Israel’s attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities is a liberation blow – and a crucial test of the free world’s determination. Because as soon as Israel falls, America and Europe will inevitably be next. Without a clear stance, we risk losing the civilization war.
Recently, reports of previously unknown military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear program prompted an unprecedented condemnation from the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Israel apparently waited for this condemnation, a move that also caused concern in the USA and Europe. The IAEA has warned for years that it can no longer guarantee the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program.
When a society can no longer or does not want to distinguish between good and evil, between victim and perpetrator, it gives up on itself. No one with an ounce of sense can deny that Iran is the most aggressive and dangerous totalitarian force of our time. With Russian and Chinese support, it seeks to weaken and destroy the very concepts of a liberal state of law, democracy, and human rights. In Iran, women are systematically oppressed and abused; dissenters are jailed and tortured.
The primary goal of the mullahs in Tehran – according to official state doctrine – is the eradication of the state of Israel. Ayatollah Khamenei has called Israel a “cancer,” and clocks on Tehran’s streets celebrate countdowns to the “destruction of Israel.”
Israel is only the first target. As soon as Israel falls, the focus will shift to America and Europe. Fanatical Islamists have been preparing this for decades. The fatwa against Salman Rushdie, 9/11 in New York, the Isis caliphate – each event was a clear warning. Only those who willfully ignored the signs are surprised today. These attacks are against our values and our way of life.
It is therefore surprising that Israel is not celebrated worldwide for its historic, extremely precise and necessary strike against Iranian nuclear weapons production facilities and the targeted elimination of leading terrorists. Instead, the public discourse is dominated by the usual anti-Israel propaganda. The intelligence and precision of Israel’s action are not admired but are, here and there, used for blatantly anti-Semitic stereotypes. This attitude – in addition to a racist undertone – is characteristic of the obsessive critics of Israel who disguise their hatred as concern for human rights.
If the perpetrator-victim reversal, which has been repeatedly observed since Oct. 7, applies even in the most obvious case – Iran – this can only be interpreted as a sign that we are about to lose the culture war. It is what Michel Houellebecq called “submission” in his visionary novel a decade ago.
Particularly misplaced are the same old worrywarts repeatedly warning of supposed escalation. This argument is as stale as it is wrong. Such escalation warnings are partly to blame for Vladimir Putin’s eagerness to win his terrible war of conquest in Ukraine. And they are partly to blame for the hundreds of thousands of lives lost in that inhuman war. Much more resolute resistance from the West in the initial days of Russia’s attack could have prevented this. Dictators like Putin decide for themselves when and how to escalate, usually when they do not encounter sufficient strength and resistance. The same applies to Iran.
If Israel were to fail to achieve its goals – the destruction of Iran’s nuclear weapons and facilities, maximum weakening of the terror regime and ideally the replacement of the mullahs – the world would quickly look very different. If the anti-democratic triangle of Iran, Russia and China were to succeed in this coup, a different, non-democratic world order would emerge.
Therefore, the free liberal world, first and foremost America and Europe, must stand united with Israel, for their own interests alone, and do everything possible to ensure that Israel’s historic liberation strike succeeds.