Is Iran really an existential threat to Israel?
The dominant Western narrative portrays Iran as a looming existential threat to Israel.
This framing is not just misleading — it distracts from the deeper roots of regional instability. In truth, it is not Iran that poses a threat to Israel's survival, but rather Israel's own expansionist policies and its uncritical Western backing that threaten long-term peace in the Middle East.
To understand the current tensions, we must revisit history. The creation of Israel in 1948, following the horrors of the Holocaust, was not simply a humanitarian response. It was also a colonial project rooted in Zionism — a political ideology that sought to establish a Jewish state on land already inhabited by Arab Muslims and Christians. The result was mass displacement, the destruction of hundreds of villages and the forced exile of Palestinians, whose descendants remain stateless to this day.
Israel quickly evolved into a militarised and apartheid state. The 1967 war was a turning point, after which Israel occupied the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza and the Golan........
© The Express Tribune
