America first means the Islamic Republic must fall - opinion

For nearly half a century, the Islamic Republic of Iran has had one declared enemy above all others: the United States of America. When I became the first Iranian opposition figure to stand in the Knesset, my message was simple: the free world must stop being afraid to strike at the head of the octopus of global terrorism – and America has every reason to lead that strike. That includes Ali Khamenei, nuclear and military centers, and all oppression infrastructures. Two years on, that is no longer a fringe position. It is American policy. The free nations of the world must recognize a fundamental truth: that the Iranian people, Israel, the United States, and Europe share a common enemy. That enemy is the regime that has hidden its atrocities for 47 years under the name of the “Islamic Republic” – and which has called America its primary target from day one.

Western policymakers have long misunderstood the nature of this regime. It is not a conventional political actor. It is not motivated by national interest in the way normal states are. It is an ideological regime, driven by a revolutionary doctrine that justifies repression at home and aggression abroad under the banner of religion. And ideological regimes do not respond to diplomacy – they exploit it. Its mission has been clear from its inception: to destroy the modern global order and replace it with its own expansionist Islamist vision – a so-called "global Islamic Caliphate.” That ambition has never been directed at a faceless enemy. It has always been directed, first and foremost, at the United States.

There is a reason Western civilization, democratic values, pluralism, and the rule of law are embodied most powerfully in the United States. And there is a reason the regime branded America “the Great Satan” from the outset – it was never rhetorical. It was a declaration of war. Within months of seizing power in 1979, regime militants stormed the US Embassy in Tehran and held American diplomats hostage for 444 days. In 1983, Iranian-backed forces bombed the US Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241 American servicemen. President Trump rightly referred to Qassem Soleimani as the ‘father of roadside bombs’ – a man who made it his life’s work to kill Americans. For decades since, the regime has institutionalized chants of “Death to America” while funding proxy militias, destabilizing governments, and spreading anti-Western radicalism from the Middle East to Latin America. This is not ancient history. This is a 47-year unbroken record of aggression against the United States.

This hatred has a natural extension. The ideological core of this regime is rooted in anti-Westernism, which has always included virulent antisemitism. Its obsession with Israel is not merely territorial - it is symbolic. To the Islamic Republic, Israel is not a separate conflict. It is the same conflict. Israel represents a democratic, Western-aligned state in the Middle East - in their worldview, nothing less than a “small-scale America.” That is why Israel has been the primary testing ground for their aggression. Every rocket fired at Tel Aviv, every proxy militia armed and funded by Tehran, is a message directed as much at Washington as it is at Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, the Iranian people have paid the price. The regime has squandered the immense wealth of Iran - a nation with vast natural and human resources - to fund its revolutionary project. Rather than investing in its own people, it has exported militancy, infiltrated foreign institutions, and built networks designed to weaken Western societies from within. Universities, oil revenues, and the talent of an entire generation have been sacrificed, not for Iran’s prosperity, but for an ideological war against the West. This is not mismanagement. This is a deliberate choice – and the Iranian people have never consented to it.

The nuclear dimension makes all this existential. A regime with this ideology, this track record, and this declared enemy does not pursue nuclear weapons for deterrence. It pursues them for leverage – and ultimately, for use. That was not a theoretical concern; it was the trajectory we were watching unfold. Negotiations and concessions over the decades did not moderate the regime’s ambitions. They bought it time. An Islamic Republic armed with nuclear weapons would not just threaten Israel. It would permanently and irreversibly alter the global balance of power – with America in its crosshairs.

Confronting this threat is not warmongering. It is overdue. For those who would argue otherwise, consider what warmongering actually looks like – it looks like 47 years of proxy wars, assassinations, hostage-taking, and the deliberate arming of militias designed to kill Americans and Israelis alike. That is what the Islamic Republic has been doing without pause. Just as it has been “America First” to confront destabilizing forces in Panama, in Libya, and in Iraq - it is America First to neutralize a regime that has declared the United States its primary enemy for nearly half a century. Choosing not to act is not neutrality. It is a decision to absorb the next attack, and the one after that.

This is not only America’s fight – but America must lead it. The American Jewish community understands better than most the cost of ignoring ideological hatred when it openly declares its intent. They have seen this before. The world has seen this before. Europe has seen how instability in the Middle East directly affects its own security and social cohesion – and how the long arm of Iranian proxy networks has reached deep into European cities. And Israel has lived on the front line of this regime’s proxy wars, absorbing existential threats that the rest of the world has had the luxury of observing from a distance. When the United States and Israel act together against the regime that has declared both its enemies, that is not aggression. That is the most rational, justified, and necessary application of collective self-defense the modern world has seen.

Let this be stated clearly: the Iranian people are not your enemies. They are the regime’s first victims – and they have been paying that price every single day for 47 years. Across Iran, brave men and women risk imprisonment, torture, rape, and death to demand a secular, democratic state. They have taken to the streets, knowing they may not come home. They have chanted the name of freedom in a country that punishes the word. They are not waiting to be saved – they are already fighting. They are asking the free world to finally fight with them. When the Islamic Republic falls - and it will fall - a secular democratic Iran will not be the West’s newest adversary. It will be one of its strongest allies. A stabilizing power in the Middle East. A partner to the United States. A neighbor at peace with Israel. A nation finally integrated into the global economy it was always capable of enriching.

Taking down the Islamic Republic is not only in Israel’s interest. It is not only in Iran’s interest. It is in the interest of every nation that has ever believed in sovereignty, security, and the right to exist without a declared ideological enemy plotting its destruction. It strengthens Western security, restores deterrence, and removes a central engine of regional chaos. The Iranian people are ready for a new chapter – they have been ready for decades. If defending your nation against a declared, ideological enemy is not America First, then nothing is. The free world has run out of reasons to wait. And history will not be kind to those who chose to look away.