Often lost in the media frenzy is the fact that Iran, unprovoked, initiated hostilities against Israel. The seeming dispute was not about territory, policy or any disagreement that states normally have. It was about ideology. Since its establishment nearly five decades ago, the Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxies have waged a war against Israel and the United States, calling for their destruction. From their point of view, neither country, as "unbelievers," has a right to exist. Full stop.
For nearly five decades, Iran's theocratic regime, while denying the Holocaust, has been funding terror groups, including Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Houthis, and for over 30 years has had a nuclear weapons program.
Iran, which wants Israel annihilated, invested virtually all its national assets into encircling Israel, roughly the size of New Jersey (22,000 sq.km) with a "noose of fire," so that since October 7, 2023, Israel has been forced to defend itself against attacks on seven fronts: Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, Iran, Iraq, and its own West Bank.
From the earliest days of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, its goal has been stated openly and its doctrine deeply embedded in the regime's identity. No other issue, domestic or foreign, was as consistent, prioritized or systematically pursued as Tehran's hostility toward Israel, the country blocking its way to destroying the United States. To that end, Iran spent decades preparing "forward bases" across the Middle East and in South America, especially Venezuela.
Attacking Israel has been seen by Iran's regime as the first step toward defeating the entire West. "Death to Israel" and "Death to America" are chanted after every Friday prayer, taught in schools, and plastered across the country's public spaces. Every major street has murals promoting hostility toward Israel and the U.S. In Tehran, there is even a "countdown clock" in a public square marking the days until Israel's destruction.
In 1979, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Islamic Republic of Iran's first Supreme Leader, declared Israel the "Little Satan" (the U.S. is the "Great Satan") and framed opposition to Israel as a core Islamic duty. During the Islamic Revolution of 1979, Iran kidnapped and held hostage American diplomats for 444 days, until election of President Ronald Reagan persuaded them to release the hostages.
Khomeini's successor, today's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called Israel a "cancerous tumor" that must be removed. In 2005, then President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for Israel to be "wiped off the map".
Iran's long record of targeting Jews and Israelis has been well documented. In 1992, Iran bombed the Israeli Embassy in Argentina, killing 29 people, and wounding 200. Two years later, a truck bomb leveled the AMIA Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires, killing 85 people.
In 1993, Iran assisted in bombing the U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, in an attack that killed 241 Marines.
A U.S. court found that Iran participated in the attacks of September 11, 2001. In 2006, during the Second Lebanon War, Iran's proxy Hezbollah fired thousands of rockets into Israel.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip (long supported by Iran and Qatar with funds and weapons) launched an unprecedented invasion of Israel, murdering around 1,200 Israelis and taking 250 hostages back to Gaza.
If a terrorist regime, openly committed to wiping another nation off the map, is pursuing a nuclear bomb, how could any responsible government trust it?
In 1996, Iran test-launched the Shahab-3 missile, capable of reaching Israel. In 2002, its secret nuclear program was publicly exposed. By 2011, Iran was enriching uranium to 20% and shifting operations to underground bunker complexes such as Fordow.
By 2015, Iran had a robust nuclear infrastructure. Then US President Barack Obama's JCPOA "nuclear deal" failed to address the fundamental nuclear threat from Iran, and focused on temporary technical limits while ignoring the regime's long-term ambitions. Obama actually agreed to a "sunset clause" that would have allowed Iran legitimately to have as many nuclear weapons as could get, starting in October 2025. In September 2015, Khamenei said that Israel would not survive the next 25 years.
The Obama administration, while funding Iran to the hilt, also neglected Iran's missile program and regional proxies. Even after Iran openly tested ballistic missiles, the Obama administration responded weakly, backing off planned sanctions after Tehran warned that it might jeopardize secret talks over a prisoner swap.
This encouragement allowed Iran to further develop advanced uranium-enrichment centrifuges and ballistic missile technology, and increase investments in nuclear infrastructure.
In April 2018, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu revealed that the Mossad had obtained Iran's secret nuclear archive — proof that Tehran had researched nuclear weapons and lied about it. In his first term, President Donald Trump wisely pulled the U.S. out of Obama's deal – which, it turned out, had not only been fraudulent but totally illegitimate.
In 2020, Trump brought about the Abraham Accords between Israel and several Arab states -- a historic achievement, and at least partially induced by the Shiite Iranian regime's tendency to eye its Sunni Muslim Arab neighbors for their oil and gas, in addition to hostility for their alleged Sunni "heresy."
The Biden administration unfortunately repeated Obama's errors., perhaps under the illusion that if it were nice to Iran, Iran would be nice back. Instead, Iran seized on its good luck to escalate its uranium enrichment to 60% by April 2021 and to 83.7%, near weapons-grade, in 2023.
The October 7, 2023 attack put the brakes on expanding the Abraham Accords, especially the efforts of bringing Saudi Arabia on board.
Iran itself, in a pattern of consistent aggression and in addition to all the aggression by its militias and proxies, also fired long-range ballistic missiles directly at Israel in April and October 2024, during its operation "True Promise."
Israel has lived under the threat of destruction since Iran began its nuclear weapons program. No other country has faced such a sustained, existential threat. Given Israel's tiny size and population density, the last thing it must want is war. From facilitating Iran-Contra dealings in the 1980s between US and Iran, to peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, to the Abraham Accords, whenever possible, Israel has tried to improve relations with Iran and basically any country that would talk to it.
