{"id":7106,"date":"2026-01-16T19:19:53","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T19:19:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/?p=7106"},"modified":"2026-01-16T19:19:53","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T19:19:53","slug":"israel-watches-iran-protests-closely-but-is-wary-of-intervening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/2026\/01\/16\/israel-watches-iran-protests-closely-but-is-wary-of-intervening\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel Watches Iran Protests Closely, but Is Wary of Intervening"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/01\/15\/world\/middleeast\/israel-iran-protests-netanyahu.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Summary:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much of the world is wary of US intervention, including Israel. Israel has always viewed Iran as enemies, as demonstrated by the brief, 12-day war last June. Although Israel would give everything to see the regime fall and lose their nuclear capabilities, they feel that attacks from afar aren\u2019t enough to topple the regime; they won\u2019t get involved unless they\u2019re provoked or teamed up with the US. Netanyahu is wary of US retaliation because he fears that Iran will harm Israel as a response to American attacks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The IRGC and Basij Militia are the loosely-organized forces behind this demonstration, but experts believed that said demonstrations will be short lived as there\u2019s no means for strong defense, leadership, or organization. Right now, the country is experiencing a state of \u201ckill, or be killed.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Class Connection:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article relates to themes of interdependence (or the lack of it), legitimacy, & social movements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Analysis:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is super important because it illustrates how easy it is for states to enter involuntary proxy conflicts (ex. Israel getting attacked for something America did). There\u2019s no definitive way to predict what\u2019ll happen next, but there\u2019s good reason to believe that even though these protests are larger than ever, there\u2019s a great chance of failure due to a lack of COHESIVE action. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even without foreign intervention, there are international consequences as the whole situation runs the risk of harming Iranian-back areas in Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, etc. if the Iranians do lose control in places like Syria and Lebanon, then Israel will jump right in to gain control of that territory, inciting more chaos because even though Israel wouldn\u2019t attack first, they\u2019re stupid enough to try and further extend their control where they already have a foot in the door. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The region is currently locked in deterrence and not sustainable resolution. If these protests were successful, it would be because so many people agree upon the idea that this frustration has nothing to do with religion itself but rather the lack of government legitimacy (since there\u2019s minimal protection and the economy is taking a dive) and the government\u2019s willingness to mobilize religious figures and secularize to consolidate their power (which they\u2019re maintaining through force and not performance). If they fail, then the protests will likely emerge again soon once the social movement has the means for bureaucratization because it\u2019s obvious that the people want reform (as demonstrated by the relative deprivation and political opportunity theories). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This conflict will also have trickling economic effects because the Iranian economy will continue to fall since foreign investors will continue to shy away (because they can\u2019t trust where their money is going since very minimal info is able to come out of the area due to internet cuts). This could therefore impact the economies of those areas that Iran has some control over as it\u2019s likely that the US will impose stricter sanctions on anyone trading with Iran until Iran stops tormenting protestors, which is very unlikely in the coming days. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/01\/15\/world\/middleeast\/israel-iran-protests-netanyahu.html Summary: Much of the world is wary of US intervention, including Israel. Israel has always viewed Iran as enemies, as demonstrated by the brief, 12-day war last June. Although Israel would give everything to see the regime fall and lose their nuclear capabilities, they feel that attacks from afar aren\u2019t enough to topple the regime; they won\u2019t get involved… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":319,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/319"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7106"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7107,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7106\/revisions\/7107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}