Iran vs Israel — The Morality Cards Game You Cannot Lose
How a New Conflict Proves (Yet Again) the Hypocrisy of the Western Bloc
With the surprise attack operation launched by Israel against Iran in the last few days, the media and political focus shifted once again—from Ukraine and Gaza to the Iran-Israel conflict.
As we have already experienced twice in the last three years, we were expecting European leaders and media to quickly take a position, fully supporting one side and discrediting the other by playing the usual moral cards of “good vs evil” or “attacker vs victim.”
However, such cards cannot be played anymore. The lies and moral hypocrisy that have been used over the last 30 years to gain cheap public support for committing countless wars and atrocities against humanity don’t work anymore.
Why?
Time.
People forget—but not as quickly as is needed now.
Let’s look at all the Morality-Game cards that cannot be used by our Western leaders in this new Iran vs Israel conflict.
The “Good vs Evil” card
This card is the easiest one to play for democratic countries, since it has been embedded in our minds since primary school that democracy = GOOD and non-democracy = EVIL.
The expectations are even higher when we’re talking about the only democratic country in the Middle East:
“The United States and Israel share interests, but we also share human values: A commitment to human dignity. [..] An experience that shows us that democracy is the one and only form of government that can truly respond to the aspirations of citizens.”
Barack Obama, 20121
Iran is not a democratic country, and just a few years ago, it even drew international outrage for its brutal crackdown on Iranian women protesting for equal rights.2
So our European leaders might be tempted to play this card—if it weren’t for one small detail.
Since October 8, 2023:
17,000 children have been confirmed dead in Gaza. And that’s just a conservative estimate, as many more remain buried under the rubble.3
4,000 children in Gaza have had one or more limbs amputated—often without anesthesia.4
“My leg has been amputated three times”
— Ritaj, 8 years old. Operated on without anesthesia.5
Unlike Western leaders, Iran’s political leaders have consistently and strongly condemned Israel for the mass killing of children in Gaza.6 7
The “Aggressor vs Victim” card
This card was abused during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, shutting down any public discussion in European countries about the context that sparked such a tragedy (I have already published two articles about it on my Substack).
This time, it’s quite impossible to use this card, since it was Israel that launched a unilateral, unprovoked attack against Iran. This attack was immediately condemned by most world leaders—except, of course, the US and its most loyal European allies.8
The “Nuclear bomb“ card
This is the only card that seems to be gaining some traction now, especially because it is repeated like a mantra by most political leaders in Europe and the US.
In reality, it’s a very old card—one that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been playing for 33 years, since the start of his political career.
"Within three to five years, we can assume that Iran will become autonomous in its ability to develop and produce a nuclear bomb."
Benjamin Netanyahu addressing the Knesset, 19929
Other examples:10
In 1995, in his book Fighting Terrorism, Netanyahu reiterated the exact same estimate for when Iran would produce nuclear weapons.
In 2002, Netanyahu testified before a US congressional committee, calling for the invasion of Iraq and a preemptive attack against Iran to stop them from producing nuclear weapons.
In 2012, during his infamous cartoon bomb presentation at the UN General Assembly, he showed a progress bar shaped like a cartoon bomb, claiming that by the next spring Iran would be ready to start the final stage of uranium enrichment.
And now, after 33 years—and right after Israel’s attack against Iran—he announced that Iran could produce “a nuclear weapon in a very short time—it could be a year, or it could be a few months.”11
It will be up to the European and American people to either believe a lie with a 30-year-old expiration date or to accept the hypocrisy of our civilization—and in doing so, save ourselves from an even more miserable future.
CP
Le Monde. Obama: je préfère profondément la paix, 2012.
Amnesty International. Iran: Two years after ‘Woman Life Freedom’ uprising, impunity for crimes reigns supreme, 2024.
Al Jazeera. Israel’s war on Gaza has killed 50,000 Palestinians since October 2023, 2025.
UNICEF. UNICEF Delivers Wheelchairs for Gaza's Children, 2025.
Islamic Republic News Agency. Iran justice minister calls for trial of Israel over killing of children in Gaza, Lebanon, 2024.
Middle East Eye. Israel's attack on Iran: How the world reacted, 2025.
Al Jazeera. Benjamin Netanyahu's 33 years of Iran nuclear warnings [video], 2025.
Al Jazeera. What is behind Israel’s decision to attack Iran?, 2025.