Israel's airstrikes on Iran this month did not happen in a vacuum. They are the result of 46 years of Iranian hostility, escalation and deception.
On May 31, 2025, report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed that Iran has enough enriched uranium to build nine nuclear weapons. On June 12, 2025, the IAEA formally declared Iran "in breach of non-proliferation obligations," the first such ruling in nearly 20 years. The resolution cited Tehran's repeated refusal since 2019 to cooperate with inspectors over undeclared nuclear material and secret activities.
Iran's nuclear program, according to its own words -- "Death to Israel" -- is an existential threat to Israel, the U.S. and other Western countries. Israel had every reason to act.
Under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, countries have the right to self-defense against armed attacks.
Israel's Operation Rising Lion, which began June 13, 2025, is an act of self-defense. Israeli forces have hit military targets: nuclear facilities, military bases, missile depots and air defense systems. At least 10 IRGC senior commanders were killed, as well as nuclear scientists. Iranian cities saw explosions, although with remarkably few civilian deaths. Israel has been warning civilians to evacuate intended target areas -- further evidence of Israel's careful planning and ethical approach.
Iran responded with ballistic missile and drone attacks primarily, mostly deliberately launched at civilian residential areas. Most of Iran's missiles and drones were shot down; a few that slipped through killed 10 Israeli civilians (at time of writing). What stood out was Iran's deliberate targeting of civilian areas -- homes in crowded cities -- showing the regime's total disregard for innocent lives.
Iran, apparently used to having its proxies front for it, was evidently not equipped for modern warfare. Its military is outdated. The air force relies on nearly 50-year-old F-14 fighter jets and lacks modern aircraft. Israel had months earlier damaged Iran's air defenses. Iram's ballistic missiles, such as the Shahab-3, are not very accurate. Iran's navy is obsolete. Even Iran's threat to close the Strait of Hormuz appears mostly talk. Doing so would trigger an international backlash.
Since Trump's reelection, sanctions have gutted Iran's economy. Inflation is high, with the rial in free fall. Oil and gas exports are limited. For years before that, nearly half the population has unfortunately been living in poverty. Khamenei's age, 85, questionable judgement and his uncertain succession all make the regime more fragile.
Brutal crackdowns have only deepened the divide between rulers and ruled. Mass protests in 2019 and 2022 showed the public's rage at repression and economic failure. Recent videos from inside Iran show people celebrating and thanking Israel for the airstrikes.
Iran has also become increasingly isolated. The Assad regime in Syria was driven out. Iran's proxies have been degraded by Israeli forces, and reluctant backing from Russia and China have left the regime exposed. Its Shiite territorial aggression has alienated all of its Sunni-majority neighbors except Qatar, which has funded -- and then pretends to negotiate objectively! -- every Islamic terrorist group, including al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Hamas and Islamic State.
Meanwhile, most Iranians, trapped under their repressive tyrannical government that does not conduct free or fair elections, reportedly have for years been calling for regime change. Nearly 80% of Iranians favor the return of Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi. His daughter's recent marriage to a Jewish American symbolized pre-Khomeinist Iran's deep historic ties to the West, an alliance the Islamist regime has tried to extinguish.
Who got us here? Western governments, especially the United States and Europe. By treating Iran as if it were a benign country, and clinging to failed illusions such as the disastrous JCPOA, which promised Iran nuclear weapons -- starting this October! -- they encouraged Tehran develop its nuclear and missile programs unchecked. When Western governments had many chances to stop Iran early on, they passed them up. Now Israel is paying the price.
Does the world really want a terrorist state to have nuclear weapons? If you look at the damage Iran has been doing without nuclear weapons, imagine the damage it could do with them. A nuclear-armed, ideology-driven Islamist regime threatens everyone. Right now, Israel is on the front line doing what others --whose lives and countries Israel is saving -- criticize it for doing. Israel's actions are not about starting a war; they are about stopping a war that has been underway for 46 years, before the theocratic tyranny that initiated it can enlarge it further.
Best of all, China, Russia and North Korea are looking on. If they ever had thoughts about making mischief during Trump's second term, perhaps now they are having second thoughts. Netanyahu and Trump's resolve is not only creating the opportunity for a new, golden age for the Middle East but possibly also providing a deterrent -- remember deterrence? -- to other enemies of the West that have expressed wishes for its demise.
Critics in the United States, NATO and Europe would do well to abandon their half-hearted support for a despotism that would most certainly soon be coming for them, and instead, back Israel for doing whatever it has to do. If and when Iran's savage tyranny collapses, the great people of Iran can finally take back their country and restore freedom, regional security and peace.
Trump's Churchillian defense of the Free World will place him at the forefront of history. Both he and Netanyahu -- as well as the extraordinary Israeli military -- deserve the Nobel Peace Prize for rescuing the world from one of the most toxic regimes since the Third Reich and the Soviet Union. Failure by the Norwegian Nobel Committee to award them the prize would tell us more about them than about one of the greatest triumphs for freedom of all time.
Amin Sharifi is an expert in international relations and the Middle East. He is presently based in Sweden.
