The US/Israel war against Iran, codenamed “Operation Epic Fury”, continues. Joint strikes, launched on February 28, have killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and key regime figures, and targeted nuclear sites, missile programmes, air defences and command structures.
More than 2,000 sorties have degraded Iranian capabilities, establishing air superiority. Iran has retaliated with missiles and drones hitting US bases in the Gulf, Israeli cities and even the US embassy in Dubai, while Hezbollah escalates from Lebanon. Tehran claims control of the Strait of Hormuz, effectively closed, halting oil flows, spiking global prices and rattling markets.
US President Donald Trump warns of weeks more fighting, with “harder hits” ahead, and has threatened to cut all trade with Spain after Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez refused base access and condemned the strikes as violations of international law. Trump dismissed British Prime Minister Keir Starmer as “no Winston Churchill” and rebuked French President Emmanuel Macron for prioritising legal norms over decisive action against what he calls the West’s greatest enemy.
How did the West fracture over confronting a regime long accused of sponsoring terrorism, proxy wars and domestic repression? The culprit is woke ideology — a neo-Marxist lens that casts conflicts as oppressor vs oppressed, often shielding adversaries while vilifying Western allies like Israel.
European leaders, steeped in this worldview, urge restraint and diplomacy even as Iran escalates. Macron, Starmer and others decry violations of international norms, while progressive elites frame the US/Israel campaign as aggressive imperialism.
This echoes post-October 7 2023 reactions, when some academics urged moderation towards the “oppressed” despite Iran’s role in regional bloodshed.
Daniel Jackobi, executive chair at South African Friends of Israel
By e-mail
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