By unleashing a terrorist war in the Middle East and targeting the Israeli homeland, Iran may wake up soon and learn Israel, or America, or both might retaliate for a half-century of its terrorist aggression — and mostly to the indifference or even the delight of most of the world.
Victor Davis Hanson (Hoover Institution)
After Israel was attacked by Hamas on October 7 and Iran on April 13 – and their supportive crazies raised hell in the US – I’ve concluded aggrieved Muslims are their own worst enemy. A growing terrorist resume and shrinking list of western allies prove their means aren’t achieving their ends. Take the Six-Day War in 1967: it killed many, cost Jordan the West Bank and Egypt the Gaza Strip, and started Israel on full scale production of nuclear weapons.
Arab Muslims say Jews in Palestine are the root cause of the bloodshed. Like in 1972, when Palestine’s Black September killed 11 Israeli Olympic athletes and coaches in Munich. Or 1973, when Egypt and Syria attacked Israel on Yom Kippur (and lost). Or 1982, when Palestinians attacked Israel from Lebanon (and lost). Or after the 1993 Oslo Accords gave Palestinians Gaza and the West Bank, and still Israelis were attacked (reaching a bloody crescendo on 10-7).
History suggests Arabic tribalism and Islamic sectarianism – not Jews – are to blame. The Middle East has hosted no fewer than 103 coups, uprisings, and wars since 1902, when the 30-year Saudi Unification Wars began. US media focus on 73,000 deaths from the Arab-Israeli Conflict (1948-), but 477,000 Yemenis died in two civil wars, 503,000 Syrians died in one civil war, and 1,000,000 non-Jews died in the Iran-Iraq war (source: BBC). This is why George Marshall begged President Truman not to put the Jewish homeland in the Middle East.
Aggrieved Muslims have no right to make miserable a world they can’t make right. Iranians didn’t like the Shah, so they empowered war-mongering Ayatollahs. Saudi royals paid terrorists to stay in power. Lebanon’s civil war left Hizbullah in control. Other than oil, terrorism is the region’s greatest export. Sadly, this has made Islam synonymous with terrorism; a burden on millions of peaceful Muslims, but a constant reality nonetheless.
Airports were easily rushed through until attacks by Arab Muslims on western airlines in 1969, 1970, and 1973 resulted in the US Air Transportation Security Act of 1974. Then, after 9-11, all air travel included a 30-minute TSA security lollygag. Multiply that times every business traveler in the world to grasp the global cost of terrorism – and why the EU and US spend trillions fighting the War On Terror – and what does the world get in return?
Name one Arab aerospace, auto, electronics, or pharmaceutical brand. Even as the world’s go-to source for oil, Saudi GDP of $1.1 trillion (Islam’s largest) is $557 billion smaller than South Korea’s and $303 billion smaller than Mexico’s (source: World Bank). Pitiful, when all three had GDP parity in 1972. The Palestinian state’s measly $19.1 billion GDP is less than the GDP of America’s 50th ranked city. Except for Israel, the region’s economy is an anachronism.
So, terror’s the game and Iran’s to blame: Tehran calls the tune for Hamas in Gaza, Hizbullah in Lebanon, Houthis in Yemen, and the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, triggering attacks on Israel, ships at sea, and US military outposts. Iraqi paramilitaries alone have launched over 170 attacks against American bases in Iraq and Syria, which Tehran celebrates at home while shrilly denying involvement in the UN.
Biden’s mixed signals invited Iran to recklessly attack Israel with 30 cruise missiles, 120 ballistic missiles, and 120 drones last week. After which Iran’s U.N. Mission said Tehran considered the matter “concluded” in a statement posted on Twitter X. Name a war that concluded on a surprise air attack. Not for Japan after Pearl Harbor or Al Qaeda after 9-11. Turns out the Theocracy is an Idiocracy, because Israel bombed Iranian targets (without detection) Friday morning.
The idiots in Tehran claimed its air attack was in “response” to Israel “illegally” bombing an Iranian “consulate” in Syria, when Ayatollah-run Iran has not honored diplomatic sanctuary since 1980 (the armed takeover of the US embassy in Tehran). Iran’s surrogates have since bombed US and Israeli consulates non-stop, most recently in 2023 with an attack on the US embassy in Baghdad.
Even “woke” NPR reported US intelligence knew the Syrian “consulate” was actually a planning center for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. The reality on the ground is that Iran is a despotic enemy that denies its own citizens basic rights, sponsors global antisemitism, and operates an anti-American terrorist network. Meanwhile, the reality in the White House is to provide cover for openly anti-Semitic students in exchange for their vote, and hope Iran’s “Death to America” test missiles don’t become operational until after Election Day.
Nice try, Joe, but voters will remember that Iran and its proxies were comparatively angelic with Trump in the White House. The very thing RINOs hate about Trump – his lack of politesse – is what Arab monocrats respect: a blunt instrument defending America and its interests. We all know it’s undiplomatic, but Trump using “sh*thole” is soft diplomacy for the ears of the tyrants in Gaza, Iran, Lebanon, and Syria (he knows a failed state when he sees one).