The world stands at a perilous crossroads. As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares to visit US President Donald Trump – a meeting certain to focus on Iran – there is a moral imperative for Western leaders to confront Tehran not with well-worn diplomatic formulas or another round of negotiations but with a strategy designed to hasten the downfall of a regime that has repeatedly proven itself unworthy of engagement.
Too often, Tehran has bought time with talks while inflicting brutality on its own people and terror across the Mideast. Once again, Iran’s clerical regime has answered dissent with bloodshed on an unprecedented scale.
Since late December, nationwide protests have erupted amid economic collapse and political stagnation. According to emerging tallies, the regime’s crackdown has killed tens of thousands of people, with figures of 30,000-36,500 fatalities reported.
These figures do not even reflect the wider history of repression. In the earlier “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement, which began in 2021 after the death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of Iran’s morality police, hundreds were killed, and thousands more were wounded or detained as Iranians rose up against compulsory hijab laws and deep-seated gender oppression.
Iranians have endured systematic violence, arbitrary killings, torture, mass arrests, and executions – not as isolated episodes but as state policy. Human Rights Watch and United Nations investigations have documented crimes against humanity, including murder, torture, rape, and persecution, tied directly to regime directives rather than rogue elements.
Today’s crackdown is far larger and more ferocious, with thousands of confirmed deaths, all amid an enforced internet blackout. These are not the actions of a regime seeking reform; they are the actions of a regime desperate to survive and willing to murder its own citizens wholesale rather than relinquish control.
And, while Tehran murders its citizens, it also projects terror externally. Its IRGC and allied militias destabilize Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen, and its support for proxy terror networks has made the Mideast less secure, not more. The regime’s nuclear ambitions – undeterred by decades of negotiations – remain a grave threat to the West. These are matters not solely of geopolitics but of security and conscience.
Historically, Western engagement with Iran has oscillated between appeasement and cautious pressure. The Obama-era nuclear deal temporarily curtailed Iran but failed to address human rights abuses or regional militancy. Successive administrations have cycled through sanctions and diplomatic overtures, but the fundamental character of Iran has never changed. Today’s regime remains theocratic, repressive, and expansionist.
Netanyahu’s appeal to Trump should resonate in terms of moral clarity
In Washington, Netanyahu’s appeal to Trump should resonate not just in terms of strategic deterrence but moral clarity: A regime that kills its people cannot be trusted in negotiations that involve nuclear thresholds, regional security, or international norms. It is not enough to urge Iran to “come back to the table.” Millions have already paid with their lives while the table waits.
This is not a call for unchecked military adventurism but for a recalibration of Western policy that aligns with the values it claims to uphold. The US possesses unparalleled influence – economic, diplomatic, and, when necessary, military – to challenge regimes that undermine the fundamentals of human rights and security. Tehran’s clerical rulers must not again be allowed to use negotiations as cover for repression.
Netanyahu has long called for confronting the Iranian threat head-on; the West can and should do more than talk. It should marshal every appropriate means: intensified sanctions targeting the regime’s security apparatus, support for independent Iranian civil society and communications access, international referral of human rights abuses to appropriate legal forums, and, where necessary, coordinated pressure that deprives Tehran of the capability to harm its neighbors or itself.
In the visit to Washington, Netanyahu and Trump have an opportunity not just to posture but to lead. Let that leadership be defined by steadfast support for the Iranians’ cry for freedom and justice, not by another round of appeasing talks that allow tyranny to persist.
The Iranian regime’s brutality is not a distant abstraction; it is a humanitarian and security catastrophe that demands action, not more talks that buy time for killers to plan the next massacre.