As Iran launches attacks against Israel, the world is once again confronted with a truth that many have chosen to ignore for too long: The Islamic Republic of Iran is not just a regional menace but a global threat.
This is not a sudden escalation. It is the culmination of decades of deliberate, well-funded aggression carried out by a regime that has openly vowed to annihilate Israel, wipe Jews off the map, destroy the United States and dismantle Western democracy from within.
Iran has invested heavily—not only in uranium and missile technology, but in terror networks that span continents. Through its proxies and allies, including Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, its leaders have exported a campaign of violence aimed squarely at civilians and democratic institutions. Their fingerprints can be found on bombings, assassinations, cyberattacks and propaganda that work to destabilize governments and threaten the notion of human freedom.
What makes this moment particularly dangerous is the silence. The carefully worded condemnations. The equivocating statements. The cowardice of leaders in the West, who worry more about managing optics than confronting the moral imperative of stopping tyranny. Media that puts blame on Israel for fighting Iran, even though the war with Iran has been ever constant, with Iran targeting and threatening Israel for years.
Yes, Israel has struck back. And it had to. This is not about vengeance. It is about survival.
Too often, especially since the Hamas-led atrocities of Oct. 7, 2023, Western nations have stood by as Israel has been vilified for doing what any sovereign nation must do when faced with an existential threat. Leaders in places like the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany understand, privately, the stakes at hand. Israel’s actions are not reckless; they are strategic. They are necessary. They are what a democratic nation must do to protect its citizens from a genocidal regime actively plotting its destruction.
Understanding of Middle Eastern affairs reveals the duplicity of many Arab governments. Behind closed doors, some of these regimes hope Israel succeeds where they have failed: in halting Iran’s relentless march toward nuclear capability and Islamist expansionism. These same governments have long viewed Iran as the greatest destabilizing force in the region. Some even whisper hopes for regime collapse. But publicly, they condemn Israel—not out of principle, but out of fear of Iranian retaliation and domestic unrest.
As someone who has spent my life advocating for Jewish and LGBTQ+ rights, I have seen the influence of Iran, Qatar, the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, ISIS (the Islamic State) and other groups infiltrate human-rights and civil-rights movements in the West—not with compassion, but with coercion. They manipulate progressive values of inclusion, justice and equality, weaponizing them to spread Islamist ideology under the guise of solidarity. They embed their disinformation in the very movements that once stood for universal human dignity.
I have been warning about this for years. I have witnessed how anti-Israel, anti-Zionist and antisemitic rhetoric—funded, funneled and fueled by Iran’s proxies—has poisoned academic institutions, social-justice circles, media narratives and even government policy. And now, as Iran unleashes missiles toward my people, we are all paying the price for that inaction, that naiveté, that refusal to confront evil because it cloaked itself in the language of liberation.
This is not just Israel’s war. This is a battle for the soul of civilization. Iran’s ambitions are not confined to Jerusalem or Tel Aviv; they extend to New York, London, Berlin, Paris and major cities worldwide. To every free society. To every open culture that values individual rights, the freedom of belief and the dignity of every human being.
We continue to see the Islamist movement terrorizing the West in public spaces, public gatherings, businesses, houses of worship and on college campuses—riots, protests, demonstrations and actual terrorism targeting Jews, Israelis and their allies, and targeting other elements of society forcing them to stop and follow the Palestinian and Islamist intifada.
We are witnessing a pandemic of Islamism. Not Islam, not Muslims, but Islamism—the radical, theocratic fundamentalist movement spreading the Caliphate of Islamic Law. It is an aggressive, political movement cloaked in religion that seeks to dominate, subjugate and destroy. And the world must stop pretending that dialogue will defeat it. It will not. Only truth, courage and decisive action will.
To my fellow activists, human-rights advocates and leaders of conscience: This is the moment to stand up and speak out. This is the moment to name the threat. This is the moment to stop sacrificing truth for comfort and confrontation for convenience.
Because the missiles flying toward Israel tonight are not just aimed at Jews. They are aimed at all of us.