This article originally appeared in Israel Hayom on June 22, 2025.
As the Europeans negotiate an agreement with the ayatollahs, President Trump decides to attack Iran’s three main nuclear sites. A bold, historic, and spectacular decision that complements the extraordinary exploits of the IDF and the Mossad. The strategic cooperation between Washington and Jerusalem has been put to the test on the battlefield. The success is undoubtedly unprecedented and impressive. The Trump-Netanyahu tandem is working marvelously.
However, the war is not yet over, and it is too early to declare victory and rejoice. We should always be on the alert and vigilant. We don’t know how Iran will react. Given all the uncertainties, a brief historical review will help us better understand the Israeli position and why the IDF launched a preemptive war against the Islamist regime:
In the 1930s, the State of Israel did not exist, and Jews could not mobilize the free world to their cause, fight alone, and stop Hitler’s madness. Recall that Roosevelt’s United States entered the war in December 1941, just after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
On September 29, 1938, Daladier and Chamberlain met with Hitler in Munich to decide the fate of Czechoslovakia. The next day, the French and British leaders spoke of victory and believed they had saved the peace. Daladier declared, “War is no longer a solution. War will never again be a solution.” Winston Churchill forcefully replied, “They had to choose between dishonor and war. They chose dishonor, and they will have war.”
In October 2001, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon warned the free world in a fiery speech: “Do not repeat the grave historical error of 1938 by sacrificing Czechoslovakia! The Jewish state will defend itself by its own means.”
In September 2009, Benjamin Netanyahu gave a speech at the UN and compared the free world’s indifference to the threat of Iran’s nuclear project to the League of Nations’ indifference to the rise of Nazism and the Jewish Holocaust.
87 years after the Munich Agreement, European leaders are foolishly making the same historic mistakes. They are spreading a new “big bluff” regarding the Iranian Islamist regime’s belligerent intentions and its nuclear project.
Emmanuel Macron should reflect on the wise words of Georges Clémenceau, who said during the First World War: “Peace at any price is no longer peace.” The French president admits that the source of destabilization is Iran, but proposes to negotiate with the Iranians, knowing full well that the ayatollahs and their ambassadors are cheats and liars par excellence.
Let us recall that during the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union negotiated détente, limitations on the nuclear arsenal and ballistic and cruise missiles, but the Soviets never threatened to destroy Israel; they were even the first to recognize the Jewish state in 1948.
Who is responsible for the current explosive situation? Didn’t Giscard d’Estaing’s France bear some responsibility when it hosted Ayatollah Khomeini at Neauphle-le-Château, allowing him to spread Islamist propaganda and providing him with an Air France plane that took him to Tehran to unleash the most obscure revolution of modern times?
For 46 years, Iran has poisoned international affairs and, with the help of its Shiite and Sunni satellites, sabotaged every peace agreement with Arab countries. How can we forget the hostage-taking of diplomats at the American embassy in Tehran, and the long list of terrorist attacks, notably against American Marines and French paratroopers in Beirut? The deadly attacks against the Israeli embassy and against the Jewish community in Buenos Aires and elsewhere?
Faced with the Western laxity and impotence that has lasted for almost half a century, Israel found itself obliged to launch a preemptive war to counter the existential threat. As with Nasser’s Egypt in 1967, this military campaign against Iran is justified. It is clearly a casus belli in accordance with international law.
Iran has a complete disregard for signed treaties and the laws of war. Since the outbreak of hostilities in April 2024, more than 700 missiles and hundreds of Iranian drones have been launched against the civilian population and deliberately targeted a regional hospital.
Worse still, the ayatollahs have 450 kilos of uranium enriched to more than 60%. They are capable of manufacturing several “dirty bombs,” an explosive device that disperses radioactive material and contaminates a geographical area, causing serious injuries and widespread damage. Imagine these devices in the hands of Islamist fanatics and terrorist organizations?
Certainly, the IDF’s successes are considerable and the overwhelming majority of the shots have been intercepted, but how long can civil society endure an untenable and painful situation on several fronts?
To win the war and secure our future and that of future generations, we must unite and strengthen our resilience, like the English during the Blitz on London during the Second World War. At the same time, we must always consider a political solution.
The current military campaign against Iran is achieving impressive successes and considerable strategic and diplomatic gains.
The pillars of the ayatollahs’ regime are beginning to tremble, and everything indicates that they will sooner or later fall like a house of cards… We are living in historic times.
