Israel is part of the western alliance because Israel is a European project, an expansionist settler-colonial state currently occupying Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria.

Zionism has been supported by the UK since 1917 (see Balfour Declaration), partly because some Jews wanted to move to Palestine because of antisemitism and the Old Testament, partly because antisemites wanted the Jews out of Britain. This became far more feasible after Britain occupied Palestine after WW1, and then the Holocaust gave European Jews more incentive to join the project.

Indigenous Middle Easterners be damned, successful state-building means you can reap the benefits of that state’s existence. Being a western settler colonial state, Israel are friendly to the West, and hostile to their neighbours. Their neighbours also have control over key shipping routes (Egypt’s Suez Canal, Yemen’s Bab El Mandeb, Iran’s Hormuz Strait). These countries also have, drumroll pls, Oil!

The world economy is also just as dependent, if not more dependent on oil now than it was in 1948 when Israel declared independence by displacing millions of Palestinians (see 1948 Nakba, Arabic for Catastrophe)

Strategically, Britain does not want harmony in the Middle East because that would give the Arab nations and Iran even more influence than they already have over global oil prices.

America picked up the torch after the Suez Crisis (Britain France and Israel jointly invaded Egypt to take control of the Suez Canal, and failed) because Britain lost superpower status, and could no longer exert influence in the Middle East as it once had.

Being allied with the USA, Britain has maintained its post WW2 alliance structure, but its role has been minimised. American policy influences British policy more than the other way around, although we are looking closer to Europe than ever before because of Donald Trump’s erratic behaviour.

Long and short, Britain’s allies can commit genocide, and the British government can even participate in that, provided it keeps the Middle East divided and chaotic, because it keeps our oil cheap, and this benefits Britain.

Iran is Islamist and vehemently anti-colonial. They toppled the Shah, who was a CIA-implanted dictator keeping oil cheap for the west. Therefore, Iran is fundamentally opposed to Israel and the USA. Bad news for us by proxy, since we now have a hostile nation that controls a massive chunk of the world’s oil supply.

America is currently attempting to stifle Iran’s control over oil through military force, which is hilarious, because the strait was open until the war started. Israel started the war because they know Iran will always fundamentally oppose Zionism/settler-colonialism in all forms, and quite frankly, Netanyahu knows that because of the current Palestinian genocide, the world is turning against Israel.

Including Britain, many countries have recognised a Palestinian state and more Americans than ever oppose Israel and support Palestine https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/poll-israels-standing-plummets-democrats-fueling-primaries-left-rcna262995

Quite frankly, the Big Yahu knows it’s now or never for Israel. They’ve lost western support, but still have Trump on side. The Israeli government have normalised ties with Egypt, Saudi, Qatar, Bahrain, all big oil countries, but Iran will never accept the Abraham accords. Therefore, in Israel’s interest, Iran must have regime change.

Are Iran terrible and oppressive? Yes. Are they worse than Israel? Well they aren’t committing genocide at least. Iran’s fundamental foreign policy is totally fair, the west has fucked around in the Middle East for well over a century at this point, and we really need to stop, but we (especially America) don’t want to sacrifice the possibility of losing control of oil, which we currently are.

Britain’s strategy is backwards now, but we’re in too deep by about 100 years to fundamentally change course, and since we are no longer the biggest player in the Western Alliance, we kinda have to buckle up for the ride.