The boomerang war: How Israel aimed at Iran and hit itself — Abbi Kanthasamy

The boomerang war: How Israel aimed at Iran and hit itself — Abbi Kanthasamy


Friday, 19 Jun 2026 9:33 AM MYT


JUNE 19 — There are wars that end in victory. There are wars that end in defeat. And then there are wars that begin with a press conference, a wall of flags, and the quiet arrogance of people who believe history works for them.


This one was supposed to be Israel’s grand vindication. Iran was meant to be cornered, isolated, sanctioned, lectured, inspected, and gift-wrapped for a triumphant Washington photo-op. Netanyahu was meant to stride across the stage like a regional Churchill. Trump was meant to pose as the dealmaker with thunder in one hand and a Sharpie in the other.

Instead, the whole thing has come back like a badly thrown boomerang and struck Israel squarely in the forehead.

Look at the shape of it. Israel starts the drama convinced it has the moral high ground, the strategic upper hand, and the American security blanket pulled up to its chin. Iran, supposedly, is on the ropes. The region is watching. Washington is growling. The headlines are obedient.

Then the alleged Islamabad memorandum appears, and suddenly Iran is not being buried. Iran is being bargained with. Iran is not outside the room. Iran is at the table. It is not merely asking for a ceasefire; it is looking at language about sanctions relief, oil waivers, frozen funds, maritime arrangements, sovereignty, reconstruction, and a massive economic package.


That is not defeat. That is a diplomatic rescue helicopter with leather seats.

The genius of Iran’s position, if this text holds, is sequencing. Tehran seems to get the early moves: blockade relief, shipping passage, oil permissions, access to money, no new sanctions, and time. The difficult nuclear questions are pushed into the “final deal,” that magical diplomatic cupboard where hard problems are stored until everyone has had lunch.


Israel gets a migraine. Iran gets oxygen.



A boy walks among the rubble of a neighborhood completely destroyed by an Israeli airstrike, following the US-Iran deal, in Qlailieh, Tyre district, Lebanon, June 18, 2026. — Reuters pic



Because the more Israel escalated, the more it exposed the limits of its own strategy. The more it bombed, the more it made diplomacy urgent. The more it demanded unconditional backing, the more it forced even Donald Trump — Donald Trump, of all people — to sound like the headmaster at a war-crimes finishing school.

When Trump says, in effect, that you do not bomb an entire building because there is one person inside, that is not a throwaway line. That is a loaded sentence. It is not a UN report, but it points in the direction of one. It drags proportionality, civilian harm and accountability into the room, kicks open the door, and turns on the lights.

And let us not pretend this is just theatre. Innocent people have died. Children have died. Families have been buried under decisions made by men who will later call everything regrettable, necessary and complex. Nothing funny sits in that. No satire can wash it clean. The dead do not return because the living have discovered irony.

Israel wanted the world to focus on Iran’s danger. Instead, the world is once again staring at Israel’s methods. Israel wanted to show resolve. Instead, it has shown appetite. Israel wanted America locked in behind it. Instead, America is publicly irritated, privately calculating, and visibly exhausted.

Israel is not abandoned. It is worse than that. It is embarrassing its friends.

There is a special panic when a patron realises its client has become expensive. Not morally inconvenient — great powers survive moral inconvenience before breakfast — but strategically expensive. Oil prices. Shipping lanes. Gulf capitals. Chinese positioning. Civilian images. Legal language. Elections. The machine starts to creak.

History has seen this movie. In 1956, Britain, France and Israel thought Suez would be a clean imperial correction. Militarily clever. Politically catastrophic. Eisenhower looked at his allies and told them to climb down. They had won the operation and lost the century.

In Iraq, America believed shock and awe would rearrange the Middle East. It did, just not in the way the PowerPoint promised. Saddam was removed, Iran’s greatest enemy disappeared, and Tehran gained strategic depth courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer. Trillions spent. Iran strengthened. That is geopolitical slapstick with aircraft carriers.

Now we are watching another familiar disaster: force producing the opposite of its advertised purpose.

Israel wanted Iran contained. Iran has become necessary. Israel wanted America more committed. America has become more nervous. Israel wanted moral clarity. It got Trump accidentally discovering proportionality. Netanyahu wanted deterrence. He got a memorandum.

And Trump looks ridiculous too. One minute he is the thunderous strongman. The next he is the emergency plumber called in because the basement is flooding. He wants to be Caesar, Kissinger and a real-estate closer all at once. Instead, he looks like a man who helped light a match, watched the curtains catch fire, then called it interior design.

But the larger lesson is not about Trump, Rubio or even Netanyahu alone. It is about impunity.

Occupation corrodes judgment. Permanent domination makes states stupid. When every civilian death is explained away as unfortunate, every violation as necessary, every excess as security, the moral muscles waste away. A government starts believing that because it has been defended before, it will be defended forever.

But forever is where fools go to lose money.

There comes a point when even friends get tired. Not because they suddenly become saints. Because the bill arrives. Because the excuses sound thin. Because the ally becomes less a strategic asset than a diplomatic drunk uncle at a wedding, grabbing the microphone while everyone else searches for the exits.

That is Israel’s problem now. Not that Iran is innocent. It is not. Iran is ruthless, repressive, calculating and deeply cynical in its own regional game. But geopolitics is not a morality play. It is a knife fight conducted with maps, money, missiles and memory. Iran understands survival. It knows Hormuz. It knows oil. It knows American fatigue. It knows that sometimes the side that refuses to collapse wins by remaining on the board.

And that is exactly what seems to have happened.

Israel tried to turn pressure into surrender. Iran turned pressure into leverage. Israel tried to make the crisis about Tehran’s danger. Tehran made it about American limits, maritime stability, sanctions fatigue and regional fear. Netanyahu tried to look indispensable. He now looks like a man who set a trap, stepped into it, and is blaming the trap for being antisemitic.

So yes, this has gone full circle. The invasion logic. The occupation arrogance. The assumption that every excess will be forgiven because the enemy is worse. At some point, karma stops sounding spiritual and starts looking procedural.

Sometimes it arrives as public criticism from your closest ally. Sometimes it arrives as a sanctions waiver. Sometimes it arrives as an MoU in Islamabad.

Israel began this drama expecting Iran to crawl out weakened. Instead, Iran walked back into the diplomatic room, dusted off its jacket, and asked where to sign.

Netanyahu wanted Churchill. He got Mr Bean with air cover.

Trump wanted a triumph. He got a contradiction with hair.

And the world learned the oldest lesson in foreign affairs: if you build your strategy on permanent impunity, do not be surprised when the bill comes back addressed to you.

Signed, witnessed, and delivered by the Department of Geopolitical Karma.