The world stands at a crossroads. Allowing Israel to continue its aggressive wars and genocidal campaign threatens the survival of international law and global peace. Military intervention by a UN-led coalition is urgent to halt Israel’s criminal actions . . .
By Fareed Khan
In launching an unprovoked attack on Iran under the flimsy pretext of "self-defence," Israel has not only escalated tensions in an already volatile region of the world, but has also inflicted irreparable damage to the international legal order.
By launching air raids on Iran, that have killed over 400 Iranians to date (mostly civilians) and injured 654, and committing genocide in Gaza for more than 18 months, Israel has exposed itself as a rogue, terrorist state without parallel. The only path to a safer Middle East lies in decisive international military intervention to halt Israel’s unprovoked wars against neighbouring nations, its genocidal campaign against Palestinians, and to dismantle its ethno-supremacist state apparatus, just as Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan were dismantled post-World War II. Israel needs to be reconstituted as a state free of the supremacist ideology of Zionism if Palestinians and citizens of neighbouring Muslim nations are ever to feel safe.
Furthermore, for the sake of justice for the Palestinians slaughtered by Israel, every Israeli political leader, military commander, soldier, and pilot complicit in the genocide of Palestinians since October 2023 must face trial for their criminal acts and complicity in those acts at the International Criminal Court (ICC), or in states such as Denmark, Norway, Finland or Sweden, which rank highest on the World Justice Project’s rankings of nations with the most impartial and unbiased legal systems, given the limited resources of the ICC. The global community must act swiftly to restore the principles of international law and ensure justice for the victims of Israel’s unrelenting aggression.
Israel’s claim of "self-defence" in its pre-emptive strike on Iran is a grotesque distortion of international law. The Geneva Conventions and Article 51 of the UN Charter affirm a nation’s right to defend itself when under attack, but Israel’s actions invert this principle. As critical analyses have noted, Israel’s strike was not a response to an Iranian assault but a calculated act of aggression designed to provoke and destabilize.
Iran, despite its unsavoury regime, has not launched wars of aggression against its neighbours, occupied their territories, or committed genocide. Additionally, unlike Israel, which possesses an arsenal of an estimated 90–400 illegal nuclear warheads, Iran’s nuclear program remains under stringent international scrutiny and for now complies with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The hypocrisy is glaring. Israel, armed with undeclared nuclear weapons, accuses Iran of posing a nuclear threat and commits an act of aggression, while Western powers grant it impunity and blame the victim of Israel's aggression. This double standard not only undermines the credibility of international law but also emboldens other states to flout it given Israel's example.
Israel’s history reveals a pattern of aggression that systematically violates international norms. Since its founding, it has occupied Palestinian territories, committed crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide, annexed the Golan Heights from Syria, and conducted airstrikes in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and now Iran with impunity. Its ongoing campaign in Gaza, described by UN experts and human rights organizations as genocidal, has killed over 63,000 Palestinians as of the middle of June 2025, displaced millions, and reduced entire neighbourhoods in Gaza to rubble. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued provisional measures in 2024 demanding Israel cease actions that could constitute genocide, yet Israel ignores the ICJ, emboldened by Western, particularly American, support. The blockade of Gaza, restricting food, water, and medical supplies, has been condemned as collective punishment, which is a war crime under the Geneva Convention. Israel’s actions are not those of a state led by sane leaders upholding the rule of law but that of a rogue actor led by criminals who are demolishing it, and setting a dangerous precedent for global stability.
The extremist leadership driving Israel’s policies exacerbates the current crisis. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich represent a theocratic-nationalist cabal whose ideologies mirror the violent ethno-nationalism of history’s darkest regimes. Ben-Gvir, once deemed too radical for Israel’s military, idolizes Baruch Goldstein, who massacred 29 Palestinians in a Hebron mosque in 1994. He once celebrated the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin for negotiating peace with Palestinians. Smotrich, a self-proclaimed "fascist homophobe," has incited settler violence that has killed and displaced thousands in the West Bank since October 2023. These Israeli politicians, backed by Western military aid, are orchestrating policies of mass starvation, indiscriminate bombing, and civilian slaughter. Their actions echo the genocidal campaigns of Nazi Germany, which the world vowed never to allow again. Yet, Western media often sanitizes the extremism of Israeli leaders, focusing instead on Palestinian groups like Hamas, or on Iran’s flaws to justify Israel’s aggression.
The comparison to Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan is legitimate given the racist decisions and policies of Israeli leaders for decades, which mimic the racist policies of those two fascist regimes. Israel’s racist Nation-State Law, passed in 2018, was the latest anti-Palestinian law that privileges Jewish citizens over non-Jews within the territories Israel controls, and codifies a state ideology of Jewish supremacy akin to the racial hierarchies seen in fascist regimes. As with Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, Israel’s policies of exclusion, occupation, and extermination of "the other" are driven by an ethno-nationalist vision that dehumanizes its victims. As victors post-World War II, the Allies dismantled their fascist adversaries, denazified Germany, and demilitarized Japan to ensure they could never again threaten global peace.
