Iran and Israel are both threats

The most dangerous distortion in this moment is not only the missiles falling across the region. It is the growing effort to rewrite where this crisis began and who gets blamed for it. Iran is a real and obvious threat to the Gulf and the wider Arab world. Its danger is not theoretical. It has been visible in missiles, proxies, militias, and sustained interference across Arab states. That reality should not be softened or denied. But acknowledging the Iranian threat does not require erasing Israel’s role in driving escalation. Yet that is exactly what many now try to do. They condemn Iran without hesitation, as they should, but become strangely hesitant when the discussion turns to Israel. The language suddenly becomes evasive. The standard changes. The story is reduced to Iranian retaliation, while the Israeli actions that preceded it are pushed out of view. This is not analytical balance. It is political selectivity. Worse, anyone who insists on condemning Israel, is increasingly portrayed as sympathetic to Iran.

That is a false and cynical choice. One can oppose Iranian aggression and still reject the normalization of Israeli impunity. What is troubling is the broader climate it reveals. It suggests an attempt to make Arab public opinion more willing to tolerate Israel’s conduct, excuse its actions, and gradually accept what much of the region has never truly accepted. If this continues, the result will be a distorted Arab political consciousness, one trained to see Iranian danger clearly, but to avert its eyes whenever Israel is involved. That is not realism. It is an engineered imbalance with lasting political and moral costs.

By Abdulaziz Al-Anjeri