History lessons

(Haaretz; Peščanik.net)

The names of the Israeli military operations Am KeLavi (Rising Lion) of June 2025 and Shagat HaAri (River of the Lion) of February 2026 were expected. Those who came up with them clearly see themselves as dangerous predators and are unashamed to admit it. In many ways, the war in Iran resembles the war in Sinai. In 1956, when Nasser's regime dared to nationalize the Suez Canal, Britain, France, and Israel invaded Egypt, defeated it militarily, and occupied Sinai.

This caused general enthusiasm, and David Ben-Gurion (affectionately known as B.G.) announced with great fanfare the establishment of the Third Kingdom. But the United States and the Soviet Union soon forced the three victorious countries to evacuate the Sinai Peninsula. This conflict led to another war in 1967, which led to another war in 1973.

Wars follow one another, and the Israelis have become accustomed to them. They themselves see their presence in the Middle East as a conflict, and themselves as a foreign body in that part of the world. The last war initiated by the US and Israel only reinforced this belief. The countries that attacked Iran justify it by saying that the ayatollahs are anti-democratic, killing their own citizens and developing nuclear weapons. The accusations are well-founded, but Iran has not yet attacked another country on its own initiative, and the uranium it possesses has not been turned into a bomb.

As far as I know, the United States has never attacked another country because of its dictatorial or police regime. America also entered the war against Nazi Germany reluctantly, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. During the long Vietnam War, the United States unreservedly defended various tyrannical rulers, and in Latin America it protected all local dictators. Even the state of Israel, which has been depriving its Palestinian population of civil rights for 59 years, has no legitimacy to liberate other peoples from dictators.

The attempt by nuclear-armed states to prevent other states from having them is also problematic. The United States is the only country to have used an atomic bomb, and it did so against a civilian population. Israel, according to Mordechai Vanunu* and other sources, also possesses nuclear weapons. It should not be forgotten that Pakistan, which shares a long border with Iran, also has an atomic bomb. In such circumstances, it is quite clear why Tehran, like North Korea, wants to have its own nuclear arsenal in order to ensure its sovereignty.

My Iranian intellectual friend emigrated from his homeland decades ago because of his leftist views. When demonstrations against the regime broke out recently, he hoped that the repressive regime of the ayatollahs was coming to an end. But he still strongly opposes the attack on Iran by the United States and Israel, because he knows that the proud Iranian people will not accept the “freedom” offered to them by Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu.

The liquidation of many members of the Iranian leadership did not lead to the surrender of Iran, but rather led many Iranians to defend the abominable regime. Nationalism has always proven to be the strongest political conviction in modern history. Iranians who oppose the regime cannot take to the streets and demonstrate against it under bombs falling on them from enemy planes. After the murder of elementary school girls in the Hormozgan province in southern Iran, protesting against the regime has become impossible. Anyone who supports the enemy is considered a traitor. The regime currently has maximum support. And Iran experts in the United States and Israel sound increasingly grotesque with their predictions of the fall of the ayatollah.

At the time of writing, a ceasefire is in place, and the American king of kings is once again threatening Iran. How many more Iranians, Americans, and Israelis will die in this conflict? There is also the fear that the Iranian regime’s persistence, even if temporary, will ultimately strengthen national-Islamism in the Middle East. Then the Land of Zion will become an even riskier place to live, for both Palestinians and Israelis.

(Translated from the Hebrew by Alma Ferhat)

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* Mordechai Vanunu is an Israeli nuclear technician and peace activist who revealed information about Israel's nuclear program to the British press in 1986. For this, he spent 18 years in prison, 11 of them in solitary confinement; he is not allowed to meet with foreigners or leave Israel.