The current discourse on the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and the subsequent changes to the global order often relies on understanding the world on the white supremacist terms of hierarchical powers, wars, and spheres of influence. It assumes that the Western ruling elite determine the course of history. It seeks to divide the world into narrow terms of “nation-states” and geopolitical alliances that trade in transactional relationships and carefully balance out their gains and losses. This way of knowing the world disregards the masses of people who have been shaped by their anti-colonial struggles and know too well the human cost of slavery, colonialism, and countless wars that have been waged in the name of white supremacy. The world’s people strive for peace and justice as the world around them is rapidly changing.
The majority of the American people do not support the war against Iran. Approximately 60 percent of Americans view Israel unfavourably, especially young people. More broadly they lack faith in their government and the political system. Mainstream media explains this widespread dissatisfaction among the American people as due to lack of jobs and increasing inflation due to war.
At the same time, we see the determined resistance of the people of Iran, Palestine, and Lebanon, who willingly face economic threats and sanctions for maintaining not just the sovereignty of their own nation but standing up for their brothers and sisters beyond their national borders in their common struggle against the Empire.
Neither the American people’s war-weariness nor the Iranian and Palestinian resistance can be explained in economic and political terms alone. It obscures the deeper crisis that engulfs the Western world at this moment — a crisis driven by ordinary Americans who are rejecting the narratives imposed on them and trying to define their relationship to the world’s people unmediated by the standards of the Western ruling elite.
Looking at these events in civilizational terms clarifies the shift in the consciousness of the American people as well as the worldview that shapes the people of the darker nations, which has profound importance at this moment. Here I use the term civilization broadly as an ideology or a system of values that is articulated through decisions that govern the actions of a group of people. Thus, this moment of crisis also becomes one of new possibilities that must be fought for by people to determine their own standards and values that will continue to shape civilization.
The American Ruling Elite and Zionism as Civilizational Ties
James Baldwin said: “The state of Israel was not created for the salvation of the Jews; it was created for the salvation of the Western interests. The Palestinians have been paying for the British colonial policy of ‘divide and rule’ and for Europe’s guilty Christian conscience for more than thirty years… The Jew, in America, is a white man. He has to be, since I am a black man, and, as he supposes, his only protection against the fate which drove him to America. But he is still doing the Christian’s dirty work, and black men know it.”
The effort to establish Israel started with the Balfour Declaration of the British Empire in 1917, which promised Jews a homeland in Palestine. After World War I, the British and French Empires carved up this region in the Middle East between themselves, with Britain controlling Palestine and furthering the establishment of the State of Israel. This was an effort to secure and control the Suez Canal, an important trade route and key to maintaining the British Empire, making it a white supremacist endeavour in its origin. On the other hand, in the 1930s onwards, the Jews who immigrated to America assimilated into dominant society, thus accepting and identifying with the white supremacist ideology.
Thus, the ideological relationship that undergirds the alliance of the U.S. ruling elite and the Israeli state is that of white supremacy, which sees itself as superior to the rest of humanity on the basis of race. Zionism — in the guise of victimhood — imposes unequal, apartheid conditions on Palestinians. It denies their humanity as non-white people, robs them of their land, and subjects them to genocide as a continuation of Western civilization’s legacy of colonialism and slavery.
Calling itself a “democracy” along Western values, Israel invokes the right to defend itself while invading other nations as a defence of Western civilization. Netanyahu’s speech in the U.N. in 2004 clearly spelled it out: “When you stand with Israel, you stand for your own values and your own interests. Yes, we’re defending ourselves, but we’re also defending you against a common enemy that, through violence and terror, seeks to destroy our way of life.” This statement clarifies two assumptions: first, that the Western way of life is superior to all others, and second, that non-Western people are violent terrorists.
Trump’s threat stating “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again” reveals this common ground with Israel. Going beyond threatening to impoverish a country and destroy Iran’s economy, which is already being done through sanctions for many years, it was an explicit threat to eliminate a whole nation and civilization of non-white people. It asserted that everything that Iranians have produced in art, music, and knowledge through centuries of struggle amounts to nothing in the course of human history. But this logic goes beyond just the personality of Trump. This was the logic of all the previous U.S. administrations: of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and of Obama’s approval of the bombing of Libya and the killing of Gaddafi, of the war in Vietnam and many more. From this worldview, there can only be one path to civilization dictated by the white supremacist terms of the West.
The U.S. state has spent approximately 21 billion dollars since October 2023 supporting the genocide in Palestine and the war against Iran. This parasitic relationship between the U.S. state and Israel continues to deepen with the recent move to integrate U.S. and Israeli militaries and increase weapons research, production, and technology exchange. This merging of economic, military, and political power in defense of Zionism as an ideology makes this relationship a civilizational alliance — as a continuation of white supremacy and colonialism.
