The world must stop Israel

In what can only be described as a reckless act of aggression, Israel’s unprovoked strike on Iranian soil has pushed the Middle East – and possibly the world – to the edge of catastrophe. On Friday, Israel initiated a direct military assault deep inside Iran, killing at least 78 people, including civilians, scientists and high-ranking military officials. Iran responded swiftly, targeting Israeli military sites and reportedly downing another F-35 fighter jet. The cycle of retaliation has begun, and the stakes have never been higher. Let us be unequivocal: No nation has the right to bomb another sovereign state based on perceived threats or political paranoia.

 Yet, Israel has once again demonstrated its long-standing impunity, acting above international law, cheered on by a West that preaches peace while fueling wars. The silence from Washington and Europe in the face of Israeli aggression is deafening. But the moment Iran retaliates, the same actors threaten ‘dire consequences’ as if Tehran is the aggressor, not the victim. The hypocrisy of the West is as stark as it is dangerous. Where were the international outcries and sanctions when Israel reduced much of Gaza to rubble, killing over 55,000 Palestinians, many of them women and children? Where was the global condemnation when Israel flagrantly violated Lebanese and Syrian sovereignty for decades? And now, with one of the most brazen military strikes in recent memory – a direct assault on another nation’s soil – the so-called guardians of international order are either complicit or conveniently looking the other way.

Make no mistake: Iran’s retaliation is not an attempt at war but the desperate response of a country that has been repeatedly provoked, cornered and attacked. Tehran has warned for years that its patience has limits – and when your cities are attacked your limits do tend to get crossed. The Israeli defence minister’s threat that “Tehran will burn” if missiles continue to be fired should chill every global leader to their core. 

This is simply a declaration of intent to expand the conflict into a full-scale war that could engulf the region – and beyond. The involvement of the US in assisting Israel to intercept Iranian missiles, while claiming neutrality, shows the farce that is the much-claimed American objectivity. Here is the truth: Washington is not a bystander but a primary actor in this unfolding tragedy. And with each Israeli escalation, abetted by US weapons and silence, the path to a global conflagration becomes clearer. 

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) – including major world powers like China and Russia – has rightly condemned Israel’s strike as a violation of international law and a threat to global security. Their concern should be a wake-up call: this is pretty much a geopolitical time bomb.

Iran, weakened by decades of sanctions, isolated diplomatically, and now bereft of some of its top military minds, has still shown that it will not simply bow to Israeli and American intimidation. The narrative that Iran is too weak to fight back may be true to the extent of support and intel power but one thing is also true: a wounded nation is not necessarily a defeated one. 

There is still time to stop this madness. But that window is closing rapidly. The international community must not just issue words of condemnation and restraint but actively enforce it. Israel has managed to attack, maim, kill, assassinate and bomb its way through at least five countries in the past year or so. And it seems to only get rewards for that. The UN Security Council was supposed to exist for this very moment. 

It needs to wake up. And the US must be forced to choose: Does it want to be a broker of peace or an instigator of a war that could spiral out of control? We are on the precipice of a world war – not because Iran wants it, but because Israel believes it can act with impunity, backed by a complicit West. If the world fails to stop Israel now, history will not forgive us. And neither will the generations who will be forced to live through the inferno that follows.