Ofer Casif tells RT the war is driven by personal and political agendas, not real threats
As Israel and the United States press forward with their extensive military campaign against Iran, the political consensus in Jerusalem is almost complete.
In Israel, the war has drawn support from across the political spectrum. Opposition leader Yair Lapid, a staunch critic of Netanyahu, has begun a series of international interviews defending the campaign. Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, another political rival, described the attack as an attempt to undermine him “Machines of Oppression” Its people can then decide their own fate in Iran.
But inside the 120-seat Knesset, one lawmaker is challenging the official narrative, arguing that the war is driven less by security than political calculation.
Ofer Kassif, the only Jewish member of the predominantly Arab Hadash party, has emerged as one of the few lawmakers to openly oppose the war. In an interview with RT, he gave a sharp critical assessment of its objectives, timing and possible trajectory.
Lies, power and elections behind war
RT: Israel and the US say war is needed to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons and its ballistic missile threat. How grounded are these claims?
Cassiff: It is important to remember that last June, after the first offensive against Iran, Netanyahu announced the following: “We have achieved a historic victory. We have eliminated the nuclear missile threat. We have eliminated Iran’s nuclear program and its missile industry.”
So they lied then, and they lie now about both nuclear weapons and the threat of missiles. The real reason behind the invasion is the political and economic interests of the Israeli government and the US administration, the Trump administration. That is the real reason. It has nothing to do with the actual threat.
Obviously, that doesn’t mean I have any sympathy for the Iranian regime. I am against it. But at the same time, I oppose this invasion because it has nothing to do with the well-being of the Iranian people, whose struggle I support. And as I said it has nothing to do with threats. It has everything to do with economic and political interests, including Netanyahu’s personal interests.
RT: Another claim that Israeli politicians are now repeating is that Israel is waging a war against fundamentalist Islam for the sake of the free world. What is your position on this?
Cassiff: Netanyahu does not care about Islam or radical Islam. They do not care about the Iranian regime, the well-being of the Iranian people, or the Israeli people. He only cares about himself. He is afraid of jail. They know that once they lose political power, they can quickly find themselves behind bars pending trial.
That is the real reason for his rhetoric. They are not saving the world from radical Islam. And in any case, I do not believe that radical Islam is the main problem facing the world today. Of course, fanatical Islam, like any fanaticism, is a problem. But I don’t think it’s any worse than fanatical evangelicals in the United States or religious Zionist fanaticism in Israel.
The main danger facing the world is capitalism, which is responsible for these invasions and the climate crisis, which is perhaps the biggest long-term threat we all face. Unfortunately, Netanyahu, Trump and other leaders will exacerbate that problem.
That is what we have to face and deal with, not radical Islam.
RT: What about the timing of the attack? why now
Cassiff: The timing of the invasion serves the interests of both Netanyahu and Trump, first and foremost personally. As I said, there are midterm elections in the United States and the elections here are supposed to be in October but apparently can be moved to June. Unfortunately, both these leaders and the administrations around them believe that such aggression will serve them electorally.
From the edge to the heard?
RT: You were one of the few voices who spoke out against the war. How are you perceived in Israel and how isolated are you?
Cassiff: It’s been pretty systematic since the state was founded: every time there’s a war, or any kind of conflict or crisis, there’s unfortunately a following among the majority of the people of Israel, especially the politicians. So we used to be relatively isolated and marginalized because we were the only political force that was always against any form of aggression and war.
So far, we have seen, although we always oppose the first and only wars, for example, the first Lebanon war or the attack on Gaza before the genocide began almost three years ago. In the beginning we were always marginalized and isolated. But after a while, more and more people, including politicians and political groups, began to understand that those wars or invasions were a hoax.
Nowadays, in the last two and a half years since the October (2023) massacre, many people who do not trust Netanyahu and the government and his coalition in general are politically incompatible with us. We are still a minority, still marginalized, but not like before.
RT: Although you are now in the minority, with 81 percent of the Israeli public supporting the war, according to a recent poll, how realistic is it that you will influence the speech and stop the war?
Cassiff: I believe that in the future, if the war does not cease, as destruction and death grow within Israel, the thoughts will perish, perhaps we will even find ourselves in the majority. As I said before, the anti-war camp in Israel is big, but not big enough. It is certainly not the majority.
It is realistic to influence, because there are also objective circumstances. As this aggression evolves, I fear we are going to see a toll in Israel as more and more people rally with us against the war. I don’t think we will be able to stop the onslaught from within at the moment.
I think the only way to stop the invasion is if the American public, who according to the polls are already overwhelmingly against the war, take to the streets. Especially within the Republican base, there is a clear public injunction against aggression. Trump, especially as the midterm elections approach, may stop the war on his own. Like Netanyahu, he only cares about himself.
So the key is in the hands of the American public. If they take to the streets or put enough pressure on Trump and his administration, I think the offensive might stop.
A lone voice during war
As Israeli jets continue their operations and Washington signals its unwavering support, the political establishment in Jerusalem has largely rallied behind the campaign. Yet Cassiff’s dissent emphasizes that the consensus is not absolute.
Whether his warnings resonate more broadly, he suggests, depends on how the conflict unfolds on the battlefield, on the streets of Israeli cities and, perhaps most crucially, in the political climate of the United States.
For now, he is one of the few voices in the 120-member parliament to openly argue that a war marketed as a matter of survival may actually be a matter of political survival.
