'Peace is a fantasy when faced with a war machine addicted to dominance'
Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men inspect the damage at the site of an Iranian missile strike in Bnei Brak, east of Tel Aviv, on June 16, 2025. Iran unleashed a barrage of missile strikes on Israeli cities early on June 16, after Israel struck military targets deep inside Iran, with both sides threatening further devastation.
Image: JOHN WESSELS / AFP)
Dr. Reneva Fourie
Israel has gone completely rogue, making it the greatest threat to world peace. Having all but obliterated Gaza, it is now turning its aggression towards the Islamic Republic of Iran. Iran is defiantly responding with its Iron Dome penetrating Fattah-1 hypersonic missiles.
Defiance is a characteristic of most in West Asia. Its people have paid dearly for daring to assert their political independence, safeguard their resources, and give their support to Palestine.
The cost has been staggering: millions of lives lost – victims of Western-instigated wars cloaked in the language of human rights, democracy, and counterterrorism.
Over the past few months, that same machinery of destruction has intensified its focus on Gaza. Israel, the United States' key proxy in the region, has unleashed devastation on a shocking scale. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been massacred with impunity.
It began when Hamas, the governing party of Gaza and a key component of the Palestinian liberation movement, launched an attack in response to Israel's decades of repression. What followed was not proportional 'defence'. It was genocide.
Civilians – mostly women and children – were annihilated or buried under rubble. Survivors were starved and denied clean water. Humanitarian aid was blocked, hospitals were bombed, and neighbourhoods were razed.
While the world fixated on hostages taken by Hamas – many of whom were later killed by Israel's indiscriminate bombings – the real humanitarian catastrophe was being ignored. Israel detained thousands, including children, and subjected them to systematic torture and sexual violence as it continued its military rampage, emboldened by unconditional US and European support. International outcry, court rulings by the ICJ, and arrest warrants from the ICC were brushed aside. Nothing could stop the West's killing spree; not law, not diplomacy, not conscience.
But Israel's aggression extends beyond Gaza and the West Bank. It has steadily eroded Syrian sovereignty, assassinating Iranian advisors who were legally assisting the Syrian government. Together with the US and Turkey, Israel facilitated regime change in Syria, deposing the elected Ba'ath Party in favour of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an extremist outfit with little public legitimacy.
Hezbollah, an unwavering defender of Palestine, saw key members of its leadership wiped out and much of southern Lebanon reduced to rubble under Israeli bombs. And then there is Yemen. When Ansar Allah declared solidarity with the Palestinians, their resistance was met with significant military force. The US, unashamedly, used its might to pummel one of the poorest nations in the world.
At the heart of Western aggression lies Iran – a country that has shown enormous restraint in the face of years of provocation, assassination, and sabotage. Its military and political leaders have been murdered, not on battlefields, but in targeted killings. Its scientists – brilliant minds working to advance nuclear energy for peaceful medical and industrial purposes – have been gunned down simply for daring to dream of self-sufficiency.
A Palestinian man carries a wounded child in Al-Bureij camp in the central Gaza Strip after the area was targeted by an Israeli strike, on June 17, 2025, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Image: Eyad BABA / AFP
Iran's pursuit of nuclear technology is not a prelude to war. It is an assertion of dignity. Its nuclear programme powers homes, fuels hospitals, and propels research in oncology and aerospace fields. Yet that progress has become a threat to the West, not because of its military potential, but because it symbolises independence, ingenuity, and resilience. Washington cannot tolerate a West Asian power that surpasses it in science or dares to challenge its monopoly on influence.
It is conveniently ignoring the reality of Iran's nuclear programme, elevating its military capability above civilian use. Ironically, the US, as well as Israel, apartheid South Africa and others, produced significant nuclear military capability during the Cold War era.
Although Israel has not confirmed or denied having nuclear weapons, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) reported that Israel possessed 90 nuclear warheads in 2024. However, some analysts suggest a maximum of 300 warheads using the estimated amounts of fissile material. Furthermore, Israel possesses three types of delivery systems for military use of nuclear weapons: F-15 aircraft, ground-based missile installations, and German Dolphin I and II class submarines.