The U.S. has waged many wars for maintaining a unipolar world order, for neocolonial pursuits of installing puppet regimes that support unequal trade treaties, and for establishing spheres of influence. The recent invasion of Venezuela, the war on Iran, and the continuing aggression against Cuba all reveal, beyond purely economic and political interests, the white supremacist desire for hegemonic control, dominance, and power. The ongoing war in Iran has hurt the U.S. both economically by impacting shipping and energy supply lines, and politically by impacting its image as a global power. Despite these huge economic and political costs, the U.S. pursued this war for regime change, highlighting the assumption that only white people have a right to determine who can govern and how that governance must proceed. Further, they assume that only Western or white nations have the right to power that can dictate the terms that shape the world.
Another example of white supremacist terms is the hypocritical demand by the U.S. for Iran to dismantle its nuclear program even for civilian uses and to destroy its enriched uranium stockpile while both the U.S., Israel, and other Western nations are nuclear weapon equipped nations. Owing to Islamic law which prohibits the production or use of weapons of mass destruction as immoral, Iran does not own a nuclear weapon. However, the question here is not about nuclear weapons but of double-standards and sovereignty: who has the authority that determines the future path of the Iranian people? Will it be the West or will it come from the Iranian people themselves?
Behind this demand lies their fear that the darker nations might use the same tactic of violence that the West used against them. As pointed out by Baldwin, “The white man’s unadmitted — and apparently, to him, unspeakable — private fears and longings are projected onto the Negro. The only way he can be released from the Negro’s tyrannical power over him is to consent, in effect, to become black himself. ”
The Western legacy of the atomic bomb or chemical weapons that destroyed the lives of many darker peoples has created this psychological fear within the Western elite. As Baldwin had said: “although the Americans are certainly capable of precipitating Armageddon, their most desperate desire is to make time stand still. If time stands still, it can neither judge nor accuse nor exact payment.” The American ruling elite wage wars against the darker nations in the hope that they can reverse time and go back to a world where the West was a dominant power subjugating the world’s people — a time of colonialism and Empire so they can go on without any responsibility for their crimes against humanity.
While the Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar that ally themselves with the West benefit economically, even this pledge of allegiance is one-sided. As seen in the war with Iran, the U.S. is willing to sacrifice them as collateral damage while investing all its resources in defending Israel — making it evident that the terms of the Empire are based in white supremacy and not on economic interests. The only allies worth defending are the white Western nations.
Lastly, the civilizational ties between the Zionist class and the American ruling elite were revealed in the Jeffrey Epstein files. The common values of racism, decadence, and the addiction to power between the two groups cannot be exemplified more clearly. The Epstein case reveals how the immoral lives led by the elite dictated not just the lives of these few individuals but the essence of the American state itself. It shows how American and Israeli elites see themselves as one class, bound by a common civilization that transcends national boundaries. This circle of people orchestrate wars, manufacture tensions across the world to profit from them, and their utter disregard for human beings reveals their moral degradation. This is the culture and civilization of white supremacy.
Iran as a Civilization State: A State for the Whole People
On the other side of the battleline is the Iranian State, emerging from the struggle against Western domination, backed by the people of Iran. The Iranian people derive their sense of identity from a roughly 5,000-year-old history which synthesizes Persian and Islamic civilizational pasts, which were in turn shaped by influences from the Egyptian, Indian, and Chinese civilizations. Their worldview reflects this ancient past but is also shaped by their revolutionary struggle to renew their civilization.
The modern-day Islamic Republic of Iran is a Civilizational State, which replaced a monarchy in 1979. It was founded after the successful revolution carried out by the Iranian people led by Ayatollah Khomenei which overthrew the rule of the Western-backed monarch Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The rule of the Shah attacked the religious fabric of the country and forced the implementation of Westernized ideas of modernization and progress against the will of the people. These included forced secularization, inequitable land redistribution, and privatization of government-owned enterprises. The Shah, backed by the CIA and British intelligence, carried out a coup in 1953 that removed a democratically elected government headed by Mohammed Mossadegh after he nationalized the oil industry of Iran.
As a result of this history, the Iranian State and people remain in battle with Western civilization which has tried to thwart their self-determination and undermine their sovereignty. The Iranian State today is the concrete embodiment of a democratic instrument of the people in defense against white supremacy. The unique organization of the Iranian State ensures the continuation of the revolutionary ideology as a testament to the mandate given by the people. Despite harsh economic sanctions imposed by the West, Iran has highly functioning social, political, and educational institutions that serve the people.
The success of a revolution is determined by the consciousness of the people that emerge from it. The Iranian revolution synthesized the moral and political responsibility of every individual in the remaking of society to realise economic and social justice for all. This memory carries strongly within the Iranian people even till today. Hard sanctions by the West have kept the people of Iran under economic strain, yet they resist bravely. They willingly sacrifice their economic well-being for the cause of the freedom of the Palestinian people and also the Axis of Resistance. As Israeli and U.S. bombs fell around them, they flooded the streets to mourn the assassination of their Supreme Leader Khamenei. When Trump announced that he will bomb “Iran back to the Stone Ages,” women and men formed human chains around power plants and bridges in defense of their nation — a magnificent display of nonviolence and civilization. This resistance to white supremacy and willingness to sacrifice for the cause of national sovereignty is a testament to the true progress of civilization.
