A.M.M.MUZAMMIL
COLOMBO : Israel has, metaphorically speaking, often operated as a de facto 51st state—exerting a level of global influence far disproportionate to its size. Since its founding, successive American administrations have funneled billions of taxpayer dollars into heavily arming the country, fueling its expansive ambitions on the world stage.
The United States allocates $3.8 billion in annual foreign aid to Israel, in addition to $500 million earmarked each year for Israeli and joint U.S.-Israeli missile defense initiatives.
In stark contrast, the United States has levied stringent economic sanctions—including a comprehensive oil embargo—against Iran in an effort to stifle its economic growth. Yet, despite these punitive measures, Iran has defiantly pursued a path of self-reliance, cultivating the capability to produce everything domestically, even advanced hypersonic missiles, as a testament to its resilience and technological prowess.
Bolstered by the vast military arsenal of the United States and shielded by its UN veto power, Israel has assumed a dominant posture in the Middle East—embracing a doctrine of preemptive strikes to systematically dismantle regional adversaries under the guise of self-defense.
Israel, which has long regarded Iran as an existential threat, launched an unprovoked strike on June 12 aimed at crippling the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program and destabilizing its leadership. The operation, which involved over 200 fighter jets, targeted more than 100 nuclear and military facilities, along with residential areas, resulting in the deaths of dozens of high-ranking military officials and nuclear scientists.
Tragically, the assault also claimed the lives of over 1000 civilians, including women and children, while leaving nearly 4,750 injured. This unprecedented escalation reflects Israel’s hardened strategy of preemptive action—not only to halt Iran’s nuclear ambitions but to fracture the regime’s grip through sheer force.”
In a calculated act of retaliation, Iran unleashed an unprecedented aerial assault, inundating Israeli airspace with hundreds of Drones, ballistic missiles, swarms of cruise missiles, and cutting-edge hypersonic projectiles. The precision strikes targeted strategic sites across Israel’s urban landscape, with Tel Aviv and Haifa bearing the brunt of the devastation.
The unprecedented scale of Iran’s blitz overwhelmed Israel’s air defenses, exposing critical flaws in the once-heralded Iron Dome system. Beyond the tangible destruction, the psychological blow struck even deeper—shattering the carefully cultivated myth of Israeli invulnerability. In marketing terms, the brand of impenetrability crumbled under the weight of reality.
In a bid to protect its client state, the United States intervened militarily on June 22, launching bunker-buster strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities at Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan. Yet the actual damage inflicted fell far short of the catastrophic impact Washington had anticipated or proclaimed.
A tenuous ceasefire, brokered by the U.S. on June 24, came just hours after Iran retaliated with missile strikes on America’s largest Middle Eastern airbase in Qatar. By then, Israel—overwhelmed by the ferocity of Iran’s missile barrage and unable to prevent widespread destruction—had already implored Washington to secure a truce. When the aggressor pleads for a ceasefire, it is, in essence, an admission of defeat.
Israel routinely portrays Iran as an “existential threat,” yet Tehran has never launched an invasion against another sovereign state—a stark contrast to Israel’s own record of repeatedly violating the territorial integrity of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq without consequence.
On June 7, 1981, Israel obliterated Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor using U.S.-supplied fighter jets, and in 2007, it unilaterally bombed a Syrian reactor under construction—both brazen acts of aggression justified under the pretext of “self-defense.”
How, then, does Israel reconcile its flagrant disregard for sovereignty while the West looks the other way? Are Western powers truly oblivious—or merely feigning sleep as Israel enforces its own law of the jungle?
Meanwhile, the nuclear double standard persists. Israel maintains an estimated 200 warheads outside the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), with facilities at Dimona, Eilabun, and the Negev Research Center operating free from international oversight. Iran, by contrast, remains a committed NPT signatory with no proven nuclear weapons program—a fact corroborated by the IAEA.
Why is Iran denied the very capabilities that Israel is allowed to possess without constraint? Why does the world obsess over Tehran’s hypothetical ambitions while turning a blind eye to Jerusalem’s tangible arsenal?
The answer lies not in reason, but in power—and in the West’s complicity in shielding its ally from accountability. One law for the aggressor, another for the defiant. Such is the order of today’s world.
Does Iran not possess the inherent right to self-defense under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, which affirms the right of sovereign states to protect their territorial integrity in the event of an armed attack?
The recent 12-day war has irrevocably shifted the geopolitical landscape in Iran’s favor. Blinded by arrogance, Israel believed it could crush Iranian resistance through sheer aerial dominance, launching its campaign under the audacious codename Operation Rising Lion. Yet in a cruel twist, the ‘Rising Lion’ became a helpless mouse—broken by the very nation it sought to destroy.
Not only did Israel fail in its primary objectives—neither neutralizing Iran’s nuclear program nor inciting enough internal chaos to topple the regime—but its aggression backfired spectacularly. Far from fracturing under pressure, Iranians rallied behind their government with unprecedented unity, exposing Israel’s grave miscalculation of Tehran’s resilience.
Israel’s illusion of invincibility has been shattered, and the balance of power has been recalibrated.
