Opinion: Nothing would bring more peace to the Middle East than an end to the Iranian regime
Iran's government wants to destroy Israel – and is brutally attacking its own people. The end of the mullahs would be a blessing for Iranians and the region.
The war is here. On Friday night, the Israeli Air Force attacked a variety of targets in Iran, including nuclear facilities, high-ranking officials of the Iranian regime, and the powerful Revolutionary Guard. Following a drone response from Iran, Israel launched a second round of attacks at midday. Observers fear a conflagration.
For the Israelis, the regime's nuclear program, which has claimed the destruction of Israel as a matter of state policy since coming to power in 1979, is an existential threat. Once Iran acquires the atomic bomb , there is a real danger that it will be used to destroy the "Zionist entity"—as Israel is called in official state jargon.
Israel can never allow that. In its 77-year history, it has survived numerous attacks that could have destroyed it. The 1948 War of Independence, in which it faced six Arab armies; the 1967 Six-Day War, which was a preventive one; and the 1973 Yom Kippur War also had the potential to mark the end of the only Jewish state.
But what's much more remarkable is that Israel has since managed to establish stable peace with its former enemies, such as Egypt, Jordan , and the United Arab Emirates. Because Israeli society wants to live peacefully with its neighbors.
However, Israel can only reconcile with those parties who have a vested interest in doing so. Diplomacy is virtually impossible with a brutal regime that dedicates its geopolitical activities entirely to Israel's destruction.
In its anti-Israel efforts, Iran has destabilized the entire Middle East. Whether in Yemen, Gaza , or Lebanon: Wherever disastrous wars break out in the region and the humanitarian situation of the population is catastrophic, Iran and its proxies have a hand in it—in most cases, they even bear substantial responsibility.
In Yemen, by the insurgent Houthi militias, whose flag bears the words "Death to the USA! Death to Israel! Damn the Jews!" In Gaza, by the terrorist groups Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. In Lebanon, by Hezbollah, a state within a state that continually disrupts the fragile Lebanese civil order.
Secret joy of the opposition: The Islamic Republic is not IranThe West may be unfamiliar with the preventive and uncompromising nature of Israel's warfare. But it is based on hard lessons that Israel has learned from the past. The Jewish state must anticipate its adversaries if it wants to survive. This insight is undisputed within Israel.
But the Islamic Republic is not Iran. Quite a few members of the opposition will secretly rejoice when regime butchers are eliminated by Israel's arch-enemy. This was already the case with the elimination of Qasem Soleimani in 2020. The fact that footage from Tehran circulated on social media on Friday, in which opponents of the regime apparently chanted slogans against head of state Ali Khamenei, is a hopeful sign.
The name of the Israeli operation—"Rising Lion"—can also be understood as an allusion to the flag of pre-Islamist Iran. Ideally, this operation will destabilize the Iranian regime to such an extent that the democratic opposition—which has defied it in repeated, death-defying uprisings—can seize the momentum. A free, democratic Iran would be the most peacemaking thing the Middle East could have.
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Berliner-zeitung
