The US (using Israel) wants to make Iran dependent by collapsing industries that make the latter run. If Iran quits its peaceful nuclear program, Trump will demand it quit refining oil, manufacturing vehicles, or making cement, among others.
From Biblical to Wild Names
While Israel traditionally names its military operations from biblical stories to present itself as the protagonist in them, it called its war on Iran Operation Rising Lion, a name with wild symbolism. On the 13th June 2025, Israel pounced on Iran targeting its nuclear sites, military installations, and nuclear scientists, causing widespread civilian casualtys before declaring a new operation. The operation’s name and subsequent behaviors of Benjamin Netanyahu and his Western backers reveal a distressing sense of lawlessness among this imperious group that appears to claim the exclusive right to engage in aggression (without recourse) while ostracizing its victims. The West’s think tanks, for instance the Atlantic Council’s already, claim that Israel’s aggression is useful as it undermines China. Meanwhile, Trump’s demand that Iran capitulate despite being the victim shows how the West operates by the Law of the Jungle, in total disregard for international law. It is insensitive for the West, as expressed in the aforementioned view from the Atlantic Council, to assert that their enabling of the ongoing carnage in the Middle East was not necessitated by immediate security needs but by imperial ambitions to destabilize China. By enabling and defending Israel’s attack, the West is assisting its vassal to rise to be a lion (apex predator), in a world where the global south is supposed to be helpless prey for hunting and exploitation. The US and its allies guide Israel to rise through militarism and apartheid, while non-Western countries pursue development by increasing their productivity, efficiency, or enhancing connectivity among others. They want Israel to impose terror on Iran after overrunning the rest of the region, which is unacceptable.
Rising Lion and its Pride
After Israel bombed Iran, France, the UK, and the US attempted to launder this aggression, claiming it was justified and somehow necessary for the Western world, showing utter disregard for human life. The three colonizing powers tried to browbeat Iran from retaliating, which would give Israel free reign to devastate the victim for their parochial interests. This shows how Israel’s attack was planned by these parties, which disregard the international law to advance their geopolitical and economic interests at the expense of other peoples’. Later, Information surfaced that the US had secretly provided Israel with the guided munitions it needed to launch the attack, while evidence of participation of other Western countries may surface soon. Trump proceeded to praise the attack and use it to threaten Iran to return to the negotiation table, which was hypocritical, noting that Iran was already negotiating before the attack occurred. Similarly, the UK and France repeated Trump’s line and pledged direct support for the aggressor. France even cited the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) statement that Iran had violated its obligation under the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Treaty (NPT), a treaty that Israel had never cared to sign.
The West’s actions described above show complete hypocrisy and disregard for the lives of people in the global south, which has enabled militarism exhibited by Israel’s killing of over 55000 civilians in Gaza, while still being presented as a saint. Emboldened Netanyahu, despite having an arrest warrant for war crimes, now purports to advise Iranians, whom he has been bombing, to revolt against their government, showing sheer egotism. Remarkably, he leads a country that has been in endless wars, a continuous state of emergency, and hence ruled by decree. Citizens neither vote for such wars, nor fund their military, which is mainly bankrolled by Washington, making it a mercenary state. It is ironic when such is described as a democracy or even positioned as having any right to decide Iran’s leadership.
The perceived superiority the West is trying to project through Israel buckles as the aggressor is bogged-down in the current war. The West’s machinations suggest that Operation Rising Lion was designed to initiate Israel as the West’s full member to advance colonialism through spreading chaos across the region. However, both Israel and the West, who display arrogance that tends towards delusion, seriously underestimated the fortitude of Iranians. Israel’s failure to achieve a quick victory has helped in exposing the West’s pretense. For instance, Trump has been unable to decide if his country was involved in the attack or not. He has threatened more attacks while demanding Iran’s capitulation, which has reduced his credibility. His demand for Iran to return to the negotiating table while ignoring the fact that Israel’s bombing disrupted the then ongoing talks shows the west’s duplicity. This dishonesty has been pushed by the Western media to mislead audiences that Israel launched the war to force Iran to negotiate. The West’s hypocrisy and lies will only irritate its appointed adversaries and inspire more resistance.
The Rising Lion, other Lions, and Jungle Mentality have No Place.
Trump’s attempt to force Iran to capitulate despite not having declared war against it shows attempts to enforce an apartheid global system, that sanitizes Israel’s aggression and punishes victims to advance the West’s goals. Similarly, threats to attack Iran if it retaliates to Israeli aggression shows the West’s preference for the Law of the Jungle and attempts to elevate Israel into the club of those above international laws. However, Iran has rejected this lawlessness by launching several rounds of missile attacks as retaliation. It has not frozen under threats to allow the Israeli mercenary state to destroy it. While the UK and US have deployed military resources in the Middle East, some of which may already be aiding Israel, Iran shows no signs of letting aggression go unanswered, declining to play prey to the West’s Rising Lion. Netanyahu and Trump have now entered a desperate stage of using terrorist threats to assassinate the Iranian leadership. However, noting how the Iranian military leadership swiftly regrouped after the recent assassinations, future murders are unlikely to grant Trump or Netanyahu the quick victory they yearn for. The West’s colonial system, which is morally, politically, and economically exhausted, wants to maintain relevance by acting like the whole world lives under its mercy, a notion that is being actively resisted by some countries, including Iran.
This system, which cannot stand seeing a country developing its resources to benefit its own citizens, now invites the Iranian leadership to capitulate and hand over their country for neoliberal exploitation. Western imperialism’s bet on collapsing and looting resource-rich countries through wars is likely to fail again in Iran. The notion that some countries and their protégé Israel can be lions preying on others has no place in 21st-century thinking.
Simon Chege Ndiritu, is a political observer and research analyst from Africa
