He has pushed the Middle East to the edge—and the world with it.
By Matthew A. McIntosh
Public Historian
Brewminate
Introduction
This past week, the world witnessed a terrifying acceleration of conflict that many have long feared. In a dramatic and highly provocative act, Israel launched a direct airstrike deep inside Iranian territory, reportedly targeting a military complex near the city of Isfahan—a region known for housing both conventional and nuclear-linked infrastructure. This was not a covert assassination or a shadowy cyber operation. It was an unambiguous act of war. Within forty-eight hours, Iran retaliated with a barrage of ballistic missiles and suicide drones, some of which reached central Israel before being intercepted. The exchange marked the first open, state-on-state engagement between the two regional rivals in modern history, and it has catapulted the Middle East—and perhaps the world—into a crisis of unpredictable scope.
The Israeli strike, confirmed by multiple intelligence agencies and now publicly acknowledged by both governments, came just days after Iran had been accused of coordinating militia attacks on Israeli and U.S. targets in Iraq and Syria. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu framed the operation as a “preemptive measure” against Iranian escalation. Tehran responded with its own framing, calling Israel a “rogue regime” acting with American impunity, and declared that further Israeli aggression would lead to “a regional inferno.”
The world now watches in stunned paralysis as two powers with long histories of proxy warfare finally lock horns directly—raising the haunting possibility of a full-scale regional war, and even a global confrontation.
The Netanyahu Doctrine: War Without End
Benjamin Netanyahu has always seen himself as a man of destiny. He sees Israel not merely as a sovereign nation but as a civilizational vanguard against barbarism—a bastion of democracy surrounded by enemies. This worldview, honed over decades and deepened by personal tragedy, now serves as the moral foundation for a policy of unrelenting militarism. In his eyes, restraint is weakness, compromise is betrayal, and negotiation is a trap.
Since his return to power in late 2022, Netanyahu has presided over the most ultranationalist government in Israel’s history. His coalition includes openly racist ministers who call for Palestinian displacement, legal scholars who seek to undermine Israel’s judiciary, and settler leaders who view the West Bank as an inseparable part of Greater Israel. The October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on southern Israel—which left over a thousand Israelis dead—became the catalytic moment Netanyahu had long prophesied. It granted him near-total wartime powers and silenced domestic critics, at least temporarily.
What followed was a campaign in Gaza of such scale and devastation that humanitarian organizations have struggled to even categorize it. Tens of thousands of civilians have died. Water, electricity, and medicine are almost nonexistent. The international community, including the United Nations and the International Court of Justice, has warned of potential genocide. But Netanyahu has remained unmoved, insisting that the only path forward is “complete and unequivocal victory,” though he has never clearly defined what that entails.
And now, with direct conflict erupting between Israel and Iran, Netanyahu has expanded that logic of total war across borders. His willingness to provoke Iran into a retaliatory strike suggests a man either supremely confident in his nation’s military superiority or recklessly indifferent to the global consequences.
Trump’s America: Enabler of Escalation
President Donald Trump, now in his second term, has not acted as a brake on Israeli aggression—in fact, he has been its loudest cheerleader. Since returning to the White House, Trump has reinstalled the neoconservative architects of his first foreign policy team, scrapped what remained of the JCPOA (Iran nuclear deal), and fully aligned the United States behind Netanyahu’s war machine.
In response to this week’s events, Trump offered an unmistakable signal: “The United States stands behind Israel 100 percent,” he said in a press conference, flanked by military officials. “Any attack on our ally will be treated as an attack on us.” It was a clear warning to Iran—and a veiled threat to any nation considering diplomatic intervention. Secretary of State Richard Grenell echoed the president, calling Israel “a strategic extension of American values,” and implying that Israeli military decisions are de facto U.S. interests.
This emboldens Netanyahu. With no check from Washington, and tacit approval from an American president whose worldview is similarly zero-sum, Israel’s most hawkish prime minister now acts with near-total impunity.
Meanwhile, Russia and China have issued harsh condemnations of Israel’s airstrike, warning of “grave consequences” and calling for an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council. Moscow has already supplied Tehran with new air defense systems, and Chinese officials have accused Washington of “imperial militarism through Israeli hands.” What was once a regional conflict is now a central node in the competition between global powers—a powder keg loaded with both ideology and ordnance.
From Proxy Conflict to Direct Confrontation
For decades, Israel and Iran fought through surrogates. Hezbollah, Hamas, Iraqi militias, and cyber units became the primary instruments of a cold war waged in shadows. That era is now over. The past week’s tit-for-tat military exchanges mark a catastrophic transition to direct confrontation between two states with advanced missile technology, vast regional networks, and nuclear potential.
Iran’s missile barrage—though largely intercepted—demonstrated unprecedented range and coordination. It was not the disorganized fury of a rogue actor. It was a calibrated message: We can reach you, and next time, we may not hold back. Israeli defense officials claim to be “reviewing response options,” language that has previously preceded airstrikes, targeted assassinations, and even cyberattacks on infrastructure. Both countries are now in a state of high military readiness, with massive troop deployments, intelligence escalations, and joint drills involving American and Israeli forces in the Mediterranean.
There is no sign of de-escalation. In fact, Netanyahu has reportedly greenlit further strikes if Iran attempts another attack. Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, speaking during Friday prayers in Tehran, declared that “the Zionist entity must be made to regret every drop of Iranian blood.” These are not empty threats. They are declarations of war.
A World on the Edge
Beyond the battlefield, the global fallout has already begun. Oil prices have surged. The Strait of Hormuz—through which one-third of global oil passes—is now under tight Iranian naval control, with U.S. warships moving to counter. Saudi Arabia, though nominally aligned with Israel against Iran, has urged both sides to stand down, fearing regional collapse. Turkey has suspended diplomatic contact with Israel. Egypt has threatened to cancel its peace treaty. And Jordan has warned that continued Israeli aggression could lead to severed ties.
In cities around the world, from London to Jakarta to Johannesburg, massive anti-war protests have broken out—targeting not just Israel, but the U.S. for enabling what many now see as the deliberate ignition of a wider war. BRICS nations have called for a realignment of global power structures, and Russia has convened military coordination meetings with both Syria and Iran.
The old world order—rooted in American unipolar dominance—is disintegrating before our eyes. Netanyahu is not solely responsible for that collapse. But he may be the first world leader in this century to drag the planet into systemic war.
Conclusion: A Moment of Reckoning
The events of the past week are more than a regional crisis. They are a fork in the road of history. The open warfare between Israel and Iran, under the leadership of a fanatical right-wing coalition in Jerusalem and a reckless, nationalist administration in Washington, has pushed the Middle East to the edge—and the world with it.
This is not just about Gaza. It is not just about Iran. It is about a global system that has failed to hold power accountable. It is about the collapse of international norms, the death of diplomacy, and the willingness of leaders to sacrifice human life for myth, ego, or electoral advantage.
If there is still a chance to step back from the brink, it will require not just diplomacy, but courage—by citizens, diplomats, journalists, and dissenters within the very nations now lighting the fuse. Netanyahu may not want a world war. But he is playing a game in which one misstep could ignite it.
And this past week, he moved a giant piece across the board.
Originally published by Brewminate, 06.23.2025, under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license.
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