Well, that didn’t take long. Just five days into Israel’s conflict with Iran, the usual suspects are already racing to draw a false equivalence between the two countries. It’s a move that isn’t just intellectually dishonest – it’s a moral travesty. Reminding us how old-fashioned antisemitism continues to underpin the narrative. After all, in the one corner, we have Israel, a democratic nation and ally of the UK, scrambling to protect its citizens from annihilation by a sworn enemy dedicated to destroying the Jewish state.
In the other Iran, a brutal theocracy which subjugates, jails, tortures and murders its own people and is the world’s greatest sponsor of terrorism through proxies like Hezbollah and the Houthis. Surely on this one it is not difficult to choose which horse to back? So what else but old fashioned Jew-hatred can explain a willingness to give Iran any scope for justification?
Yet inevitably and with almost ungracious speed the discussion is already being framed by distorted post-truth narratives which race to draw obscene moral parity between the two countries.
Of course, it’s the usual suspects. Namely far-left commentators, ignorant, hand-wringing influencers, celebrity do-gooders (though thankfully no silly voices from Dawn French) and the rag-tag disciples of groupthink who never let facts get in the way of a ‘good’ cause.
Voices, which, though ignorant, are noisy, determined, and dangerously effective in always painting Israel as the bad guy.
Some now even cast Iran as the victim – a supposedly innocent power “provoked” by Israeli action. This is a view so insane, so bonkers it’s almost an embarrassment to the cult of propaganda. But with Trump now suggesting that the US will help topple the regime, the narrative only becomes even more distorted.
Of course no one wants the prospect of global conflict – not least the people of Israel whose daily lives are shattered by the now constant threat of missile attack. Indeed, why would the country launch pre-emptive strikes on Iran at a time when the country is fighting so many other battles – Hamas, the Houthis – unless the stakes were so high?
For decades, Iran has pursued a nuclear programme – disregarding sanctions, international condemnation and political isolation. Even before Israel fired the first shot five days ago the international Atomic Energy Agency warned Iran had enough enriched uranium to make nine nuclear bombs.
Why wouldn’t – shouldn’t – Israel launch preemptive attacks to target, degrade and destroy Iran’s nuclear capabilities? Wouldn’t we expect our own government to act if Britain was staring down the barrel of a similar existential threat?
Instead, we have our pathetic Prime Minister drifting to the line of moral equivalence between Israel and Iran. For though Starmer “absolutely recognise[s] Israel’s right to self‑defence”, he also emphasises “the need for de‑escalation,” urging all involved to “step back”.
All of which implies shared responsibility and blurs the line between the two states when the distinction couldn’t be more obvious.
For let’s be clear: there is no scope to sit round the table with Iran, a country that would use a nuclear bomb tomorrow if it had finished building one today. A country which sees the West – the UK included – as its sworn enemy.
And yet, the double standards persist. The perverse logic of visceral hatred for Israel framing any sensible understanding of good and evil.
In reality, Israel – and the United States – are doing what others lack the courage or clarity to do: confronting Iran’s nuclear threat head-on. In doing so, they are doing the world’s dirty work.
Those who try to demonise Israel by drawing moral equivalence with Iran embolden this dangerous regime, devalue innocent life and drive ever-greater Jew-hatred.
There is nothing fair or balanced in such a position. Don’t ever believe it to be otherwise.