovereignty, borders, and dignity.

Therefore, what happened should not be treated as just another news item.

It must remain an open question for every Arab:

What is happening?

And what remains of our nation?

This opinion, written by Awni al-Rajoub, was published by the Arabic website Jo24 and reprinted in English in crossfirearabia.com

Opinion

Trumpaplooza! View from Amman

Saleem Ayoub Quna
September 11, 2026

By Saleem Ayoub Quna

Once again President Trump managed to highjack the spotlight as he delivered his keynote speech at the unconventional midterm Republican National Convention in Dallas last week, or at what some media outlets, appropriately, dubbed as the Trumpaplooza!

These media organizations named some candidates who said they preferred Trump to stay out of their own local campaigns, because they thought his interference would not be to their advantage! Other candidates deleted Trump’s name and/or picture from their previous campaign posts for the same reason! And some republican personalities abstained from going to the convention altogether!

Nevertheless, in his nearly two-hour long monologue, Trump came up with more than few original ideas and suggestions for his supporters which he thought would help the GOP candidates, to be elected or reelected, to the Senate and the House next November.

In a rare unheard of tactic to convince his supporters to vote for their candidates, he begged them to imagine that his name was on the ballot they would cast! What this actually meant that their names and identities are less important than that of his own! In other words, President Trump was really saying those candidates would be worth nothing were they not running on behalf of the Republican Party, which he controls and are one of his own many intellectual properties! It must feel awkward for some candidates who fall under this category!

Then comes the big bombshell which no one was expecting, namely the $5000 bonus to be paid for each adult (a registered voter) when and if the elections guaranteed a republican majority in both the Senate and the House!

But let’s dig a little bit further in the significance of the timing of this generous dividend! The difference between the payment (after or before) the elections can be viewed from more than one angel. And this must be very revealing for many Americans and those watching the American experience from other parts of the world!

From purely a Trumpean point of view it is just another business transaction, simple and clear!

Trump’s argument on this point would go something like this: “I can reward you, when and if I am satisfied with the work you have done for me! For I am the one who is running this political bonanza called the “midterm elections” campaign, and I am the one who gave you the chance to vote for my-would be supporters at the Senate and the House”!

Then, he might go on to say: “But I cannot pay you now simply because, I do not buy any fish that is still in the sea”!

But what President Trump is not saying is he first does not have this much cash “a trillion dollar” in his drawer, and that he does not trust every single “adult” who promises, he or she, would vote republican! Trump thinks, and he is right, that there could be some pretenders who would say something but do something else!

A third possibility could be that Trump’s bid would prevail and the republicans would have made it! And the day of payment would arrived, while Trump would not have cash yet! Here, Trump’s genius as a great businessman would come to the test and it will be the guessing game of the century!

But seriously, observers of the American scene under the Trump Presidency, and many Americans as well, must be wondering how on earth the politics of a great country like the US, could get stuck in such an unusual labyrinth of contradictions, where not so many can differentiate between reality and virtual reality, between incentive and bribery and between a hasty promise and commitment!!