AMID the ongoing slaughter prompted by Israel’s attack on Iran, some things do not change.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to spout lies on a Trumpian scale, declaring his mission to be one of bringing peace, democracy and stability to the Middle East on behalf of the rest of the world.

It is grotesque in its absurdity and yet another insult to the families and friends of scores of thousands of civilians murdered recently in Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, Syria and Iraq by the Israeli “Defence” Force.

The only peace and stability this smooth-tongued barbarian has in mind is that of a graveyard, at the centre of which Netanyahu and his fascist allies would sit in safety, armed to the teeth by US, German, British, Italian and Indian corporations, and shielded by such “free world” leaders as Donald J Trump and his “armour-clad” collaborator in 10 Downing Street from arraignment for crimes against humanity

Democracy Israeli-style features ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians on a scale not seen since the 1948 Nakba; state repression of dissident Jewish Israeli protesters; parliamentary bans for Knesset members such as Ofer Cassif who dare to speak out against genocide; and permanent immunity for corrupt politicians like Netanyahu, who faces charges of bribery and fraud.

Yet there have been two very recent developments in the Israel-Iran war sparked by the IDF’s huge bombing mission last Friday.

The first is a growing recognition in some governing, political and media circles that there is no evidence — or none yet in the public domain — that any significant changes have occurred recently in Iran’s civilian nuclear power programme.

According to former British ambassador to Iran Richard Dalton, neither US intelligence agencies nor the International Atomic Energy Agency have found any evidence that Iran has tried to divert nuclear material to military use.

Meanwhile, some of the world’s most prolific powers when it comes to bombing, invading and occupying other countries — aggressor states such as the US, Britain and Israel — continue to upgrade and expand their own nuclear arsenals.

It becomes clearer by the day that the timing of Israel’s latest offensive was set in order to scupper the US-Iran summit two days later in Oman. Neither Netanyahu nor Trump wanted those proposed talks on the Iranian nuclear programme to succeed in maintaining its civilian character.

Instead, Trump gave the Israeli government a green light to destroy a rival regional power, whatever the cost to the Iranian people.

In this connection, the emergence of a new talking point in the Israel-Iran war story is surely no coincidence, namely, the question of “regime change.”

“Crown Prince” Reza Pahlavi, son of the mass murderer who ruled (and robbed) Iran from 1953 until 1979, has popped up on television to call for the overthrow of the Islamic republic. His dad the Shah was imposed on the Iranian people by a military coup organised by MI6 and the CIA, after the democratically elected Mossadeq government had nationalised the Anglo-American Oil Company.

Other pretenders to power in Tehran now speaking out include pro-Western politicians and even one-time leftists who sided with Saddam Hussein in the Iraq-Iran war.

But if history teaches us one lesson from the recent past in Iraq, Iran, Libya and Afghanistan it must be this: Western military intervention usually ends in disaster for those peoples who genuinely seek democratic rights and freedoms.

Capitalist state power exists to serve the interests of capital. People struggling for liberation need solidarity in words and actions, not the “regime change” inflicted by self-interested imperialism and its lackeys.