Open war between two worlds

Jimmy Carter's planes crashed in the Arabian deserts while attempting to rescue the 52 American hostages held in the U.S. Embassy in Tehran by the regime of Ayatollah Khomeini. It was a militarily and politically catastrophic expedition in the spring of 1980 that contributed to Carter's defeat in the November elections of that year.

The Islamic Revolution was the great geopolitical upheaval of the second half of the 20th century. The September 11, 2001, attacks in New York, the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria, and the rise of armed terrorist groups like Hezbollah and Hamas are all, in some ways, children of that revolution, which represented a frontal and hostile challenge to everything the West stands for.

It was President Trump, swept away by Netanyahu's impetuosity and haste, who directly attacked Iran in a long-planned operation that demonstrated the military superiority of the world's leading power. Israel had long sought to destroy Iran's nuclear potential. It decided to attack the Koranic regime in Tehran, but discovered that Israel's Iron Dome was not impenetrable. Two weeks of drone and missile exchanges in Iranian territory were followed by Tehran attacks that hit Israeli civilian targets.

All wars begin with euphoria and certainty of victory, but once declared, they are beyond the control of the warring parties. Any unforeseen event can disrupt the original plans of the joint chiefs of staff. Trump argued that the threat of force could force the Iranians to negotiate their nuclear neutrality.

It is a fierce struggle between two cultures, two traditions and two opposing ways of life.

Seeing that the rain of missiles and bombs continued to cover Israel and Iran, he decided to enter the war directly. He broke one of his many campaign promises and today he not only proclaimed the supposed destruction of the centers where they are trying to obtain the atomic bomb, but he went much further, insinuating that he could be bringing about the fall of the Tehran regime.

Israel has been at war since Hamas invaded its territory on October 7, 2023, killing more than 1,200 Jews, the largest massacre suffered by Israel since the founding of the state in 1948. The reaction has been disproportionate and disregards the unwritten but humanitarian laws of all wars.

With Donald Trump's approval, it has killed more than fifty thousand Gazans, displaced them up and down the country, bombed Lebanon and destroyed Hezbollah's infrastructure, and has now taken over Iranian airspace, which lacks the logistical capacity to neutralize Israeli attacks, supported since Sunday by sophisticated and effective US air forces, flanked by bases in the area and by a fleet of ships and submarines, in some cases equipped with long-range nuclear weapons.

Israel is the only country in the region with an atomic bomb, and Iran is in the process of obtaining one. The war is not only nuclear but also has a very powerful ideological component. It is a struggle between two cultures, two traditions, and two ways of life. It is an all-out war that will necessarily end at the negotiating table, following very uncertain scenarios. It could be very long.

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It's a fight for land and identity. Former President Joe Biden recalled in Tel Aviv in 2023 a conversation he had with Golda Meir when he was a senator: "We don't worry, we Israelis have a secret weapon: we have nowhere to go." Nor do the Palestinians, who can't even leave Gaza.

Alexander Herzen, founder of modern Zionism, said that slaves had no history, only geography, the opposite of Jews, who had too much history and too little geography. It is unwise to make predictions, but this war will once again change the political map of the region. And neither Israel nor the West will achieve peace through force alone. Demography is the secret weapon of the Islamic world, which is radically anti-Western.