Israel is confronting the most dangerous terror-driven radicals in the Middle East yet, the West screams, “Hands off” …

Here’s the thing about war: it isn’t black and white.

As someone who grew up in sunny and safe California, in the United States, as the child of immigrants – I understand living in peace.

My parents left their country because of civil unrest. They left because they wanted to raise a family somewhere peaceful – somewhere without existential threat, somewhere full of opportunity.

When you grow up in that kind of safety, you don’t feel it as privilege. You just think it’s normal. That’s how I felt. For most of my life, I believed harsh topics like war were simple – war is wrong, peace is right.

So part of me understands why so many in the west are blind to the realities outside their bubble of privilege and freedom.

But I grew up and I see things differently now.

Not only did I immigrate to the region of topic but I work within the topic – diplomacy. The conversations that happen before the decision is made. The community building. The shaking of new hands. The negotiations. The calculations. The attempts to prevent escalation.

And after October 7th, and the war between Israel and the IRGC and its proxies over the last three years, something became clear to me:

Peace is the privilege.

It’s unfortunate. But history reflects it. Our textbooks are filled with wars. Our societies are structured around the aftermath of them. In North America and Europe, people may forget this because they live in relative stability. People immigrate there precisely because their neighbors are peaceful and their systems function.

But that is not the global norm.

Now it’s 2026. Yesterday, February 28, 2026, the United States and Israel launched a calculated joint strike against the Iranian regime – a regime that in January massacred tens of thousands of innocent civilians protesting for their freedom. The world was silent. The world had the information at its fingertips and did not act decisively. The regime faced no force or backlash or even UN criticism.

So why would it ever stop?

If the regime’s stated and demonstrated goal is to eliminate Israel, confront America, and weaken the West in pursuit of an Islamist revolutionary vision – why would it ever voluntarily restrain itself? Quick answer and 47 years of evidence: it won’t.

Yesterday, on the first day of this operation, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed. The man many Iranians dreamed would fall so they could one day dance in the streets again. The leader under whose rule women were beaten or raped for showing their hair. The leader under whose regime freedom of expression meant imprisonment, torture, and execution. The leader whose government funded and armed proxies that destabilized Lebanon, Gaza, Yemen, and the Middle East at large. The leader who presided over terror campaigns that pushed the region backward instead of forward.

To Americans, this may feel distant. Complicated. “Nuanced.” Perhaps even unnecessary. But think beyond your borders. Think about your future children and grandchildren. They will not inherit the same stability we did if expansionist radicalism is allowed to grow unchecked. Geography no longer protects anyone whilst technological warfare runs rampant.

This is not Israel’s problem alone. I said this on October 8th, 2023 and I’ll say it again – This is a global problem. OUR problem.

The world has no place for jihadist extremism or theocratic radicalism that erases pluralism, democracy, and basic human rights.

The longer we refuse to confront it, the more we drift toward a world shaped by intimidation and soft-power coercion under radical regimes that reject the progressive values so many in the West claim to defend.

If you are sitting at home in the West shouting “Hands off Iran,” I ask you to pause. Listen to Iranian voices. Set aside reflexive guilt or herd mentality and critically examine what the regime has done.

War is not simple. But sometimes it becomes necessary.

I dream of boarding a plane to Tehran as an American-Israeli Jew.

I dream of my children visiting a free Tehran.

I dream of Israel and Iran rebuilding the trade, cultural exchange, and friendship that once existed.

I dream of Persian Jewish families walking openly through the streets where their grandparents once lived.

I dream of a day when Israelis no longer run to bomb shelters – when shelters become storage rooms because they are no longer needed.

Until that day comes, I trust our governments to act decisively against regimes that promote terror and suppress their own people. I hope others will one day understand but even if they don’t, it’s not our problem. Israel’s problem is to protect its citizens, Jews and Arabs alike, protect the region, and protect western democratic values.

We don’t have to prove ourselves – our actions over the last few years clearly depict our goal – wipe the Middle East clean of radical terror proprietors and get one step closer to quiet.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)