Israel marginalises Iraqi militias

With Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shiaa al-Sudani and the Coordination Framework leadership powerless to stop Israeli aircraft from violating Iraqi airspace and striking Iran, impotent protests are all they can offer in a time of war. The most that Sudani has done is to call on the United States for assistance. The Iraqi government’s military spokesman has urged Washington to “take responsibility under the agreements between the two countries to prevent Israeli planes from violating Iraqi airspace and carrying out attacks on Iran.”
Meanwhile, an unnamed senior Iraqi security official said that Baghdad had asked Tehran to avoid targeting American interests in Iraq. ‘We made this request, and the Iranians promised to comply,’ the official said.
Regarding Iraq’s Shia militias, who openly declare their loyalty to Iran, this same official noted that everyone, including the armed factions, was cooperating with the government to prevent Iraq from becoming embroiled in the wider conflict.
Does this not raise the question of whether these militias pose a long-standing threat to Israel?
To answer this, we must turn to history.
In 1993, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin expressed his hope that ‘peace with the Arabs’ would soon extend to Baghdad. While politicians are entitled to dream, at the time this was a fantastical idea. They cannot ignore the fact that they cannot change the mood of the Iraqi public, who resisted them until 2003.
What happened after that date? The political premise that Iraq posed a threat to Israel came to an end. Following the invasion, Iraq became a free rein for Mossad operations.
With the help of the occupying American forces, all documents related to Israel were seized from the Iraqi intelligence headquarters. By 2003, Mossad operatives had established the Baghdad Hotel on Saddoun Street as their headquarters, operating under the protection of US troops.
In February 2004, Yossi Sarid, an Israeli Knesset member and member of the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee, revealed that the Mossad knew that Iraq’s claims regarding weapons of mass destruction were false. He dismissed the 45-minute timeline for deploying Iraqi WMDs as “an old man’s tale.”
He openly admitted that Israel did not want to undermine President George Bush’s narrative on the Iraq War, but that they should have done so anyway.
At that time, Mossad agents concluded their mission in Iraq with US military protection and the assistance of ‘Iraqis’ who had been recruited following Baghdad’s fall, uttering the phrase ‘it’s all over’. Can anyone forget figures like Kanan Makiya?
However, Israel’s strategy towards occupied Iraq changed after the regime change. Iraq was no longer categorised as Israel’s primary enemy. Ministers in the post-occupation governments were keen to meet Israeli officials. Hoshyar Zebari, Iraq’s foreign minister at the time, even shook hands with Israeli infrastructure minister Ben Eliezer in front of cameras at a conference on the Dead Sea. Unlike meetings with Ahmed Chalabi, Jalal Talabani and Barham Salih in the past, such meetings were no longer behind closed doors.
In 2005, Masoud Barzani publicly called for the establishment of diplomatic relations with Israel. In 2008, President Jalal Talabani greeted Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak at a conference in Greece.
From Israel’s perspective, Iraq was no longer an enemy after 2003, although it was not quite a ‘friend’ either. Although it remained a volatile region, Israel could rely on US forces to monitor and secure critical intelligence about the situation there.
Has the situation changed since then? Not much has changed, except for the increased, albeit empty, calls from Iran-backed militias in Iraq. When they receive messages from Tehran, these militias amplify their political bluster in accordance with Iran’s needs.
In reality, these militias rarely find a willing listener on the other side with their incessant screeches. For Israel, these militias are just noise-;- their threats and warnings are seen as militarily absurd because their operational timing is dictated by Iran.
When Qais al-Khazali, the leader of the Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq militia, claimed that the Mossad had used a prostitute to orchestrate the assassination of Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib in the seventh century and that the Umayyads had collaborated with the Jews to carry out this plot, Israeli intelligence would not have taken this statement seriously, but rather would have filed it away in a comedic historical archive with a note reminding them that the Mossad was founded in 1949.
In any case, Israel understands that the road to Jerusalem does not pass through Baghdad unless the city is under the control of the Iraqi people. The Iraq hijacked by Iran’s militias poses no threat to Israel. The fake Iraq that remains a pawn of Tehran’s interests does not concern Israel, as it is not the real Iraq that it once feared.
Even when the Iraqi parliament passed the ‘anti-normalisation with Israel’ law, most Iraqis recognised it for what it was: a propaganda tool intended for domestic consumption, consistent with the street theatre orchestrated by Muqtada al-Sadr, Qais al-Khazali and their allies.
Today, the shrill cries of the militias in Iraq against Israel have diminished as they witness Iran being pummelled by missile strikes. Military leaders and Revolutionary Guard commanders have been killed, causing fear to rise among Iraq’s militia leaders like never before.
Israel’s war against Iran has not altered its political´-or-military calculations. Iraq has been an open battlefield since 2003, and Israel dismisses the threats of Qais al-Khazali, Hadi al-Amiri and their supporters as little more than a nuisance and a distraction that irritates the Iraqi public with its hypocrisy and deceit.

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