Articles

Israel’s Greatest Threat Isn’t Iran or Hamas, but Its Own Hubris, by Orly Noy – 15 June 2025

From +972 Magazine

A people whose entire existence depends solely on military might is destined to end up in the darkest corners of destruction, and ultimately, in defeat.

It has been more than 46 years since I left Iran with my family at the age of nine. I have spent most of my life in Israel, where we built a family and raised our daughters — but Iran has never ceased to be my homeland. Since October 2023, I have seen countless images of men, women, and children standing beside the ruins of their homes, and their cries are etched in my mind. But when I see the images from Iran after the Israeli attacks and hear the cries in Persian, my mother tongue, the sense of collapse within me feels different. The thought that this destruction is being carried out by the country of which I hold citizenship is unbearable.

Over the years, the Israeli public has grown convinced that it can exist in this region while harboring deep contempt for its neighbors — engaging in murderous rampages against anyone, whenever and however it pleases, relying solely on brute force. For nearly 80 years, “total victory” has been just around the corner: just defeat the Palestinians, eliminate Hamas, crush Lebanon, destroy Iran’s nuclear capabilities — and paradise will be ours.

But for nearly 80 years, these so-called “victories” have proven Pyrrhic. Each one digs Israel into a deeper pit of isolation, threat, and hatred. The Nakba of 1948 created the refugee crisis that refuses to go away and laid the foundation for the apartheid regime. The 1967 victory gave rise to an occupation that continues to fuel Palestinian resistance. The war of October 2023 spiraled into a genocide that turned Israel into a global pariah.

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Orly Noy is an editor at Local Call, a political activist, and a translator of Farsi poetry and prose. She is the chair of B’Tselem’s executive board and an activist with the Balad political party. Her writing deals with the lines that intersect and define her identity as Mizrahi, a female leftist, a woman, a temporary migrant living inside a perpetual immigrant, and the constant dialogue between them.

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