SAMIR NAZARETH
One tragedy of the immediacy of any conflict is that it diminishes the importance, and therefore the search, for rationales. ‘Where did it all begin?’, a question asked when delv ing into the roots of a con flict has answers dependent on the side of the coin one chooses. The current Israeli-US at tacks on Iran raise the same question. For many the answer lay in the response of the lead ers of the Western world. They said something similar to the Canadian Prime Min ister’s statement released on February 28, 2026: “The Islamic Republic of Iran is the principal source of in stability and terror through out the Middle East, has one of the worst human rights records, and must never be allowed to obtain or develop nuclear weapons.” With this Western yard stick many other countries in the region and elsewhere probably fall somewhere on the hyperbolic ‘principal source of instability and ter ror’ scale. Middle Eastern States Saudi Arabia’s legal sys tem is based on Sharia Law. There were 356 docu mented executions in Saudi Arabia in 2025. Everything from murder to apostasy in vites a death sentence. It is still possible for individuals to have a limb amputated as punishment. Freedom of expression is restricted, as is non-Islamic religious freedom. Same-sex activity is criminalised. However, Saudi Arabia is perceived as a responsible State. The land now known as the Jewish state of Israel was initially populated by various tribes including Canaanites and Jebusites. Archaeological findings sug gest that a Jewish identity emerged from within these tribes, though there is a Bib lical story of Jews migrating from Egypt. The Hasmonean Kingdom of Judea between 140–37 BCE was the Middle East’s last true Jewish king dom. Over millennia, a large population of Jews migrated to Europe and other parts of the world. Many inhabitants converted to Christianity and Islam.
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Despite this, Israel was formed on this land. The creation of Israel based on unverifiable bibli cal arguments without con sidering non-Jewish natives made the Middle East res tive. Israel, with the UK and France attacked Egypt when it nationalised the Suez Ca nal. Israel attacked Egypt in 1967 to prevent the po tential closure of the Straits of Tiran. In 1973 Israel was attacked by Egypt and Syria. Israel attacked Lebanon in 1982 and 2006. Israel is the only country in the Middle East to pos sess nuclear weapons. How ever, it is not a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Trea ty, and has never allowed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) into its nuclear facilities. Israel has a system sim ilar to apartheid to control other original inhabitants of this land. Palestinians have been corralled into the West Bank and Gaza. Their lives are monitored by the Israeli military. Israel has conducted five (5) major military operations in Gaza. According to human rights organisations, between 9,000–11,000 Palestini ans are in Israeli prisons. Many, including children, are held without trial. Isra el has allegedly conducted over 2,300 assassinations globally since its formation. Those murdered include journalists and scientists. In the attack on Gaza following the October 7 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, Israel razed Gaza to the ground and killed more than 73,000 Pal estinians including children. Israel destroyed hospi tals, educational establish ments and United Nations offices. However, Israel is seen as a victim. The US remains its closest collaborator.
Other Western nations also sup port Israel. There are many reasons for this. These coun tries have organisations like UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) in the UK, and the American Israel Public Af fairs Committee (AIPAC) and the Conference of Pres idents of Major American Jewish Organizations in the US who lobby on behalf of Is rael. Further, a large section of the Israeli population has European and Russian roots. This could lead to an affinity and positive bias, conscious or otherwise, towards Isra el from the Western world. Further, the Holocaust en sures Europe, Germany in particular, overlooks Israeli atrocities. The fear of being labelled antisemitic silences countries. Eastern Europe The asymmetry in the Western world’s concept of peace, and human rights gets starker when their response to Iran is compared to the responses to Russia’s attack on Ukraine. Plus, Europe fears Russian interference in its democratic process and Russian cyber-attacks on its infrastructure. Europe is on tenterhooks as the Rus sian military carries out in cursions into its territories. Consequently, conscription in Europe has returned, and military expenditure has in creased by 30% (between 2021 and 2024) .
Russia has reportedly assassinated dis sidents abroad and jailed them at home. In response to all this Europe has im posed economic sanctions on Russia which it seems to bypass. Does Russia get away because it possesses nuclear weapons? Or is Eu rope mollified with Russian oil over its troubled waters? Could the historical and cul tural links between Russia and Europe be a factor in Europe’s response? The rationale given by US-Israel for this aggression is suspect. Netanyahu and Trump face socio-legal scru tiny, Netanyahu is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, and faces corruption charges in Israel. Donald Trump con victed on 34 felony counts is named in the Epstein files. This war shifts focus from them. There is a Machiavellian probability the West initial ly believed targeting Iran would kill two birds with one stone: catalyse regime change, and the new re gime would halt support for Russia thereby hob bling Russia’s Ukrainian ambitions.
Now unsurprisingly, while Iran is still labelled a region al destabiliser, countries and NATO are not coming to America’s aid. They rec ognise the illegality of the attack on Iran. This clarity is potentially because Israel and the US are shifting goal posts and probably commit ting war crimes. The answer to ‘where did it all begin’ is simple. It begins with hypocrisy giv en the hue of pragmatism. Peace is a bridge too far when constructed with big otry and prejudice. Leaders ignore this fact and imperil the world. Probably, geopol itics inhabits an Orwellian world where war is peace, and some are more equal than others. (Samir Nazareth is an author and writes on socio-economic and environmental issues)
