TEHRAN - Simon Tisdall, a Guardian columnist, says “forever war keeps” Prime Minister Netanyahu “in power” and “out of jail”.

Tisdall says peace is the enemy of Netanyahu, whom he refers to as prime warmonger.

Tisdall’s article focuses on Israel’s war on Iran, which started on June 13 and lasted for 12 days. However, he believes the lull in the war will not last long.

Following is an excerpt of his article:

The war is over! Except it’s not, not by a long chalk. The verbally agreed Iran-Israel ceasefire could be ripped to shreds at any moment.

In Washington, a president whose stupidity is matched only by his vanity prattles about making peace. Meanwhile, hundreds of civilians lie dead, thousands are wounded and millions have been terrorised.

The war is over! Except only the naive believe that Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister and prime warmonger, is done fighting. Even if Donald Trump is right and Iran’s nuclear facilities have been “obliterated” (“severely damaged” appears more accurate), its nuclear knowhow and elusive stockpile of enriched uranium have not. At the first sign, real or imagined, of rebuilding, Netanyahu and his cronies will surely attack again. Trump called them off last week. But this is a man who can change his mind three times before he’s even had breakfast.

It’s unlikely he will be able to resist the temptation to target Iran again, if fresh attacks are politically advantageous. Netanyahu is now reportedly weighing up the possibility of a snap election.

Since March, when he unilaterally wrecked the Gaza ceasefire, Netanyahu has sought to subjugate the territory. Palestinian civilians have been gunned down in repeated Israeli army and settler atrocities around Gaza food centers and in towns in the West Bank. In places such as Rafah, Bloody Sunday takes place almost every day. In Lebanon and Syria, Israel has dropped bombs with impunity. Netanyahu’s military grinder never stops. Why imagine that he will be any different with Iran?

Most people deplore “forever wars”, typified by dismal, multi-year Western entanglements in Afghanistan and Iraq. Not Netanyahu. Peace is his enemy. Forever war keeps him in power, in the limelight and out of jail.

Despite Netanyahu’s video appeal to the Iranian public in which he encouraged them to “stand up” against the rulers, he cares little for their freedom. What he wants is what imperialist powers always want: a permanently weakened, divided, degraded country that poses no challenge to Israel’s strategic interests and can be punished at will.