By: Dr Matevž Tomšič
Conflicts in the Middle East are expanding, and the circle of directly involved actors is growing. Recently, we witnessed aerial clashes between Israel and Iran that lasted twelve days and claimed around a thousand lives, the vast majority on the Iranian side, where several high-ranking military commanders were also killed. This was followed by a U.S. strike on Iranian nuclear facilities (and Iran’s retaliatory attack on an American base in Qatar). Although a ceasefire has since been declared, this by no means indicates that the situation has been resolved. The divisions between the involved parties remain extremely deep, seemingly insurmountable.
This is not just a conflict between Israel and Muslim countries, but also among the latter themselves, particularly between Shia-majority Iran and Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia. While the latter is – at least on paper – an ally of the United States (and therefore the West), the former presents itself as the protector of the Islamic world against the “Western threat.” Moreover, all the major global powers have their own interests in this region. Russia, and to a degree China, are trying to curb American influence via Iran, and Iran in turn does so through its proxies, such as the Lebanese Hezbollah.
During the recent clashes, the political leadership of the West, for the most part, united in its support for Israel. This includes Europe. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz even stated that Israel is “doing the dirty work for all of us.” This earned him the wrath of radical leftists both at home and abroad, but what he said was true. Iran’s theocratic regime brutally represses any form of ideological or behavioural dissent from its strict religious dogmas. It is a threat not only to its own citizens but also to the surrounding region and beyond. The regime actively supports radical Islamist groups that commit terrorist acts. These include Hamas, which last year launched a bloody attack on Israel. Israel’s recent strike on Iran was therefore a fully legitimate act of retaliation, and also served as a deterrent, given that the Iranian regime has openly declared its goal of destroying the Jewish state. It is extremely naïve to believe Iranian officials’ claims that their nuclear programme serves only peaceful purposes. If they succeed in developing a nuclear bomb, we cannot rule out that they would be willing to use it.
While most Western leaders – at least implicitly, if not openly – have taken Israel’s side, the same cannot be said for Slovenia’s political leadership. Both President Nataša Pirc Musar and Prime Minister Robert Golob – who are not exactly on friendly terms – united in condemning Israel’s strike on Iran. The rest of the ruling coalition followed suit. This is in line with the “non-aligned” foreign policy of the current government, which is increasingly abandoning its commitment to the West and beginning to resemble the foreign policy of Tito’s Yugoslavia. Left-wing politicians were once again joined by the ever-present “critical intellectuals,” who called for action against Israeli aggression, all without saying a single word about the crimes of the Iranian regime. This is largely the same crowd that first supported Russian autocrat Putin, then Hamas terrorists, and now the Iranian ayatollahs. What do they all have in common? Rejection of democracy, terror, and hatred of the West!
This behaviour is not unique to Slovenia, it is spreading across the Western world. There exists a certain group of people – primarily on the left – who are willing to express solidarity with virtually any oppressive regime (no matter how brutal), as long as it is sufficiently anti-Western. In Slovenia, however, the situation is even more problematic due to decades of communist indoctrination, followed by a “soft transition” to democracy, which in practice meant preserving many principles of the old regime. People driven by hostility toward Western order still find support among those in power.