A sickness is permeating parts of the Western commentariat. We are witnessing a moral and intellectual collapse masquerading as solidarity. I refer to the increasing number of voices, online and at protests, who claim to support the Palestinians but in doing so end up aligning themselves with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Opposing Israeli policy in Gaza does not and cannot morally justify cheering on one of the most brutal, tyrannical regimes on the planet. Somehow, that is precisely what we are seeing.
People are waving Iranian flags at protests, echoing regime propaganda, and even expressing hope that Iran “finishes what Hamas started”. This isn’t anti-Zionism. It’s not even a legitimate expression of anger at Israel’s conduct in Gaza. It is something far darker: we are witnessing an inversion of moral clarity so warped that it makes Orwellian doublethink seem quaint.
Let us remind ourselves what Iran is.
This is a regime that executes women for refusing to wear the hijab, jails journalists, dissidents, and academics for daring to think freely, tortures teenagers, publicly hangs gay men, and funds terrorist proxies across the Middle East, from Hezbollah in Lebanon to the Houthis in Yemen. Remember, these are all groups that target civilians with gleeful indifference. It armed, trained, and directed Hamas in the slaughter of Israeli civilians on 7th October, one of the most grotesque terrorist atrocities in modern history.
What level of disinformation and what depths of self-delusion does it take for people in London, New York, or Berlin to look at Iran, at this theocratic dictatorship that murders its own citizens for dancing, and say:
“Yes, this is who we stand with”?
The answer lies in the poisonous well of social media. Platforms like X, TikTok, and Instagram are overflowing with viral falsehoods. Take hospitals, for example. The myth that Israel has destroyed every hospital in Gaza stands in stark contrast to the reality that it facilitated the establishment of 11 field hospitals within the Strip to replace medical infrastructure damaged due to Hamas’s military use of them. The falsehood that Israel deliberately targeted the Al-Ahli hospital early in the war is contradicted by every subsequent independent analysis, including those from US and European sources, which confirmed it was a misfired Palestinian rocket.
It doesn’t matter because the lie travels faster. In today’s tribal, binary world, where every issue is framed as oppressor vs oppressed, if you dislike Israel, then Iran must be good. That is the grotesque equation: people will believe anything if it flatters their ideological priors.
When you see influencers, activists, and even academics cheering Iran’s strikes against Israel, when you hear them describing Iran’s military escalation as “resistance”, understand what they are truly saying: that their animosity towards Israel, and perhaps the West more broadly, is so overwhelming that it eclipses any concern for truth, liberty, or justice.
They would rather support the men who beat women to death in the street than stand with a flawed but functioning democracy.
That is the abyss.
Israel is not perfect; no country is. Criticize its conduct, debate its policies, demand accountability, if that is your position; but do not delude yourself into thinking this justifies embracing a regime that murders poets and funds death squads.
Supporting Iran in this conflict does not equate to supporting the Palestinian people. You do not have to support Israel, but supporting Iran amounts to backing the jackboot over a free press, favoring the hangman’s noose over the ballot box, and siding with a regime that has transformed an ancient, proud nation into a prison.
It is a terrifying moral inversion that reflects the degradation of our societal capacity to distinguish right from wrong, and it is happening in plain sight.
~Andrew Fox~
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