{"id":8205,"date":"2026-03-13T12:07:53","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T11:07:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fokusisrael.ch\/nicht-kategorisiert\/the-war-in-iran-as-another-test-case-for-europe\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T12:13:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T11:13:22","slug":"the-war-in-iran-as-another-test-case-for-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fokusisrael.ch\/en\/news-en\/the-war-in-iran-as-another-test-case-for-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"The war in Iran as – another – test case for Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Sacha Wigdorovits i<\/a><\/p>\n\n

\n

To summarize:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  • The mullah regime in Iran is made up of religious fanatics who will stop at nothing – not even the destruction of their own people.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Their long-term goal is to destroy liberal Western societies and democracies in order to establish totalitarian dictatorships based on fundamental Islamic law.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Nevertheless, a large part of the West, especially the European elite, is reluctant or even opposed to the US and Israeli war against the mullahs.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • The reasons for this are: Skepticism as to whether it will be possible to overthrow the regime in Iran, short-sighted economic and financial egoism, a misplaced understanding of the law, hatred of America and Israel, na\u00efve wishful thinking and the decadence of Western society.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • These are poor conditions for the survival of our liberal democratic order and Western civilization in Europe.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

    The mullahs in Tehran are under pressure not only because of growing opposition in their own country, but also because the USA and Israel have been using massive military means to overthrow them for the past two weeks.<\/p>\n\n

    The two allies are not doing this primarily for the sake of the oppressed Iranian population. They are doing it primarily because of the danger posed by the Iranian regime to Israel and the rest of the Western world. The Islamo-fascist theocrats in Tehran are not only committed to the destruction of the Jewish state. Their ultimate goal is to undermine our free and democratic social order in order to extend their rule, which is based on Islamic law, to us in the West – especially Europe. <\/p>\n\n

    The danger posed by Iran is not a pipe dream<\/h2>\n\n

    This is neither a fantasy nor an obscure conspiracy theory, but a real danger that has been proven in many respects. It can be seen in the highly enriched uranium in Iran’s nuclear facilities, which is intended for the production of nuclear weapons. It manifests itself in the development of Muslim parallel societies in countries such as France and England, which is supported by Iran – and Qatar. It manifests itself in the chants of “Sharia, Sharia” at the Islamist Palestine demonstrations in Germany. It is expressed in the messages of hate that are also spread in certain Swiss mosques. It becomes clear in the examples of those radical Muslim parents who forbid their children to take part in swimming lessons in our schools or to shake hands with the teacher when greeting them. <\/p>\n\n

    Removing a regime from power that has set itself the goal of such developments – as the Iranian regime has done – is in the interests of us all. Nevertheless, a large part of the West rejects the attempt by the USA and Israel to remove this regime from power by military means. Why? <\/p>\n\n

    One of the most important reasons is undoubtedly the skepticism as to whether air strikes alone will succeed in toppling the mullahs or leveling the playing field in such a way that the internal Iranian opposition has a real chance of doing so. This is because previous attempts by the Iranians to bring about regime change – without outside help – have failed due to the willingness of the mullahs and their henchmen in the army and Revolutionary Guards to use violence. <\/p>\n\n

    Israel and the USA have achieved some notable successes in their war against Iran in the first two weeks of the war. These include, in particular, the targeted killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other key Iranian leaders, the destruction of a considerable part of the missile arsenal and the missile launchers of the army and Revolutionary Guards as well as the further weakening of Iran’s nuclear program. Nevertheless, skepticism remains justified as to whether the Iranian opposition will succeed in toppling the hated regime this time thanks to these external military actions. <\/p>\n\n

    Mullahs benefit from the West’s lack of political understanding<\/h2>\n\n

    But this is not the only reason why large circles in the West oppose the war against the Islamo-fascist regime in Tehran. Economic fears also play a role: the fear that oil exports from the Arab region, which are important for the Western economy, will be jeopardized by the war. In other words, that the war against Iran, which has been extended to the neighboring Gulf states, could lead to a recession in our country. <\/p>\n\n

    These fears cannot be dismissed out of hand either. But they are of secondary importance when weighing up the long-term dangers that we in the West are exposed to if the regime in Tehran remains in power. They are the price we have to pay for Americans and Israelis trying to overthrow a fanatical theocratic dictatorship that threatens not only our economy in the medium and long term, but our entire Western way of life. <\/p>\n\n

