JUNE 16 — I once shared tea with a war survivor in Tehran. His hands shook, not from fear, but from memory. “Every war,” he said, “starts with a lie. And the lie always comes dressed as a question: What if? What if they strike first? What if they have weapons?”
This past month, that old ghost was revived, wrapped in air raid sirens and flaming headlines. Israeli jets lit the sky above Iran, targeting what they called “imminent nuclear threats”. But behind the military jargon and global spin cycle, a darker truth stirs — one that demands more than our attention. It demands outrage.
Let’s get something straight. Iran has never declared war on any country in modern history. Not during the Shah’s era. Not under the Islamic Republic. It’s a regime with deep flaws, yes. But not a regime with a track record of invasion. The eight-year Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s? That was Saddam Hussein’s doing. Iran bled in defence. And while Tehran has undeniably backed militias and proxies across the region, its strategy has been reactive, not expansionist.
Israel, meanwhile, bombed first. Again.
With chilling precision, Israeli warplanes pounded Iranian territory, targeting suspected nuclear facilities and military leadership. The message was clear: pre-emption, not diplomacy. The justification? A cocktail of assumptions, none publicly backed by hard proof.
In retaliation, Iran unleashed drones and missiles in the hundreds. Some were intercepted, others found their mark. What followed wasn’t diplomacy, but silence. From Washington. From Brussels. From Canberra. The so-called defenders of international law looked the other way — again.
And yet, in a quiet office at The Hague, the scales of justice tilted for a moment.
In retaliation, Iran unleashed drones and missiles in the hundreds. Some were intercepted, others found their mark. What followed wasn’t diplomacy, but silence. — Reuters pic
The International Criminal Court — that long-maligned, often-ignored institution — issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. The charges? War crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, including the use of starvation as a weapon and the deliberate targeting of civilians.
The ink on the warrants is barely dry. But the implications are seismic. These are not rogue rebels. These are leaders of a country that claims moral superiority at every international podium. A country that invokes the Holocaust to justify occupation. A nation armed to the teeth with Western-made weapons, playing the eternal victim while turning entire neighbourhoods into rubble.
And where is Iran in all this, legally speaking? Absent from the ICC docket. No warrants. No trials. No charges.
Let’s not romanticise Tehran. This isn’t about sainthood. This is about consistency. If a state can bomb civilian infrastructure in a sovereign country without consequence — because it’s an ally — then the whole system of international justice collapses into farce.
The double standards reek. And the rest of the world — especially the Global South — can smell it.
The truth is, we’re being played. Not just by military strategists in Tel Aviv or the clerics in Qom. But by every polished diplomat who tells us that some lives are worth more than others. By every editor who buries war crimes under euphemisms like “surgical strike.” By every leader who offers condolences instead of accountability.
So, what will it take?
How many more children buried under concrete in Gaza? How many more scientists assassinated in Tehran? How many more cameras capturing the moment a hospital goes dark, again?
We can’t afford to wait for a reckoning that never comes. Justice doesn’t need permission from powerful allies. And history — real history — doesn’t care who funded the bombs.
The madness won’t stop until we stop pretending this is normal. Until we stop accepting the script that says some wars are righteous, and others are terror. Until we stop letting one country bomb its neighbours with impunity while another is choked for simply existing.
We were told that justice is blind. But right now, it looks the other way.
And when that happens, all that’s left is smoke — and the lie it carries with it.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
