– Mohammed Talha Siddi Bapa
The story of Israel is also the story of how the West projects power in the Middle East. Since 1948, Western capitals – first London and Paris, then Washington – have poured unprecedented political, military, and diplomatic resources into ensuring the survival and primacy of a state born in the heart of Arab lands.
Over time, Israel became not just a state to protect but an outpost of Western strategy. Its wars were shielded at the UN, its military fed with American dollars, and its narratives echoed in European parliaments. But today that architecture faces its most serious challenge: Iran, the last remaining regional power outside Western dictates.
Recent Iranian retaliation against Israeli aggression brought widespread destruction on Israeli soil – something Israelis had never experienced at scale. This shock has accelerated a coordinated Western – Israeli campaign: to weaken Iran, destabilise its institutions, and ultimately attempt regime change.
Israel’s Rise as the Western Outpost
Western support for Israel was never only about morality. It was about strategy. The U.S. and Europe recognised Israel within hours of its declaration in 1948, conferring legitimacy from birth. During the Cold War, Israel was a bulwark against Arab nationalism and Soviet influence.
Today, Israel enjoys $3.8 billion in annual U.S. military aid and cutting-edge European technology. At the UN, over 40 American vetoes have shielded it from accountability. Beyond material support, Israel shaped Western perceptions: Arab nationalism became “radicalism,” political Islam became “terrorism,” and Iran’s revolution became an existential global threat.
As one observer explained:
“Israel has served as a west – aligned outpost for the U.S./West to exert influence over the region without necessarily having to be directly involved.” (Reddit geopolitics)
This outpost logic explains why the West pays high costs elsewhere but never wavers on Israel.
The Burden of Holocaust Guilt
European support also carries a deeper psychological weight. The Holocaust was a European crime, perpetrated on European soil. Yet, instead of confronting their own history fully, European governments have “outsourced” their atonement by backing Zionism unconditionally.
Supporting Israel has become Europe’s way of lessening the burden of historical guilt, even at the expense of Palestinians and Arabs. In this moral inversion, the victims of colonial Europe’s past atrocities are made to bear the consequences of Europe’s psychological scars.
This explains why even liberal European states – so vocal on human rights elsewhere – turn silent when Israeli bombs level Gaza or when sanctions are crafted to crush Iran. It is not principle, but penance misdirected.
The Arab Spring – Liberation or Manipulation?
The Arab Spring of 2010-11 seemed like a wave of democracy. Tunisia transitioned peacefully. Egypt elected its first civilian president before a military coup restored dictatorship. Libya collapsed into militia rule, while Syria spiralled into civil war.
Western rhetoric celebrated “freedom.” But in practice, interventions often fuelled chaos. NATO’s “responsibility to protect” in Libya morphed into regime change. In Egypt, Western powers quietly endorsed the coup once the elected government proved unfriendly to their interests.
The outcome: fractured Arab states, weakened economies, and no collective ability to challenge Israel.
As one study summarised:
“The confrontation with Iran is not a narrow dispute over uranium enrichment. It is a proxy war engineered by Israel and the United States with a wider purpose – dismantling the revolutionary system in Tehran and re-engineering the Middle East in ways that permanently entrench Western and Israeli dominance.” (Eurasia Review)
Dictatorship When Convenient, Regime Change When Not
Another pattern runs through Western policy: dictators are tolerated when compliant, but removed when defiant.
- Hosni Mubarak ruled Egypt for 30 years with Western approval – until he wavered in 2011.
- Saddam Hussein was armed by the U.S. in the 1980s against Iran, only to be toppled in 2003.
- Gaddafi was rehabilitated briefly, then destroyed once he threatened Western financial interests.
The message is clear: compliance buys survival, independence invites regime change. Iran, by refusing to obey dictates, has become the inevitable target.
Iran – The Last Independent Holdout
Unlike neighbours, Iran’s revolutionary system has endured. Its alliances with Hezbollah, Hamas, and others make it the central pillar of resistance. This independence has marked Tehran as the enemy to isolate, sanction, and destabilise.
The E3 – Britain, France, Germany – are now threatening “snapback sanctions” at the UN if Iran does not comply by late August 2025 (Reuters). The legal language masks a political aim: pressuring Tehran until its system cracks.
The Shock of Retaliation – Israel Tastes Real War
Israel’s wars have historically been exported outward – into Gaza, Lebanon, Syria. Civilians inside Israel remained largely untouched. But Iranian retaliation in 2025 shattered this illusion. For the first time, Israelis faced widespread destruction on their own soil.
This was not only military but psychological. The aura of invincibility collapsed.
As Vox observed:
“Although Israel insists its strikes are meant only to block Iran’s nuclear ambitions, the broader pattern tells another story. The targets extend far beyond centrifuges – striking economic hubs, military depots, and symbolic institutions. That suggests the real aim is to weaken Iran’s state structure itself, a trajectory that looks less like non-proliferation and more like regime change.” (Vox)
This explains why Israel now lobbies harder than ever for Western escalation.
Why the West Keeps Backing Israel
Several overlapping motives sustain the alliance:
- Geopolitical leverage: Israel secures Western access to vital oil routes and chokepoints.
- Military utility: Israel provides intelligence, weapons testing, and innovation for NATO allies.
- Ideological affinity: Western leaders frame Israel as a “democracy among dictatorships,” invoking Holocaust memory to justify exceptionalism.
- Domestic lobbies: Groups like AIPAC in Washington or CRIF in Paris heavily shape policy.
- Institutional cover: U.S. Security Council vetoes have repeatedly protected Israel from international scrutiny.
The Persistent Regime-Change Agenda
The playbook is familiar: delegitimise, sanction, weaken, then topple. Libya and Iraq fell; Syria resisted only with Russian and Iranian backing.
Iran now faces the same design. The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists concluded bluntly:
“Israel is now at war with Iran. Seeks regime change.” (Bulletin)
The goal is not moderation, but replacement.
Conclusion – The Crisis of Sovereignty
Western governments cloak their actions in the language of non-proliferation and democracy. But history shows otherwise. Europe backs Israel partly to absolve Holocaust guilt, America shields it for strategic dominance, and together they engineer regime change whenever leaders disobey.
As The Guardian’s Nesrine Malik argued:
“Western governments speak the language of diplomacy, but their silence on Israel’s excesses betrays their role. The war against Iran is sustained not despite the West, but because of its tacit endorsement – a pattern where inaction functions as complicity.” (The Guardian)
Iran’s defiance thus symbolises more than its own sovereignty. It represents the last stand against a Western-Israeli order that tolerates dictators when convenient, destroys them when not, and justifies it all through the language of democracy and guilt.
The real tragedy is that the burden of these experiments is never borne in Washington, London, or Paris. It is borne in the shattered lives of ordinary Middle Eastern people.
