• Video evidence contradicts Israel’s claims of intercepting all Iranian drones, while settler leaders revive visions of a ‘Greater Israel’ rooted in colonial ambition.
• U.S. prepares evacuation flights from Israel and signals potential military alignment.
As tensions deepen between Iran and Israel, the nature of the conflict—and the rhetoric surrounding it—are exposing deeper ideological motives and long-term ambitions that critics argue echo past colonial strategies in the region.
Israeli War Narrative Unravelling
Earlier this week, Iran claimed it had carried out successful drone strikes using bunker-piercing warheads, allegedly targeting Israeli defence infrastructure. While the Israeli military maintains that all drones were intercepted without triggering sirens, video footage shared on social media appears to contradict that account, suggesting at least one strike reached its target.
The disparity between the two sides’ versions has fuelled scepticism in regional media and among observers who have grown wary of unverified wartime claims from Tel Aviv.
A Defiant Response to Western Pressure
Ayatollah Khamenei responded to calls from former U.S. President Donald Trump for Iran’s “unconditional surrender,” after Trump declared the U.S. had “complete and total control of the skies over Iran.” Khamenei countered firmly:
“The people of Iran do not surrender. We do not threaten anyone and we do not accept any kind of threat.”
This firm stance comes amid growing criticism that U.S. policies have emboldened Israeli aggression, rather than containing the conflict.
Adding weight to Iran’s position is a resurfaced remark from Trump’s own former Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, who previously stated that Iran was not actively developing a nuclear weapon. Trump dismissed her conclusion with a telling response: “I don’t care.”
Colonialist Language and “Greater Israel”
Beyond the battlefield, ideological and territorial visions have become increasingly difficult to ignore. In a resurfaced clip, Israeli settler leader Daniela Weiss—a former mayor of Kedumim—describes a long-term Zionist goal of “Greater Israel,” spanning from the Euphrates to the Nile. Her remarks include references to “Southern Lebanon… even parts of Syria, part of Iraq, part of Iran,” revealing what critics call a blueprint for expansionism far beyond Israel’s recognised borders.
Such rhetoric reinforces what many analysts describe as a colonialist approach, in which religious ideology is used to legitimise military occupation and the suppression of neighbouring states.
Washington Signals a Shift
In a stark turn of events, the U.S. has begun preparing evacuation flights for citizens in Israel, raising alarms over the potential for a broader regional war. American officials have also signalled potential military alignment with Israel, a move that marks a clearly hypocritical reversal from past promises of non-intervention.
In a 2016 foreign policy speech, Donald Trump proclaimed: “We will stop racing to topple foreign regimes that we know nothing about, that we shouldn’t be involved with.”
What is increasingly difficult to deny is that Israel’s actions, supported and shielded by the United States, go far beyond self-defence. The open embrace of religiously justified territorial claims, the repeated disregard for international borders, and the systematic targeting of neighbouring states point not to security—but to settler-colonial expansionism masquerading as national survival.
