Announcing Friday’s audacious Israeli strikes against military and nuclear targets inside Iran, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “We are at a decisive moment in Israel’s history.”
This is also a potentially decisive moment in Europe’s political history and the fight for our future. It is time for European leaders finally to answer the question: Whose side are you on?
Much remains uncertain in this crisis, but one thing should be clear. Anybody who believes in a free Europe and the West needs to come out unequivocally in defence of democratic Israel against Islamist Iran; in support of civilisation against barbarism.
Ignore the condemnations of “unjustified Israeli aggression.” Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East and the only Jewish state on earth, is fighting for its survival on seven fronts against forces sworn to destroy it. The Islamic Republic of Iran is the primary sponsor of all Israel’s mortal enemies, from the terrorists of Hamas and Hezbollah to the Houthis of Yemen.
Islamist Iran, lest we forget, was behind the October 7th antisemitic pogrom launched by the genocidal death cult of Hamas, timed to scupper efforts at rapprochement between Israel and the Arab world. And it is the sponsor of anti-Western terror worldwide.
That’s why this conflict is about more than Iran’s nuclear weapons programme. An Islamist Bomb would embody the wider threat that Iran poses. As the Israel Defense Forces made clear, they were left with “no choice” but to launch Friday’s strikes to defend the Israeli people, after discovering that “the Iranian regime had a concrete plan to destroy the state of Israel.”
Islamist Iran is openly committed to wiping out not only Israel but also the U.S.-led West. When the regime leads chants of “Death to Israel, Death to America!” they mean it. As Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made clear in November 2023, “When you chant ‘Death to America!’ it is not just a slogan – it is a policy.”
That is why Israeli PM Netanyahu was fully justified to say that, in attacking Iran, “We are defending the free world from the terrorism and barbarism that Iran fosters and exports across the globe.”
So how will the leaders of “the free world” respond to this decisive moment in our history? Whose side will they prove to be on?
President Donald Trump’s administration was at pains to say that America was not involved in the strikes. But they also made clear that Iran could not be allowed to have nuclear weapons.
President Trump himself then issued a statement announcing that he “gave Iran chance after chance to make a deal” to limit their nuclear programme, and had warned them “in the strongest of words.”
Certain Iranian hardliners spoke bravely, but they didn’t know what was about to happen. They are all DEAD now, and it will only get worse! There has already been great death and destruction, but there is still time to make this slaughter, with the next already planned attacks being even more brutal, come to an end. Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left.
Welcome fighting words from the White House, though some of us might wonder why President Trump still wants to make a deal to preserve part of Iran’s nuclear programme, rather than let Israel go on and ensure that “there is nothing left” of it.
On the other side, meanwhile, U.S. Senator Jack Reed, senior Democrat on the Senate armed services committee, attacked Israel’s strikes as “a reckless escalation that risks igniting regional violence.” If anybody is guilty of “igniting regional violence,” it is Islamist Iran. One more reason to thank the American people for electing Republican Trump.
What of Europe’s leaders? On europeanconservative.com, we have tracked the European elites’ abandonment and betrayal of Israel since October 7th. Their initial response to Friday’s strikes seemed typically spineless.
Many European leaders were slow to say anything on Friday morning, suggesting they would rather have pulled the blankets over their heads and shut out the entire thing.
No doubt the UK’s Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke for many others when he called for “all parties to step back and reduce tensions urgently … Now is the time for restraint, calm and a return to diplomacy.”
This is typical of the pusillanimous guff we have heard from the European political establishment since October 7th; pretending that “all parties” are to blame and calling for Israel to show “restraint.”
In reality, there is no equivalence between Israel and its Islamist enemies. The aggressors are Iran and its Jew-hating terrorist satellites, who have sworn to stage October 7th-style massacres “again and again.” Meanwhile, Western equivocation has forced the Israelis to defend themselves with one hand tied behind their backs.
What we need now is not demands for Israel to “step back.” We need Europe’s leaders to step up, and show their support for the Israelis fighting on our behalf.
The subsequent statement from French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot did at least concede that, “We reaffirm Israel’s right to defend itself against any attack.” That might come as news to the Israelis, who have had to endure constant criticism from France for daring to defend themselves against Hamas’s attacks, alongside demands that they sign a ceasefire which would amount to surrender.
In any case, most of the statement from President Macron’s man repeated the calls for “all parties to exercise restraint and avoid any escalation that could undermine regional stability.” We should expect much more talk in the same spirit of moral cowardice from the rest of the EU elites. Meanwhile, the Islamists and their allies on Europe’s Left are already taking the fight across social media, condemning Israel’s “demonic thirst for children’s blood.”
No sane person wants to see war escalating, least of all the people of Israel—or of Iran. But war there is, and we have to take sides to try to ensure it ends the right way.
As I wrote on europeanconservative.com last month, for too long Israel has been “beating our enemies – but being betrayed by its ‘friends’”. Now is the time to reverse that Western betrayal. Anybody who believes in Western civilisation and the future of a free, democratic Europe should show whose side we are on in a battle that is the frontline of a global war for democracy.