While democratic South Africa willingly signed and complied with treaties containing prohibitions on participating in nuclear weapon activities, Israel and the US are escaping accountability. In 2024, it was estimated that the US had 1,770 active nuclear warheads, 1,938 stored as reserves, and 1,336 that were retired and pending dismantlement.
It is the US that reneged on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on nuclear programmes with Iran, and it is the US that betrayed the current nuclear negotiation efforts.
History is being repeated. The US plays a double game – stalling negotiations while equipping Israel with the intelligence, weapons, and diplomatic cover to strike Iranian assets. Just as the US and allied forces invaded Iraq in 2003 on the pretext of disarming its non-existing weapons of mass destruction, Israel launched an unprovoked missile attack on Iran on 13 June.
International law is failing. It has become a selective tool, weaponised against the weak and ignored by the powerful. The principles of sovereignty, justice, and human rights lie in tatters as the US-Israel-Europe axis champions their compulsive fixation on warfare, dominance, and aggression. Reason no longer applies. Appeals to humanity fall on deaf ears. The corpses of children, the wails of mothers, and the ruins of ancient cities are met with silence, or worse, justification.
Iran, like many in the Global South, has drawn its conclusions.
Civilians died. Hundreds were wounded. Iran responded with precision – as allowed under international law – but was met with more indiscriminate Israeli bombing. Once again, innocent lives are the collateral damage.
As the US-Israel-Europe axis enforces the logic of war, Iran has accepted reality. The only way to avoid destruction and the blatant move towards regime change is to resist. Diplomacy is worthless when the other side bargains in bad faith.
Peace is a fantasy when faced with a war machine addicted to dominance. Iran has no choice but to mobilise its full military capacity. The fire that was ignited in Ukraine has now expanded to West Asia. A new front has opened, and Iran will not fight it with half-measures.
This moment is a wake-up call for the Muslim world and, indeed, for all oppressed countries and for the anti-imperialist peoples of the world. As Ayatollah Khamenei warned, 'The Zionist regime won't bring security for any government.' Those states collaborating with Israel in hopes of American favour are deluding themselves. The West respects no ally; it respects only obedience. You are discarded or destroyed when you cease serving their interests.
The solution lies not in appeasement but in self-reliance. The only protection against bullying is economic, military, and cultural strength. Domestic manufacturing must rise. Regional alliances with proven partners must be deepened. Nations that have weathered sanctions, sabotage, and siege understand the value of loyalty. Those are the partnerships worth investing in.
The people of West Asia deserve peace. They deserve to preserve their history, teach their children without fear of bombs, and build a future rooted in dignity and sovereignty. But peace cannot come from pleading with aggressors. Sometimes, unfortunately, it must be sought through force.
I share a poem written by Gail Van Breda in honour of my son, Sebastian, who died in a motorbike accident in Simonstown on 4 June. I, in turn, dedicate it to the people of West Asia.
Let us not crash, too many deaths.
How can we breathe, when breath ended for our loved ones.
Let us not crash, too many voices gone silent, all at one time
Let us not to crash, because how much more can this body take.
We have to absorb so much.
Let us not crash, because the living must now adjust to this new reality
Let us not crash, let us not fall apart,
How do we keep all together to grieve, loud or in silence.
Let us not crash, where is our hope, what can we hold on to, what would make this time of mourning better, how are we expected to get through this!
Let us not crash, maybe join hands, to keep this life together
Let us not crash, let us not fall apart
Because this life is teaching us how to die.
We have been dying. The walking dead.
Let us not crash, because we know, this life is not forever
Cry, feel, let us not crash
Let us find comfort.
But I don't know from where, because nothing makes sense.
Death, you remind us of the dualism of life.
Death and life.
In our lived experiences, we cannot even live.
Everyone is in a fight for survival.
And when death opens its coffin, we die again.
We are always dying.
Our children, our parents, our loved ones, dying
Let us not crash, because how much more must this body, this physical earth life experience take.
* Dr Reneva Fourie is a policy analyst specialising in governance, development and security.
** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL, Independent Media or The African.
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