Israel’s Brave Stand—For Its Survival and the West

(essay)

Leaving my house yesterday morning, I caught a segment of an NPR broadcast. The guest, an expert of some kind, was excoriating Israel for its recent preemptive strike on Iran.

“A deal was just about to happen,” she said. “It could have been days, maybe even hours away.”

Later that day, I received an email from a longtime acquaintance in the music business:

Peter, I don’t understand you. You’ve written so many songs about hope and humanity. When did you become a warmonger?

It didn’t feel like he was trying to start a fight. I think he genuinely wanted to understand. But still, I got the sense he’d already made up his mind—that I’d abandoned the values I once stood for. That I’d become someone he no longer recognized. I didn’t write him back. Maybe I’ll send him this instead.

We need to understand what Israel is facing.

This is not a border dispute. Iran is 1,500 miles away. Until April of this year, when it launched over 300 drones, missiles, rockets, and ballistic missiles at Israel, there had been no Israeli attack on Iranian soil. And that’s despite Israel knowing full well that Iran had funded, trained, and helped plan the October 7 Hamas massacre.

To briefly remind those who need reminding: On October 7, 2023, Hamas operatives invaded Israel from Gaza, killing over 1,200 people, raping women, beheading civilians, and kidnapping entire families. It was the deadliest single day for Jews since the Holocaust.

Iran was behind it. That is not speculation—it’s well documented. U.S., Israeli, and international intelligence have confirmed that Iran provided funding, weapons, training, and strategic guidance to Hamas in the months leading up to the October 7 massacre. Senior Hamas operatives have even publicly acknowledged Iran’s role. Just as it has done for years with Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen, Iran builds, arms, and directs proxy groups whose purpose is not coexistence—but the destruction of Israel.

At the heart of Iran’s animus lies something difficult for many in the West to fully grasp: it is religious. But more than that—it is Khomeinist. The current regime is not merely pro-Shi’a; it is anti-Jewish to its core. Founded on principles that explicitly call for Jewish genocide, the Islamic Republic’s ideology stems from Ayatollah Khomeini himself, who in his book Islamic Government described Jews as enemies of Islam from its inception, and called for the destruction of the “infidel Zionists.” The regime’s clerics believe they have a divine obligation to rid the region of Jewish sovereignty. For them, Jews are dhimmis—tolerated only when subjugated. The idea of Jews defending themselves, of a Jewish state thriving in its ancestral homeland, is, in their eyes, a theological crime.

[Note: This is not a statement about all Shi’a Muslims, but about the radical ideology of Iran’s ruling regime.]

There’s a precedent for this kind of hatred. Christian Europe once operated under similar assumptions. From the Middle Ages to the Holocaust, Jews were treated as permanent outsiders—tolerated only when they kept their heads down. Iran, tragically, has revived that tradition under the banner of religious revolution.

And now, the Iranian regime is on the brink of acquiring the most dangerous weapon on Earth.

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran has amassed enough highly enriched uranium—enriched to 60% purity—to produce at least three nuclear bombs. Experts estimate that with further enrichment to weapons-grade (90%) and weaponization, Iran’s “breakout time” could be reduced to mere weeks—or even days—if they act quickly and secretly.

Once a regime like this gets the bomb, there is no going back. The balance of power shifts permanently. A genocidal ideology backed by nuclear capability is not a theoretical concern. It’s an imminent threat—not just to Israel, but to the region, and to the fragile idea of a civilized world.

Israel, for all its internal divisions and political chaos, understands this. It is a nation with a fierce democratic and journalistic tradition, with no shortage of disagreement and protest. But on this point—on Iran’s nuclear program—nearly the entire population stands united. Left, right, secular, religious, Jewish, Arab—an unprecedented majority of Israelis understand that this strike was not optional. It was necessary.

In capitals across the world—not just in the West but in Arab states as well—governments are publicly cautious, but privately relieved. Many are silently cheering Israel’s courage and military brilliance. Israel has done what they could not or would not dare do: challenge evil (yes, I use the word deliberately) at its source. Disrupt the machinery of mass death. Put a price on genocidal rhetoric.

Is this moment warlike? Bloody? Frightening? Yes. But that is what it looks like when evil is confronted. And if we are wise and unflinching, perhaps even defeated.

Maybe now there will be a deal. Just as there was a deal after Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan were defeated. The deal is surrender. Not appeasement. Not delay. Surrender and regime change—something a huge swath of the Iranian people hope and pray for.

In 2023, a survey conducted by the Group for Analyzing and Measuring Attitudes in Iran (GAMAAN) found that nearly 80% of Iranians oppose the Islamic Republic in its current form. The same study showed that over 85% support a secular democracy to replace the regime. These are not fringe views. The mass protests that erupted after the murder of Mahsa Amini—and the brutal crackdowns that followed—revealed to the world just how deeply unpopular the clerical regime has become.

To my friend in the music world, I want to say this:

Peace—real peace, not simply a cessation of hostilities—is never given. It is won. And it is never granted by those who seek your destruction.

Everything I’ve ever written about hope, about humanity, and the light which glows in the heart of every human being—I still believe. In fact, I believe it more deeply now than ever.