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On Thursday evening, the long-anticipated Israel strikes began, targeting the Islamic Republic of Iran’s nuclear sites and other key military facilities. The objective of Operation Strength of a Lion is to end the Iranian nuclear threat once and for all, as well as to destroy, as much as possible, the Islamic Republic’s ability to continue to wage war against the Jewish state via its proxies, Hamas, Hizballah, and the Houthis. The entire state of Israel was on emergency alert; the Israeli Home Front Command issued instructions to all Israeli citizens to comply with guidelines that would be issued as part of “preparations for a significant threat.”
Almost immediately after the air strikes began in Tehran, the propaganda war also entered a new phase. The Iranian military posted on X: “Remember, we didn’t initiate it.”
Ah, but it did. The Islamic Republic of Iran initiated this Israeli strike on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas operatives, funded and directed by the Islamic Republic of Iran, brutally tortured and murdered 1,200 Israelis. The Islamic Republic of Iran initiated this Israeli strike when its leaders regularly screamed “Death to Israel” (as well as “Death to America”) and repeatedly vowed to destroy Israel. As recently as May 17, the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader, the Ayatollah Khamenei, declared: “The Zionist regime, which is the dangerous and lethal cancerous tumor of this region, must undoubtedly be removed, and it will be.”
In fact, the Islamic Republic of Iran initiated it by regarding Israel as an enemy from its earliest days. The Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who founded the Islamic Republic in 1979, replaced the Israeli embassy in Tehran with an embassy of “Palestine.” He decreed that the last Friday of the Muslim fasting-and-feasting month of Ramadan would henceforth be known as Al-Quds Day. Al-Quds is the name that modern-day Arabs and Muslims use for Jerusalem, and Al-Quds Day from its inception was the occasion for an orgy of hatred for Israel, jihadist saber rattling, and declarations that the Jewish state would soon be completely destroyed and a new genocide of the Jews would begin.
Al-Quds Day quickly became a global observance, with its bloodlust and demonic glorification of murder becoming commonplace in all too many European and North American cities as well as in Iran. And yet now, as Israeli bombs fall in Tehran and at the Natanz and Fordow nuclear sites, the Iranian military takes to X to declare that they didn’t initiate it.
In reality, Iran has no reason to regard Israel as an enemy at all. Israel poses no threat to Iran. They do not share a common border. Israel has no territorial claims against Iran. Iran, for that matter, does not claim Israeli territory. They do not have competing economic interests. The only reason why the Islamic Republic of Iran burns with hatred toward Israel and has been working toward its destruction for over forty years now is because it is an Islamic Republic.
The existence of Israel is an insult to Islam. The Qur’an tells Muslims: “Drive them out from where they drove you out.” (2:191). The Arab Higher Committee ordered the Arabs to flee the new Jewish state in 1948, as the Arab leaders were confident that they would soon destroy the new state, and then the Arabs would be able to go home. Instead, Israel won. Nevertheless, the imperative to “Drive them out from where they drove you out” still applies, for the land of Israel was once the property of the Ottoman Empire, and was ruled by Islamic law.
Extrapolating from Qur’an 2:191, it is a staple of Islamic doctrine that any land that was once under Sharia rule must be ruled by Muslims forever. The command to drive the non-Muslims out is considered to come from the supreme god himself; it is not to be ignored, and cannot be negotiated away. As soon as Iran became an Islamic Republic, it was therefore duty-bound to regard Israel as its mortal enemy. And it did so, with alacrity.
So yes, the Islamic Republic did indeed initiate this conflict. If it didn’t pursue Israel’s destruction so relentlessly, the Israelis would have no quarrel with Iran. But Israel is determined to survive, and so it struck Iran on Thursday.
Now the world holds its breath. The Islamic Republic is sure to retaliate. As the U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, stated not long before the Israeli strike began, quoting Psalm 122:6: “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.”
Indeed. And for the peace of all the people of the world, that this conflict may somehow bring us into a new era of freedom and respect for the dignity of every human being. Or at very least, that it will relieve the Iranian people of the vile regime they have suffered for so long now. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, and of Tehran: pray for the Iranian people, who deserve better than the Islamic Republic.