Two terrorist countries, Iran and Israel, are playing the “your mother is a whore” game (مادر جنده). Iran doesn’t recognize Israel’s right to existence, and Israel doesn’t recognize Iran’s right to develop nuclear technology.

Macron has forgotten his repulsion towards the massacre in Gaza and is friends again with Bibi, the ICC-indicted mass murderer.

But despite the fact that many Arab states have normalized their relations with Israel (Egypt in 1979, Jordan in 1994, some others through the 2020 Abraham Accords 2020: UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, Morocco), or at least they have pragmatic relations with it (Saudi Arabia), the population thinks otherwise.

According to the Arab Opinion Index 2022, an overwhelming majority of respondents (84%) disapprove of their countries’ recognition of Israel! Given the current situation in Gaza, the real figure today must be much higher. But how much higher can it go, as long as there isn’t much left between 84% and 100%?

Beyond the Arab countries, other Muslim ones don’t eye Israel favorably. There are no reliable figures for Iran. But 93% of Turks have a negative opinion of Israel (Pew, 2025). Other Muslim countries feel the same: 80% in Indonesia, 74% in Bangladesh (a country that doesn’t recognize Israel), and probably 80-90% in Malaysia (another country not recognizing Israel).

For fuck’s sake, the 2025 Pew survey found negative views of Israel even in the collective West! 79% in Japan, 78% in the Netherlands, 75% in Spain and Sweden, 74% in Australia, 72% in Greece, 66% in Italy, 64% in Germany, 63% in France, 62% in Poland, 61% in the UK.

When you are a country founded in 1948, and you manage to have billions of people who disapprove of your existence or hold unfavorable views toward it, that’s quite a feat.

Israel is the land of love. Not.

But we have to support Israel, because the law requires us to do so. Even if you’re a Jew, you cannot criticize Israel, or else you’re considered antisemitic.

Oh, wait! Oh, my, China is antisemitic! “China supports Iran in safeguarding its national sovereignty, defending its legitimate rights and interests, and ensuring the safety of its people, [Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi] said.” (China Daily, Xinhua)

Selective timeline of the Iran-Israel conflict:

  • 1979: Following the Islamic Revolution, Iran ceased to recognize the state of Israel.
  • 1982: Israel invades Lebanon (“Operation Peace for Galilee”) to crush the Palestine Liberation Organization, at the time considered terrorist. In reaction, Hezbollah is born, with support from Iran.
  • … (fast-forward, and ignoring Hezbollah, Hamas, and the like) …
  • Israel is suspected to have sabotaged the nuclear program of Iran, especially the Natanz nuclear facility, from the Stuxnet virus in 2010 to the explosions from July 2020 and April 2021, and to have assassinated several scientists, including Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in November 2020.
  • Various attacks from inside Iran on military facilities have been attributed to Israel, such as in February 2022 in Kermanshah, or on January 29, 2023, in Isfahan. Suspicious explosions have been attributed to Israel, including the June 26, 2020, explosion in Parchin.
  • April 1, 2024: Israel attacks the Iranian consulate in Damascus, killing several officials, including Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior figure in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
  • April 13, 2024: In response, Iran sends 300 drones and missiles towards Israel (“Operation True Promise”), with very little effect, as the US, Britain, France, and Jordan have helped to intercept them.
  • July 31, 2024: Ismail Haniyeh, political leader of Hamas, was killed in Tehran in a secure house belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps by an explosive device planted by Israel.
  • September 27, 2024: Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, and other senior Hezbollah commanders, as well as IRGC Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan, were killed in an Israeli airstrike (“Operation New Order”) targeting Hezbollah’s headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon.
  • October 1, 2024: Iran attacks Israel (“Operation True Promise II”) with 200 ballistic missiles, in retaliation for the assassinations of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, and IRGC general Abbas Nilforoushan.
  • October 26, 2024: Israel attacks Iran (“Operation Days of Repentance”) with over 100 aircraft, targeting military sites across Iran.
  • June 13, 2025: Israel attacks Iran (“Operation Rising Lion”), targeting nuclear facilities (Natanz, Fordow, Isfahan, Khondab, Khorramabad) and military infrastructure, including IRGC bases and missile launchers. The operation killed senior IRGC commanders, including Hossein Salami (IRGC chief) and Mohammad Bagheri (Chief of Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces), as well as nuclear scientists like Fereydoon Abbasi and Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi.
  • June 13, 2025: Iran fights back (“Operation Severe Punishment”) with over 100 drones and dozens of ballistic missiles, most of them being intercepted.
  • June 14-15: Both parties continue the fight, with Iran launching additional waves of over 270 ballistic missiles and drones, causing 13 deaths and over 370 injuries in Israel, with damage to Tel Aviv, Haifa. Israel conducted further airstrikes on Iranian oil refineries (Asaluyeh) and military sites. Iran confirmed that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ intelligence chief, Mohammad Kazemi, and his deputy Hassan Mohaqiq were killed in an Israeli strike on June 15.

Israel justified the June 13 attack as a preemptive strike against Iran’s nuclear threat. The concept of a “preemptive attack” or “preemptive war” is in Israel’s doctrine (since the 1967 Six-Day War), in the so-called Bush doctrine (the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq was justified as a preemptive war to eliminate Saddam Hussein’s alleged WMD, which did not exist), in Putin’s doctrine (the invasion of Ukraine), and previously in Hitler’s doctrine. However, such a doctrine has also been used when Britain and the USSR invaded Iran in 1941 to prevent it from aligning with Nazi Germany.

Preemptive wars go against the principles of the UN Charter, which allows self-defense only against an “armed attack” or imminent threat. Determining “imminence” is highly subjective.

Who are the US and Israel to decide who can, and who cannot, have advanced nuclear technology?