For democratic Israel against Islamist Iran, for civilisation against barbarism. No surrender.
Democratic Israel v Islamist Iran: Time for Europe to Take Sides
Photo: Ahmad Gharabli / AFP
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Announcing Friday’s audacious Israeli strikes against military and nuclear targets inside Iran, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “We are at a decisive moment in Israel’s history.”
This is also a potentially decisive moment in Europe’s political history and the fight for our future. It is time for European leaders finally to answer the question: Whose side are you on?
Much remains uncertain in this crisis, but one thing should be clear. Anybody who believes in a free Europe and the West needs to come out unequivocally in defence of democratic Israel against Islamist Iran; in support of civilisation against barbarism.
Ignore the condemnations of “unjustified Israeli aggression.” Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East and the only Jewish state on earth, is fighting for its survival on seven fronts against forces sworn to destroy it. The Islamic Republic of Iran is the primary sponsor of all Israel’s mortal enemies, from the terrorists of Hamas and Hezbollah to the Houthis of Yemen.
Islamist Iran, lest we forget, was behind the October 7th antisemitic pogrom launched by the genocidal death cult of Hamas, timed to scupper efforts at rapprochement between Israel and the Arab world. And it is the sponsor of anti-Western terror worldwide.
That’s why this conflict is about more than Iran’s nuclear weapons programme. An Islamist Bomb would embody the wider threat that Iran poses. As the Israel Defense Forces made clear, they were left with “no choice” but to launch Friday’s strikes to defend the Israeli people, after discovering that “the Iranian regime had a concrete plan to destroy the state of Israel.”
Islamist Iran is openly committed to wiping out not only Israel but also the U.S.-led West. When the regime leads chants of “Death to Israel, Death to America!” they mean it. As Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made clear in November 2023, “When you chant ‘Death to America!’ it is not just a slogan – it is a policy.”
That is why Israeli PM Netanyahu was fully justified to say that, in attacking Iran, “We are defending the free world from the terrorism and barbarism that Iran fosters and exports across the globe.”
So how will the leaders of “the free world” respond to this decisive moment in our history? Whose side will they prove to be on?
President Donald Trump’s administration was at pains to say that America was not involved in the strikes. But they also made clear that Iran could not be allowed to have nuclear weapons.
President Trump himself then issued a statement announcing that he “gave Iran chance after chance to make a deal” to limit their nuclear programme, and had warned them “in the strongest of words.”
Welcome fighting words from the White House, though some of us might wonder why President Trump still wants to make a deal to preserve part of Iran’s nuclear programme, rather than let Israel go on and ensure that “there is nothing left” of it.
On the other side, meanwhile, U.S. Senator Jack Reed, senior Democrat on the Senate armed services committee, attacked Israel’s strikes as “a reckless escalation that risks igniting regional violence.” If anybody is guilty of “igniting regional violence,” it is Islamist Iran. One more reason to thank the American people for electing Republican Trump.
What of Europe’s leaders? On europeanconservative.com, we have tracked the European elites’ abandonment and betrayal of Israel since October 7th. Their initial response to Friday’s strikes seemed typically spineless.
Many European leaders were slow to say anything on Friday morning, suggesting they would rather have pulled the blankets over their heads and shut out the entire thing.
No doubt the UK’s Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke for many others when he called for “all parties to step back and reduce tensions urgently … Now is the time for restraint, calm and a return to diplomacy.”
This is typical of the pusillanimous guff we have heard from the European political establishment since October 7th; pretending that “all parties” are to blame and calling for Israel to show “restraint.”
In reality, there is no equivalence between Israel and its Islamist enemies. The aggressors are Iran and its Jew-hating terrorist satellites, who have sworn to stage October 7th-style massacres “again and again.” Meanwhile, Western equivocation has forced the Israelis to defend themselves with one hand tied behind their backs.
What we need now is not demands for Israel to “step back.” We need Europe’s leaders to step up, and show their support for the Israelis fighting on our behalf.
The subsequent statement from French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot did at least concede that, “We reaffirm Israel’s right to defend itself against any attack.” That might come as news to the Israelis, who have had to endure constant criticism from France for daring to defend themselves against Hamas’s attacks, alongside demands that they sign a ceasefire which would amount to surrender.
In any case, most of the statement from President Macron’s man repeated the calls for “all parties to exercise restraint and avoid any escalation that could undermine regional stability.” We should expect much more talk in the same spirit of moral cowardice from the rest of the EU elites. Meanwhile, the Islamists and their allies on Europe’s Left are already taking the fight across social media, condemning Israel’s “demonic thirst for children’s blood.”
No sane person wants to see war escalating, least of all the people of Israel—or of Iran. But war there is, and we have to take sides to try to ensure it ends the right way.
As I wrote on europeanconservative.com last month, for too long Israel has been “beating our enemies – but being betrayed by its ‘friends’”. Now is the time to reverse that Western betrayal. Anybody who believes in Western civilisation and the future of a free, democratic Europe should show whose side we are on in a battle that is the frontline of a global war for democracy.
For democratic Israel against Islamist Iran, for civilisation against barbarism. No surrender.
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