For decades, when it came to confronting the Islamic Republic of Iran, the so-called "international community," particularly the Western powers that pride themselves on being defenders of democracy and human rights, chose cowardice over conviction. Instead of drawing a red line then sticking to it, they drew circles. Instead of acting, they offered concession after concession. They fed the beast and even funded its industry of death. They threw Israel under the bus again and again to placate tyrants. They talked about diplomacy while Iran built centrifuges, enriched uranium, and spread terror throughout Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and even inside Iran. This year alone, 2025, Iran's regime has already conducted 1,700 executions – and it is only June.
All the while, Iran has kept pushing, inch by inch, toward its dream of acquiring nuclear weapons — and no one had the courage to stop them. No one... except Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald J. Trump.
After the savage invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023 by Iran-backed Hamas, in an age where global leaders are more concerned with virtue signaling and hosting summits that accomplish nothing, it took the Jewish state — tiny, isolated, hated by the media and universities — to stand up and say, "Enough." While the West wrung its hands, and its bureaucrats talked about "proportionality" and restraint, Israel acted -- not just for its own survival, but for the security of the free world. Israel did what the international community, the West and the United Nations would never do -- and what NATO would never even dream of. What the international community and Western powers lacked the spine to do, tiny Israel, under Netanyahu's steady leadership and Trump's historic decision, put an end to the charade and finally delivered the blows that needed to be dealt.
Since the horrific October 7 massacre, when Hamas butchered, raped, burned, and kidnapped Israeli civilians — men, women, the elderly, children and even babies — Israel has been on a relentless and unapologetic campaign to uproot terrorism at its roots. This has not just been about retaliation; it is about making sure that evil does not get rewarded with more money and more legitimacy – again. Israel dismantled Hamas's infrastructure in Gaza, and decimated Lebanon's Hezbollah, which had for years provided Syria's Assad regime with critical military support.
Israel took out weapons shipments and terror command centers in Syria, which directly led to the collapse of the Assad regime. Late in 2024, in a period of 10 days, the designated terrorist Ahmed al-Sharaa advanced his forces and finally ended the reign of slaughter and chemical attacks by Bashar al-Assad.
Israel did not stop there. Israel, with Trump delivering the difficult final blow, launched the most daring, comprehensive, and devastating strikes inside Iranian territory in modern history. Israel's operation alone, called "Rising Lion," targeted more than 100 strategic sites tied to Iran's nuclear weapons program. That program, costing the Iranian people $2-3 trillion, and decades in the making, took a fatal hit in less than 37 hours. This was not just a series of airstrikes -- it was a message to every tyrant: if you aim to annihilate Israel, if you chant "Death to America," if you fund terror across the globe, there will be consequences.
Thanks to Trump and Netanyahu, the world now knows what real leadership looks like.
Even more impressively, Israel managed to assassinate some of the highest-ranking military leaders of the Iranian regime. The commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Major General Hossein Salami, is dead. IRGC Chief of Staff Major General Mohammad Bagheri is dead. At least 14 nuclear scientists, critical to Iran's atomic weapons program, have been neutralized. These were men plotting a second Holocaust while hiding behind diplomacy and Western cowardice.
Israel did not wait for permission. It did what needed to be done.
What Israel, along with the United States, has done in the past two years far surpasses anything the self-proclaimed defenders of freedom in Brussels or Berlin have done in the past 80 years. As European leaders lecture Israel about ceasefires, "de-escalation", "proportionality" and "restraint" from the comfort of their distant homes and elegant dinners, Israel has dismantled, destabilized, and struck a crippling blow to four terrorist regimes and organizations, the Iran and its proxies as well as Syria's Assad regime — all while under constant attack. It is a miracle of military strategy, intelligence precision and moral clarity. The world owes this tiny, demonized nation, its defense forces, Netanyahu and Trump a massive debt of gratitude as well as a Nobel Peace Prize.
Israel did what Winston Churchill warned that the West needed to do back in the 1930s —when appeasement gave Hitler the space he needed to unleash World War II. Churchill's warning could not be more relevant today: "An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile hoping it will eat him last."
The West has been feeding a lot of crocodiles for far too long. Giving the Iranian regime sanctions relief, nuclear deals, and diplomatic back channels, the so-called liberal world order enabled the rise of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its lavishly funded war machine. Israel has been doing the dirty work that Western powers refused to do -- all of them.
Israel has not just been fighting for its own people — it is fighting to prevent World War III. If Iran were to acquire nuclear weapons, no capital in the free world would be safe. Iran's ruling ayatollahs do not just hate Jews. They hate Christians and all "unbelievers" in Allah. They hate the West. They hate freedom. There is no reason to think they would not have used a nuclear bomb. Just look at what their barrages of ballistic missiles without nuclear warheads did to one tiny nation, the size of New Jersey.
Now that Israel, its military, Trump and the great U.S. Air Force have acted with unmatched courage, the question becomes: will the West finally grow a spine and stand with Israel? Will they stop hiding behind "peace conferences" and empty UN resolutions, and finally support the one country that is actually securing peace through strength? At the very least, if they are too scared to lead, they should fully support the small country that led unapologetically. Let Israel lead. Let Israel strike. Let Israel save the world from the nightmare that the rest allowed to fester.
Peace is not achieved through weakness, funding the enemy, legitimizing terror organizations or tolerating genocidal regimes. Peace comes from defeating them. The world learned this the hard way in the 20th century, and too many people have become too dangerously close to forgetting it. Netanyahu and Trump did not forget. That is why they stand alone — victorious. It is time to stop treating Israel like a burden or a pariah, and start recognizing it as the moral and military powerhouse that it is.
The democracies of the world -- the peace lovers, the free thinkers, the believers in Western civilization -- owe Israel not just thanks, but allegiance. In just two years, this tiny nation has done more to safeguard global security than the entire EU, the UN, and most of the free world combined -- which were busy condemning it and protesting against it. Israel deserves admiration, not sanctimony. It deserves support, not sanctions. If the rest of the free world is too cowardly to act, then at the very least, they should hide behind Israel's courage and pray that, with the partnership of the far-sighted Trump, it keeps winning. If Israel falls, the rest of the West is next. Stand with Israel, or fall with your silence.
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh, is a political scientist, Harvard-educated analyst, and board member of Harvard International Review. He has authored several books on the US foreign policy. He can be reached at dr.rafizadeh@post.harvard.edu
