We believe the words of Tehran’s tyrants

When the tyrants in Tehran declare that the State of Israel is a “cancerous tumor” that must be eradicated, we believe them.

When the regime displays a massive clock in Tehran counting down the time until Israel’s destruction, we believe them.

When the Islamic Republic’s leaders chant proudly “Death to Israel” and “Death to America,” we believe them.

The regime’s genocidal plans to build nuclear weapons that would annihilate Israel have been no secret for the past several decades.

While the world dismissed these threats as mere hyperbole, Israel did not.

That is why, during Friday’s emergency Security Council session at the United Nations, I explained to the world why we launched Operation Rising Lion — a preemptive operation aimed at neutralizing the very threat the international community chose to ignore.

This is not just a moment of reckoning for Israel — it is a defining test for the global order.

Can the world recognize the difference between rhetoric and reality? Between an aggressor bent on destruction and a nation fighting for its survival?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bold decision to launch Operation Rising Lion was not born of recklessness, but of necessity.

After years of intelligence warnings, diplomatic overtures and futile international negotiations, Iran continued racing toward nuclear breakout — enriching uranium to weapons-grade levels, concealing military nuclear activities from inspectors and building a ballistic missile arsenal capable of reaching far beyond the Middle East.

While Israel has been surgical in its strikes to minimize civilian casualties, the Islamic Republic has been targeting Israel’s population centers.

At every stage, Israel waited. Waited for diplomacy to work. Waited for the international community to act.

Waited, even as Iran’s web of terror proxies — Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis — unleashed wave after wave of terror against Israeli civilians.

But Israel cannot afford the luxury of denial. Not after the horrors of Oct. 7, when Iran-backed Hamas terrorists slaughtered families in their homes, mutilated women, and burned children alive.

That day laid bare the ideology at the core of Iran’s regime — an ideology not of politics, but of genocidal intent.

The Iranian regime is not misunderstood. It is not a victim. It is not a confused player in a complicated region.

It is the orchestrator of regional instability, the godfather of international terror, and the most immediate nuclear threat to global peace.

When a regime builds missiles, enriches uranium, recruits nuclear scientists and publicly declares its intention to wipe out another nation — Israel believes it. And acts accordingly.

But it is also precisely because Israel believes the Iranian regime that it stands with the Iranian people.

There is a critical distinction to be made here — one that too many in the international community blur, whether through ignorance or ideological dogma: The Iranian people are not the Iranian regime.

The same regime that calls for Israel’s destruction is the one that murders its own citizens in the streets of Tehran, jails women for refusing to wear hijabs, and silences every whisper of dissent with bullets, torture and exile.

Israel knows the people of Iran deserve better.

Critics will ask, “Why now?” But the better question is: How much longer did the world expect Israel to wait?

Until a nuclear warhead was mounted on a Shahab missile? Until nuclear warheads reached Tel Aviv?

Operation Rising Lion targeted three pillars of the Iranian threat: its nuclear facilities, its missile infrastructure and its plans of destruction for Israel.

The operation has so far been precise, deliberate and urgent. It was, above all, an act of national preservation.

Yet even now, many world leaders are hesitant. They call for “restraint” without distinguishing between attacker and defender.

They issue statements of “deep concern” while offering no alternative solutions.

And perhaps worst of all, they equate a democracy fighting for its life with a theocracy obsessed with death.

This must stop.

Moral equivalence is not moral clarity. It is cowardice wrapped in diplomacy.

A nuclear-armed Iran would not just destabilize the Middle East — it would unravel the global nonproliferation regime, ignite arms races across the globe, and place the most destructive weapons in the hands of fanatics who have shown they will use them.

Israel has done what the world should have done long ago.

It acted not only to protect its own citizens, but to prevent a regional — and possibly global — catastrophe. In doing so, it has made the world a safer place.

Now the world must make its own choice: To stand with a genocidal regime — or to stand with a democratic ally defending its people.

Israel’s message is clear. Never Again is not a slogan. It is our policy.

Ambassador Danny Danon is Israel’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations.