This morning, the world changed.
After years of escalating threats, rocket fire, proxy wars, and nuclear brinkmanship, Israel struck deep into Iran—targeting nuclear infrastructure and military assets. It was a historic declaration: enough is enough. The era of appeasement is over.
Let’s call it what it is: one of the most courageous acts of leadership by any nation in our time. And tragically, it had to be done alone.
This was not just a defensive strike. It was a moment of clarity, conviction, and courage. It came not from Washington, not from Brussels—but from a small democratic nation surrounded by enemies, standing alone that had to confront the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism. For too long, the U.S. and Europe played for time. Time that Iran used to enrich uranium, arm Russia, fund terror, and destabilize every corner of the globe.
This was not symbolic grandstanding. Israel was not just acting in its own defense. It was striking on behalf of the free world – it was on behalf of peace, security, and civilization itself.
For too long, regime change in Iran has been treated like a dirty word in polite diplomatic circles. Today, that fiction is over. Israel took action—unilaterally, decisively, and morally.
The fact that Israel is standing alone is equally real and equally tragic.
Israel’s actions are both heroic and damning. A searing indictment of the Biden administration, and equally shameful to generations of dithering European and Western leaders who allowed Iran to rise unchecked while peddling delusions of diplomacy, while Iran defied every global agreement. Iran was censured by the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors—just this week—for blatant nuclear violations, which concluded it had enriched sufficient uranium to supply 9-10 nuclear warheads.
President Donald J. Trump now sits in the Oval Office, and he knows exactly what Israel knows: Iran is the central engine of global terror, the state sponsor of chaos from Gaza to Kyiv, the regime responsible for killing Americans, threatening Europe, and destabilizing the world for decades.
President Trump tore up the Iran nuclear deal when others called it reckless. It was the right call then—and now, the wisdom of that decision is blindingly clear.
Israel has done what the Biden administration refused to: act.
That is courage.
This was the opening salvo of a new era—one in which strength, not speeches, defines the global order.
And let’s not pretend this is a regional Middle East conflict. This is the front line in the global war between civilization and savagery. Iran fuels Russia’s war in Ukraine, dispatches drones to murder civilians, funds Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis, and works in concert with China to produce advanced technologies and undermine the West.
Israel did not escalate a conflict, it answered a generation of cowardice—from Obama’s legitimization of the regime through the disastrous nuclear deal, to Biden’s attempts to revive it while Iran continued to fund proxy wars, bomb American bases, seize international tankers, enrich uranium, and build advanced drones to sell to Russia and China in defiance of all agreements—all while Washington fixated on ways to “de-escalate.”
We cannot forget it took one of the world’s smallest nations to carry the global burden, a responsibility of removing a universal pariah, Ayatollahs who had unsettled the world order with terrorism for half a century—because no one else would.
That weakness demanded a response. And Israel delivered it. Answering a generation of failures.
Yet this is no longer a proxy threat; the war is real. And the future is being decided right now.
Under President Trump’s leadership, America must match Israel’s heroic leadership with action.
To President Trump: Call for a full military resupply of Israel. Demand an immediate end to all diplomatic hedging. Condemn and veto any United Nations’ effort to sanction Israel for defending the free world. And make clear to the world that America stands behind Israel, not only as a partner, but as an ally in a shared mission to rid the world of a barbaric regime. The President needs to immediately order the full resupply of Israeli munitions, the activation of joint intelligence-sharing cells, choke off Iran’s global financial lifelines, and inhibit the Ayatollahs’ ability to resettle and resurface in other countries, and the deployment of U.S. naval and aerial assets to counteract the inevitable Iranian reprisals.
Israel bravely fights a global threat alone. It has citizens in harm’s way. It faces a formidable enemy with an avowed goal of its annihilation that can be expected to use every means at its disposal to that end. It needs America’s help.
Because if America is still the global superpower, then Israel is fighting America’s war.
This is not the time for hesitancy. This is the time for boldness. This is the moment when generational leaders are forged.
This is not just about helping an ally. It is about preserving the global order. If the regime falls, the shockwaves will neuter Iran’s proxies, embolden reformers, and shake the foundations of tyranny from Syria to Beijing.
The fall of Iran would signal that the West still has the will—and the strength—to defeat tyranny.
Weakness breeds war. Strength wins it.
This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to dismantle a regime that has spread death and instability across continents. Israel has willingly chosen to put itself in the withering crosshairs of international critics, undoubtedly facing public condemnation and admonishment from the same cowardly nations that privately celebrate its actions. Israel understood this. It accepted the criticism. It stepped into the fire on behalf of the world order—and stood tall. That is courage. That is moral clarity. That is what leadership looks like.
Yet one single strike will not be sufficient. Regime change does not happen by accident. It takes resolve, coordination, and relentless will.
Iran’s economy is shattered. Its people are restless. Its military is rattled. Its regime is vulnerable, yet not eviscerated. If America hesitates in support, the opportunity may pass, and we may miss the moment.
Despots do not fall quietly—and if Iran had nuclear weapons, they’d already be used. Thanks to Israel’s strike, that future is not yet a reality.
Let the United Nations sputter. Let Brussels hide. Let China and Russia rage. The free world no longer answers to institutions that protect tyrants.
Critics will scream about escalation, as if escalation has not already arrived. They may demand diplomacy, as if a regime that slaughters its own people will ever negotiate in good faith.
And President Trump understands that better than anyone.
The Israeli military now stands as the world’s beacon of freedom—taking a lonely, high-risk stand in the face of global apathy. It deserves not just praise, but full-throated American support.
Israel has already taken the risk. America must match it with resolve. Because Israel is fighting our war—and should not bear the burden alone.
It is time to act.
Let the tyrants in Tehran, and all future despots who hold their people hostage, hear this: the free world is no longer appeasing. Your destiny is elimination. It is up to President Trump to follow through and ensure that the message is resoundingly received, now and in the future.
Andrew King is GP at Bastille Ventures, investing in critical technology furthering national security, and founder of the bipartisan nonprofit, Future Union, working with the private sector to combat state espionage, and advises Congress, the Select Committee on China, Dept. of Treasury, Dept. of Commerce, and White House. Formerly, he was the general counsel of the Dallas Stars NHL team and corporate lawyer, hedge fund investor, and investment banker.
