The West Must Act against the Iran's Growing Hostility in the Middle East

Iran is directly attacking Israel and the West must not accept it. The cross-border confrontation between Israel and Iran on February 10 is undeniable evidence of the real intentions of the Ayatollahs’ regime to dominate the Middle East and destroy Israel.

Iran’s first direct and open aggression against Israel also constitutes a strong sign of the hegemonic position that Iran has gained in the region during these last years — with the West’s acquiescence. Iran is now controlling most of the region, thus now it is targeting those actors able to counter its expansionist agenda.

To destroy Israel has been the main obsession of the Iranian regime leaders since 1979. However, other Western allies, such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt, live also under the Iran’s threat.

Nowadays, we can see —as aforementioned, with the West’s acquiescence— the emergence of an Iranian-led Shia crescent going from Tehran to Beirut via Sana'a, Baghdad and Damascus. Iran seeks to control the Middle East and it is succeeding. In this strategic plan, the annihilation of the Jewish State is central as one of the top goals. The West has allowed Iran to erect this Shia crescent that not only threatens Israel’s existence, but also endangers the stability of the Middle East and the security of the world.

The last attack shows that Iran is taking a qualitative leap in its hostility against Israel and Iran will likely keep the pressure on and even escalate if nothing is done to prevent it.

Iranian regime’s evil intentions have never been a secret. On February 12, two days after the clash at Israel’s northern border, the regime celebrated in a big way the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution on Tehran’s streets and the crowd chanted again “Death to America” and “Death to Israel”.

Iran has been using for years its proxy Hizballah to harass Israel. The Shia terrorist organization, is Iran’s spearhead in Lebanon, where it controls the politics in Beirut, and in Syria, where they have supported and propped up dictator and mass-murderer Bashir al-Assad, who has been in power since the beginning of the civil war in 2011. A third Lebanon War could break out any time, as the High Level Military Group has warned in its report Hizballah’s Terror Army: How to Prevent a Third Lebanon War. Nonetheless, it is still preventable.

The West should implement the correct measures to curb Iran’s expansionism in the Middle East and to stop Hizballah’s activities in Lebanon, Syria, and beyond. For these purposes, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Actionmust be fixed and Hizballah must be completely blacklisted. Both issues require that Europeans get on board and they actually should.

Time is running out. Iran is directly violating the State of Israel’s sovereignty and forcing cross-border clashes in Syria. The West has been constantly warned about this danger; yet nothing out of the ordinary has been done to deter Iran’s intentions. On the contrary, the West has appeased Iran and lifted sanctions.

A fake fix for the nuclear deal, or a bad decision on Hizballah, both just pave the way to one more Iranian aggression against Israel.

Iran is directly attacking and harassing Israel from Syria and Lebanon. We cannot repeat often enough that a liberal, Western-like democracy has been attacked by a theocratic dictatorship that violates human rights and promotes international terrorism. The West must act now. The best way to defend the West is to defend Israel, as the Friends of Israel Initiative has always claimed. The latest Iranian attack on Israeli soil should trigger a quick response of the West, because Western security is also at stake.