International law has been hijacked. It was originally designed to establish the rules of civilized warfare and protect the innocent. Today, it is routinely invoked to do the exact opposite: to shield dictators, terrorists, and apocalyptic regimes from the consequences of their actions. Terror regimes and rogue actors have weaponized the international system into an impenetrable legal shield, demanding the absolute protection of the UN Charter while brazenly violating every law of armed conflict.

The reflexive condemnation of the joint US-Israeli offensive against the Islamic Republic – Operations Epic Fury and Roaring Lion – has been entirely predictable. The usual hand-wringing from the UN, certain European capitals, and the international NGO complex is now seamlessly amplified by a cynical propaganda campaign from Moscow, Beijing, and the broader authoritarian axis. These adversaries share a vested interest in shielding Tehran. They weaponize diplomacy to protect a key proxy that destabilizes the Middle East and drains Western resources, hypocritically accusing Washington and Jerusalem of violating international law.

But the US-Israeli preemptive strikes were not merely justifiable. They were a vital demonstration of international law’s most fundamental guarantee: the right of sovereign nations – crucially, the Jewish State – to survive and defend themselves against the Iranian terror regime.

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At the core of Iran’s grand strategy is the exploitation of both physical and legal shields. For years, the IRGC has systematically built a massive conventional arsenal to act as the ultimate bodyguard for its nuclear ambitions. Because Tehran does not yet possess a nuclear deterrent, it has explicitly sought to build a conventional weapons capability to hide behind. By churning out massive quantities of ballistic missiles alongside thousands of suicide drones, the endgame was absolute geopolitical blackmail. The regime sought to make the cost of striking its nuclear facilities catastrophic by threatening to unleash a devastating conventional barrage on the entire region, aiming to leave the free world paralyzed. This conventional shield was designed to buy Tehran the geopolitical immunity needed to secure its nuclear ambitions unchecked.

Under the twisted modern interpretation of international law favored by its critics, Israel and the United States were expected to sit idly by while a regime driven by an apocalyptic theology built a fortress around an illegal nuclear weapons program. But customary international law dictates that anticipatory self-defense is lawful when a threat is instant, overwhelming, and leaves no moment for deliberation. Washington and Jerusalem possessed precise, actionable intelligence that Tehran’s retaliation to necessary Israeli security operations was already hardwired into the IRGC’s command structure. The missile forces in the north and south had already been activated and prepositioned to launch.

We must be clear: international law does not demand that a nation wait to absorb a massive missile strike. That is definitely not a legal obligation. It would be a suicide pact. Instead, preemptively crippling the IRGC’s launch capabilities before they could massacre thousands of civilians and military personnel was a profound tactical necessity and a legally unassailable exercise of self-defense.

Furthermore, the legal doctrine of jus in bello (the law of armed conflict) demands strict adherence to the principles of distinction and proportionality. It is here that the moral bankruptcy of the anti-Israel and antisemitic critics is most glaring. The Islamic Republic and its proxy network routinely commit war crimes by deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure, attacking civilian centers like airports, hotels, and embassies directly.

In stark contrast, the allied operations were surgically focused. The IDF’s historic Operation Roaring Lion executed a deep-penetration campaign that systematically took offline Iran’s air defense systems, weapons production facilities, and leadership complexes. Concurrently, Operation Epic Fury strictly targeted the regime’s war machine: the manufacturing hubs, the stockpiles, and the naval assets threatening global shipping, actively avoiding civilian infrastructure.

Dictatorships and terror sponsors have spent decades learning how to game the international system. They embed their terror infrastructure within civilian populations, knowing that Western democracies value human life and respect international legal boundaries. When Israel and the US strike back, these regimes immediately cry foul to the UN, using the very laws they despise to condemn the democracies fighting for their lives.

The moral lines in this conflict are not blurred: the apocalyptic regime in Tehran is the unequivocal villain, systematically weaponizing international law to construct an impenetrable fortress around its terror network and nuclear ambitions. Proving this point, this rogue state has indiscriminately launched hundreds of ballistic missiles and suicide drones across the region in just the last few days alone. They have struck civilian infrastructure, economic centers, and military assets belonging to Israel and the United States, as well as regional nations including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Jordan, Iraq, Syria, and Cyprus. Furthermore, they directly targeted European and NATO forces, including Turkey (Hatay province), the United Kingdom (Akrotiri, Cyprus), France (Camp de la Paix, UAE), and Italy (NATO camp at Ali Al-Salem Base).

By acting proactively to dismantle this threat, the United States and Israel are clearly doing the right thing. They did not violate international law; they enforced it against a regime intent on holding the free world and the Jewish State hostage. This joint offensive is a decisive stand against state-sponsored terror, reaffirming that the laws of armed conflict exist to protect the innocent, not to immunize the aggressor. In the face of a regime that openly seeks its annihilation, the Jewish State has once again defended its unyielding right to exist. Am Yisrael Chai.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)