A similar reckoning is required for Israel given its criminal history and acts of state terrorism. The international community must intervene militarily under a UN-led coalition to halt Israel’s genocide of Palestinians, disarm its illegal nuclear arsenal, and oversee the reconstitution of a state based on equality, not ethnic supremacy. This is not a call for destruction but for transformation, ensuring justice for occupied Palestinians, Arabs in neighbouring nations, Iranians, and all victims of Israel’s aggression.
Individuals also must be held accountable for their criminal actions. Every Israeli leader, from Netanyahu to Smotrich, all members of the Israeli cabinet, every military commander ordering attacks on civilians, and every soldier or pilot executing these orders must face charges of genocide, war crimes, or crimes against humanity. In addition, those who implemented the policy of starvation of Gaza's inhabitants by withholding vital food and humanitarian aid shipments must also face justice. The ICC’s 2024 arrest warrants for certain Israeli officials are a step toward that, but they must be expanded to include all complicit actors, and possibly leaders of Western nations that sold weapons to Israel which were then used in the Gaza genocide or in the attacks on Iran.
Historical precedent supports this. Nazi officials, both military and civilian, faced trial at Nuremberg, and Japanese leaders were prosecuted in Tokyo after World War 2. Israel’s perpetrators cannot be exempt from being charged and tried for their crimes. The unprovoked and indiscriminate attack on Iran which killed hundreds of civilians constitutes a clear violation of the UN Charter, and the deliberate targeting of Palestinian civilians, including children, medics, and journalists is a violation of the 1948 Genocide Convention, which defines genocide as acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, or religious group.
Western complicity in Israel’s crimes compounds the damage to international law. The United States, Canada, the United Kingdom Germany, and others Israeli allies reflexively parrot Israel’s "right to defend itself" argument while ignoring its violations of international law. When Russia invaded Ukraine citing "national security," the West rightly condemned it as aggression, imposing sanctions and isolating Moscow. Yet Israel’s identical pretext for attacking Iran is met with silence or support, and if there is criticism it is mere political platitudes. This double standard erodes the principles of sovereignty and non-aggression that underpin global stability. By shielding Israel, the West undermines the very legal order it claims to champion, inviting other states to unilaterally commit acts of aggression with impunity to solve political conflicts.
Iran, while no model of global virtue, does not even compare to Israel’s record of aggression. Its government represses dissent, restricts women’s rights, and surveils minorities, but it has not invaded its neighbours, occupied them, or committed genocide. Iran’s Jewish community, numbering around 10,000, enjoys constitutional protections, operates over a dozen synagogues in Tehran alone, and holds a reserved parliamentary seat—facts that belie Israel’s portrayal of Iran as inherently anti-Semitic. Iran’s comparative restraint in the face of Israeli provocations, including assassinations of its scientists and military leaders, and sabotage of its nuclear facilities, contrasts sharply with Israel’s record of belligerence against anyone it perceives as an enemy. The West’s selective outrage, fixating on Iran’s flaws while ignoring Israel’s extremism, exposes a campaign to manufacture consent for war, reminiscent of the fear-mongering that led to the Iraq invasion, which killed millions, destabilized the region, and birthed more terrorism.
The consequences of Israel’s actions will ripple beyond the Middle East. Its consistent defiance of international law emboldens other states to act unilaterally, risking global chaos. Rising oil prices, economic instability, and strengthened hardliners in Iran are a few of the predictable outcomes of Israel’s aggression, some of which will burden ordinary citizens worldwide. Additionally, silencing critics with unfounded accusations of antisemitism because they criticize Israel violates the principles of free speech, stifles legitimate debate, fuels actual antisemitism, and shields Israel from being held accountable for its crimes. As one op-ed powerfully noted, exploiting the Holocaust to justify present-day horrors is not remembrance but manipulation. The memory of past atrocities should compel action to stop current ones, not serve as a shield for impunity.
The world stands at a crossroads. Allowing Israel to continue its aggressive wars against its neighbours and its genocidal campaign against Palestinians threatens the survival of international law and global peace. Military intervention by a UN-led coalition is urgent to halt Israel’s criminal actions, protect civilians, and enforce compliance with the UN Charter, the Geneva Conventions, UN Security Council resolutions and the Genocide Convention. Dismantling Israel’s supremacist framework and reconstituting it as an inclusive state that represents all its citizens is the only path to lasting justice. Prosecuting those responsible for the Gaza genocide will signal that no state, no matter how powerful, is above the law. The time for equivocation is over. Israel’s rogue status demands a response as resolute as that against history’s worst aggressors. The international community must act to restore the legal order it claims to uphold, ensuring a world where no state can cloak genocide and aggression in the language of self-defence.
© 2025 The View From Here. © 2025 Fareed Khan. All Rights Reserved.
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