Another remarkable display of civilization was the funeral accorded to a street sweeper Hasan Kheiran, who was killed in U.S.-Israeli airstrikes. The deep respect shown to recognize his martyrdom for the nation shows how a society built on the principle of dignity and service understands the value of human life.
It is from this unique historical, political, and social experience that the leadership of Iran is constituted. The principles of sacrifice, service, and martyrdom are inherent to the nation’s cadre of leadership. It was evidenced by the world when they carried the photographs of the children martyred in Minab with them for the negotiations with the U.S. administration. It was not symbolism but the display of character of Iran’s leaders, who place moral principles over immediate economic or political gains.
The people of Iran share a deep sense of solidarity with the people of the world in this common struggle against white supremacy. In 1979, in the midst of the Iranian revolution, the people took over the U.S. embassy and held U.S. citizens as hostages. However, they released all the Black students and employees recognizing them as the oppressed of the U.S. imperial system, and that “Black Americans for a long time have lived under oppression and pressure in America.”
The recently martyred Supreme Leader Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei once spoke about the Civil War in America, describing the “deceitfulness of the civilized” which sought to support the emancipation of the Black workers from Southern plantations only because they wanted to benefit from the cheap labour for Northern industry rather than for moral reasons. More recently, he had praised the encampments in U.S. universities, in which students sacrificed for opposing the genocide in Gaza, as heroic and said, “As the page of history is turning, you are standing on the right side of it.” Talking about the genocide in Gaza, he said, “The scope of this crime was so extensive that it has shook the conscience of the people of the world. People around the world are infuriated, and we all know that this feeling of anger that has arisen in people, will create a reaction that no one can stop.”
The American People: In Midst of Civilizational Collapse but Reaching Towards Humanity
In stark contrast to Iran, today in America, the people are confronted with a society undergoing a complete collapse of governance and social institutions. This collapse is a reflection of a deeper spiritual crisis of the State and its institutions which are highly immoral. The majority of Americans today know from their experience that they do not live in a true democracy, where human beings are valued. In the land of billionaires, roughly 35.9 million (~10.6 percent) people live in poverty. There is widespread homelessness, gun-violence, an intentional dismantling of the public school education system, and a rise in addiction and gambling. This crisis of civilization is a culmination of not heeding to the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. when he said: “Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words, ‘Too late.’ ”
The rise of populism in the 2016 and 2024 elections marked the rise of discontented masses who were unhappy with neoliberalism and endless wars. Yet Trump’s betrayal of his own election promises — as a peace candidate who would not engage in wars — bears heavily on the American people today. They emphatically reject both the wars and the duopoly that are tied to the Israel lobby. This can be seen clearly with people broadly rejecting AIPAC-funded candidates in Democratic primaries. The increasing anti-Israel and anti-war voices of Tucker Carlson, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Candace Owens, and Thomas Massie also represents this deeper shift of the American people away from the Zionist-white supremacist civilization. The student encampments in 2024 were also a brilliant and courageous example of young Americans making it clear that they morally oppose the genocide against the Palestinian people being carried out in their name. This rejection was not rooted in self-interest — instead the youth paid a heavy price for their moral stance through the attacks made by the Zionists and the U.S. State.
The highest affront to the American people by the parasitic Israeli state and the decadent American ruling elite was the exploitation of their own children by elites within the Epstein circle. This, seen along with the ruthless killing of innocent children who were bombed in Minab or Gaza, has made clear that a civilization that does not recognize the child as sacred is no civilization at all. It is at this moment that a significant number of the Americans have broken from this shared sense of life. It is clear that no civilization can survive without the broad base of people supporting it. The terminal decline of white civilization may explain the deranged hubris and desperation with which the Trump administration and Israel waged this war to begin with. Yet it is exactly the internal collapse of the American people’s belief in this so-called civilization — coupled with the strength of the Iranian people’s resistance — that has brought the U.S. and Israel to their knees in humiliating defeat.
Today, as the American people search for a way out of this dying civilization, the resolution of this crisis depends upon our willingness to take up the moral choice. We must refuse to live sheltered isolated lives in search of material gains and safety while poverty, racism, and war remain the realities of the societies we live in. The world we live in is an interconnected world: a single garment of destiny that binds us with the Iranian and the Palestinian people. To become mature human beings, it is important to recognize that we are in the midst of a civilization war and we must choose sides: white supremacy or humanity. To inherit the history of Black people’s resistance to white supremacy is to truly inherit this world shaped by the beauty and the flowering of human potential.
Dr. Martin Luther King’s words beckon us all in calling for a rebirth of civilization: “A genuine revolution of values means in the final analysis that our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies. This call for a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one’s tribe, race, class, and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing — embracing and unconditional love for all mankind.”
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