By Fr David Neuhaus
I write this with air raid sirens blaring in Jerusalem and Israeli war planes overhead. We are at war yet again. Israeli planes attacked Iran on Saturday morning, February 28,2026. The United States quickly joined in on the attack.
Sites all over Iran were bombarded and by the evening hours, the Israelis proudly proclaimed that the leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had been killed. In a footnote one could discover that many died with him, including his daughter and son-in-law and grandson.
Iran responded with bombardments all over Israel as well as in other neighboring countries including Bahrein, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia (which all host US military bases). Once again people are dying because of political choices.
There is no doubt that the leader who invested the most in making sure that the option of war rather than the option of negotiations would win out was Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. While Israel is still engaged in bombing Gaza and Lebanon, and brutalizing Palestinians in the West Bank, Netanyahu was lobbying with all his might for war with Iran.
This has been lucidly shown in an article by Israeli political analyst Ori Goldberg, published on the site +972 two days before war broke out. Click to read the article
Many are rushing to claim that this is a just war. Afterall, is not Iran a brutal, Islamic dictatorship that has crushed all opposition, oppressing women and ruling by terror. I do not want to justify any of the dark sides of the Iranian regime. However, when I hear some of the arguments, they are too often hyperbole based upon crude Islamophobia. I will give a few examples:
1. Iranian women
Popular discourse claims that women in Iran are not only forced to be veiled but are imprisoned in their homes, subject to men and unable to express themselves. Women should be free of all oppression everywhere and in Iran too! However, some facts on women in Iran are an interesting counterpoint though. There are two women who serve as ministers in the Iranian government (as opposed to only one woman in Israel), 14 women serve as parliamentary representatives out of 290 (as opposed to 29 out of 120 in Israel), 18-19% of those holding managerial positions in the Iranian civil service are women (as opposed to none in Israel), and in 2019, 41% of civil servants were women (source Google AI overview). Iran is not an egalitarian society by Western standards but it is not worse than many other countries. And certainly, the imposition of the veil on women who do not want to wear it is unacceptably oppressive. (It is perhaps interesting to remember that in 1936, the Shah of Iran brutally enforced a law banning the veil.)
2. Islamic republics are oppressive
Popular discourse claims that being an Islamic Republic, Iran oppresses other religious minorities. Some facts on religious minorities in Iran are an interesting counterpoint. The constitution of the Iran recognizes Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism as official religions. Most Christian Iranians are Armenian, Assyrian and Chaldean. Non-Muslims are defined according to Islamic law as People of the Book. They are granted rights not only to exercise their religious rites, but their schools, community centers and publications are funded by the government. Synagogues, churches and Zoroastrian temples are open in the country. Religious minorities hold five seats in the Iranian parliament. Those not fitting into officially defined categories like Bahai, Christian Evangelicals and converts to Christianity have often been targeted and prosecuted. This is not a country that guarantees complete equality for members of non-Muslim religious communities but it is far better than some US allies and friends of Israel.
Watch a PBS (US) documentary on the Jews in Iran here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHV1QUs-BA4
3. Iran is a cruel and bloodthirsty regime
Popular discourse depicts the regime as particularly cruel and bloodthirsty, drawing on images that were created during the fight against ISIS. The comparison with ISIS is absurd and ISIS persecuted Shiites (Iran’s religious majority) and was fought against by Iran. The recent waves of demonstrations against the Iranian regime were indeed ruthlessly crushed and many were killed. However, this horrendous reality of crushing opposition characterizes many of the US’s allies in South America, Asia and Africa. Furthermore, it should be remembered that the Iranian regime that preceded the Islamic Republic, that of the Shah of Iran, supported to the hilt by the US and Israel, employed a brutal police organism that was renowned for its cruelty, crushing all opposition (including that of the Shiite religious movements). It is an affront to human intelligence that the US and Israel seem to be proposing that the one to replace the present leadership in Iran is the son of the late Shah. Furthermore, let us not forget the thousands of Palestinians languishing in Israeli prisons, many of them without trial.
4. Supporting terrorism
Popular discourse depicts the regime as supporting terrorism around the world. Iran is accused of supporting Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Palestine and the Houthis in Yemen. All of these are defined as terrorist organizations by the US, Israel and their allies. It should be pointed out though that both the US and Israel support organizations that might be no less problematic. The US kidnapping of Venezuelan President Maduro is only one example of the use of violence to intervene in an overseas country. Israel arms and aids militias and opposition groups in a number of countries (examples include Iran itself, the Gaza Strip (arming local militias), Syria, Lebanon, Sudan and Somalia).
5. Nuclear weapons
Finally, popular discourse spreads fear because Iran has nuclear weapons. That is indeed frightening. However, frightening too is the fact that Israel has a huge nuclear arsenal. Calling for Iran to give up its nuclear arsenal is indeed justified but let us not let Israel off the hook.
Let us make no mistake: this war is not a war between the forces of justice and light against the forces of oppression and darkness. This war is not about freedom for the Iranian people. Netanyahu and Trump, true warmongers, are in this for their own gain. Both of them need wars to divert attention from the real issues that we should be focused on.
Read a fascinating analysis of Trump’s Iran politics by British David Hearst, who is co-founder and editor-in-chief of Middle East Eye here. Click to read the article
I keep on thinking: did we learn nothing from the war on Iraq just a few decades ago?
We must pray that the warmongers can be stopped because they will continue until our world is reduced to ruins.
Let us meditate again on the words of Pope Francis in his encyclical Fratelli tutti, paragraph 261:
“Every war leaves our world worse than it was before. War is a failure of politics and of humanity, a shameful capitulation, a stinging defeat before the forces of evil. Let us not remain mired in theoretical discussions but touch the wounded flesh of the victims. Let us look once more at all those civilians whose killing was considered ‘collateral damage’. Let us ask the victims themselves. Let us think of the refugees and displaced, those who suffered the effects of atomic radiation or chemical attacks, the mothers who lost their children, and the boys and girls maimed or deprived of their childhood. Let us hear the true stories of these victims of violence, look at reality through their eyes, and listen with an open heart to the stories they tell. In this way, we will be able to grasp the abyss of evil at the heart of war. Nor will it trouble us to be deemed naive for choosing peace.”
Fr David Neuhaus
Catholic Priest
Fr David Neuhaus is a Catholic priest and member of the Jesuit community in the Holy Land. He has written a book, Conquest or Leaven: Reflections of a Catholic Priest in Palestine/Israel.