    Against this background, the objection that the current war violates international law is also incomprehensible. The same objection was already raised during Israel’s 12-day war against Iran in June 2025. At the time, certain – but not all – international law experts argued that Israel should not have attacked Iran. After all, an Iranian nuclear attack on Israel was not imminent. Therefore, Israel’s attack could not be considered a “pre-emptive strike” under international law. <\/p>\n\n

    This argument is just as wrong today as it was nine months ago. On the one hand, it illustrates the lack of political and historical understanding of many experts in international law. For Iran’s war against Israel – and not the other way around – began back in 1979, when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, barely in power, declared the destruction of Israel to be Iran’s raison d’\u00eatre. Since then, Iran has consistently pursued this goal by founding, training and providing financial and military support to terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis. <\/p>\n\n

    On the other hand, the justification that Israel was not entitled to a pre-emptive strike showed how absurd and useless international law has become in its traditional form. After all, who can demand that a country wait until its imminent total annihilation instead of defending itself against it in good time? This (rhetorical) question has not changed to this day. That is why objections under international law to the current war in Iran are just as misplaced as they were in June last year. <\/p>\n\n

    The regime in Tehran benefits from left-wing hatred of Israel and the USA<\/h2>\n\n

    In some ways, those Western circles that reject the current military strike against the mullahs are more honest because they hate the USA and Israel. And in particular American President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. For these opponents of the war, the behavior of the American and Jewish states is further proof of their capitalist-colonial and therefore criminal power behavior – and of another Jewish world conspiracy. <\/p>\n\n

    The fact that there is hardly a country in the world where the government behaves in such a colonialist, inhuman and criminal manner as in Iran is deliberately ignored by these – mostly left-wing – circles. Just as they always do when it comes to America or Israel. <\/p>\n\n

    Moreover, all those who accuse the USA and Israel of “colonialist Western posturing” in their fight against the rulers in Iran are ignoring this: Iran’s Muslim neighbors also have a massive interest in defeating the regime in Tehran. After all, they too have been the target of Iranian missile attacks, even though they did not participate in or support the US and Israeli attacks. This shows that The overthrow of the mullahs is no longer a purely Western project, but also a question of survival for the entire Arab world. <\/p>\n\n

    Nevertheless, the America- and Israel-haters receive support from all those who underestimate the religious fanatics of the Iranian government. This group is the most dangerous among the opponents of war in the West, because it is the largest. Not only is it na\u00efve, but it fails to recognize that freedom is not a God-given right, but must be fought for and defended – and that civilizations disappear when they become too decadent to continue doing so. <\/p>\n\n

    What is the defense of our Western way of life worth to us?<\/h2>\n\n

    Our behavior in the war against the unjust regime in Iran is therefore – just like our behavior in Ukraine’s war against Russia – an indicator of the state of our society. Are we prepared to make sacrifices to preserve our Western values, our way of life and our democratic institutions and, if necessary, to defend them by force of arms? Or are we now too naive, too indifferent, too comfortable and too cowardly to do so? <\/p>\n\n

    I don’t want to paint the devil on the wall, but I tend to think the latter. I increasingly lack the belief that civil society, politics and higher education institutions in Europe, which should be our cadres, have the will and the strength to defend our liberal democratic structures and thus our civilization. <\/p>\n\n

    \n\n

    Sacha Wigdorovits is President of the Fokus Israel und Nahost association, which runs the website fokusisrael.ch. He studied history, German and social psychology at the University of Zurich and has worked as a US correspondent for the SonntagsZeitung, was editor-in-chief of BLICK and co-founder of the commuter newspaper 20minuten. <\/p>\n\n

    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    By Sacha Wigdorovits i To summarize: The mullahs in Tehran are under pressure not only because of growing opposition in their own country, but also because the USA and Israel have been using massive military means to overthrow them for the past two weeks. The two allies are not doing this primarily for the sake […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3427,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_socialbar":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[823],"tags":[910,668,654,1117,1091,673],"class_list":["post-8205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en","tag-europe","tag-iran-en","tag-israel-en","tag-krieg","tag-own-analyses","tag-usa-en"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fokusisrael.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fokusisrael.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fokusisrael.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fokusisrael.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fokusisrael.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8205"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/fokusisrael.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8217,"href":"https:\/\/fokusisrael.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8205\/revisions\/8217"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fokusisrael.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fokusisrael.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fokusisrael.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fokusisrael.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}