The twelve-day war between Iran and Israel in June 2025 marked one of the most dangerous escalations in the Middle East in recent memory. The conflict began when Israel launched a precision strike on a high-level Iranian military leadership, killing top IRGC commanders. Iran responded with a wave of ballistic missiles and drone attacks targeting Israeli military bases and economic sites.

Israel’s targeted killing of Iranian leaders triggered a devastating 12-day war with massive civilian suffering.

In retaliation, Israel conducted massive bombardments across Iranian territory, reportedly damaging key infrastructure. However, civilians largely bore the brunt, apartment buildings collapsed, hospitals overflowed, and thousands were displaced within days. Hundreds of lives were lost on both sides, many of them innocent civilians, children, women, and the elderly, caught in the crossfire of geopolitical vengeance.

The world watched in real-time as two powerful nations traded fire with frightening precision. But beneath the headlines and diplomatic statements, the conflict exposed a graver reality that this war was not a bilateral breakdown rather it was a byproduct of unchecked impunity. Israel struck first and struck hard.

Iran responded not from a position of aggression, but from a place of violated sovereignty. The foundational trigger, which was Israel’s deliberate assassination of the Iranian leadership, set the tone for the rest of the confrontation. And yet, as apartment blocks in Tehran burned and sirens wailed in Tel Aviv, a more haunting question emerged, Who will stop Israel?

If we strip the geopolitical jargon and see things from a human, common lens, Israel emerges as the clear aggressor. The conflict did not erupt in a vacuum. Israel’s targeted killing of Iran’s senior military and political leadership initiated the escalation. Iran retaliated, but as any sovereign state would when its national dignity is trampled so brazenly.

Yet what shocks the conscience is not just the war but the complete paralysis of global institutions and, more importantly, the deafening silence of the self-proclaimed guardian of global order, the United States. Where was the United Nations? Where was the so-called “rules-based international order”? And above all, where was the US, the hegemon, the superpower, the self-appointed custodian of peace? The answer is plain to see and darker than we imagined.

The US was not absent. It was complicit. The military hardware, diplomatic cover, and strategic green light that Israel receives from the US is now an open secret. The Iran-Israel war was not just a bilateral confrontation. It was an exhibition of an unholy alliance, nurtured over decades, now emboldened by blood.

The US provided diplomatic cover and military support to Israel, undermining global peace efforts.

As a Pakistani, watching this dangerous dance of American imperialism and Israeli militarism, one can ask: Are we next? Let’s juxtapose the current situation with Pakistan. Swap Israel with India and Iran with Pakistan, a nuclear Muslim state facing a hostile, revisionist neighbor that enjoys US support. Israel used force with impunity against Iran, assassinated leaders, bombed nuclear sites, and faced no real consequences. Instead, it received backing, militarily, diplomatically, and politically, from the United States.

Now, imagine India, already receiving American defense support, part of QUAD, lobbying against Pakistan on international forums. If India follows Israel’s model, emboldened by silence from global institutions, would the world react any differently if India strikes Pakistan’s nuclear facilities? This is not paranoia. It is precedent. The bloody precedent Israel has set, with full US blessing, will echo beyond the Middle East. It teaches the world that force works. That international law is optional. That diplomacy is dead if you have the right friends.

The failure of international institutions was stark and glaring. Despite clear violations of the UN Charter, including the prohibition on one state launching an unprovoked attack on a sovereign state (Article 2(4)), no Security Council resolution was passed in these 12 days to curb the attacks. Different states produced statements calling for ceasefires, protection of nuclear sites, and respect for sovereignty, but none resulted in binding action.

The Atlantic Charter’s principles, later enshrined in the UN Charter, reject aggression by any state. Yet when Israel massacred Iranian civilians, targeted nuclear facilities, and breached laws of armed conflict, the world’s key power brokers did nothing beyond issuing moral condemnations. Under the 1977 Additional Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions, especially Articles 55 and 57, ‘attackers must protect civilian infrastructure and avoid disproportionate damage.’ Bombing nuclear sites without restraint is explicitly prohibited. And yet, Israel did all that, with US support, and achieved a bloody demonstration that ‘might truly make’ right in today’s warped international order.

Pakistan must draw urgent and painful inferences. In a world where might is the only right. Global morality is not only absent, it has been buried under rubble in Gaza, vaporized in Damascus, and now burnt in Tehran. We must revisit our defense doctrine, rethink our strategic alliances, and above all, prepare for a future where no one will come to our rescue when push comes to shove.

International institutions failed to act decisively, exposing the limits of the rules-based order.

The US-Israel partnership, once defended as a strategic necessity it now thrives on the blood of innocents. Gaza is a graveyard of children. Tehran was bombed with impunity. And the West calls it “self-defense.” This hypocrisy is not just insulting, it’s dangerous. It emboldens aggressors everywhere, especially in South Asia. The international community has failed. And in that failure lies a clear message for Pakistan: “Don’t expect justice, prepare for injustice. Don’t rely on alliances, build deterrence, and don’t look for rescue, build resilience.”

In the contemporary world, security will not come from UN resolutions or Western goodwill; rather, it will come from strength, strategy, and self-reliance. The Israel-Iran war has exposed the grotesque moral decay of the international system. Pakistan must not wait for a similar tragedy to learn the same lesson. History is being rewritten this time, not with ink but with airstrikes. And the ink of our time is blood.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. They do not represent the views, beliefs, or policies of the Stratheia.