In the blistering crucible of June 2025, as the sun scorches the deserts of Persia and the hills of Judea alike, a perilous drama unfolds. Iran and Israel—nations with ancient legacies and modern grievances—are ensnared in a spiral of retaliatory violence that may well redraw the fault lines of our global order. The air is heavy not just with dust and drone fire, but with the unspoken dread of a war uncontainable. The world has arrived at one of its most defining crossroads since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the American-led invasion of Iraq. And yet, silence and stammer remain the primary tools of global diplomacy.
At the heart of this unfolding calamity lies a clash not simply of two states, but of two national psyches shaped by trauma, survivalism, and the haunting pursuit of recognition. Israel is a nation born of ashes—Holocaust ashes, pogrom scars, and existential wars for survival. Its memory is muscular, carved into every policy, every Iron Dome interception, every retaliatory raid. Iran, once the cosmopolitan crown of the Persian Empire, stands cloaked in the firebrand robe of Islamic defiance—defiant of Western imperialism, wounded by sanctions, yet determined to assert its place as a sovereign regional force.
Both nations speak in a language of vengeance that echoes with theological undertones and historical wounds. But behind their roar lies a truth they rarely admit: neither wants obliteration. Both desire continuity. Both wish for respect, security, and sovereignty. Yet what they fail to see—or refuse to admit—is that their very survival now depends not on dominance, but on restraint and diplomacy.
This war—this terrifying theatre of hypersonic missiles, oil field sabotage, cyber incursions, and shadow assassinations—is not merely a regional quarrel. It is a gateway conflict. It is pulling threads from Lebanon to Yemen, Iraq to Syria, and threatening to engulf the fragile architecture of global stability. With oil prices surging, shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz under threat, and global diplomacy distracted by Ukraine, Taiwan, and climate emergencies, the Israel-Iran conflict becomes the kind of fire that consumes not just its arsonists, but the entire forest.
And what of the nuclear shadow? Though neither Iran nor Israel has formally declared nuclear warfighting capability, the world dances dangerously close to an unspoken line. Iran’s nuclear ambitions, long cloaked in ambiguity, are now partially exposed by Israeli airstrikes. Israel’s own nuclear arsenal, shrouded in silence and deterrence logic, remains the region’s worst-kept secret. What separates us from a full-scale nuclear confrontation is not strategy, but sheer fortune.
But fortune is not a policy. Nor is pride. And history does not look kindly on empires that believed themselves immune to collapse.
The solution lies not in battlefield supremacy, but in the humbling rediscovery of diplomacy. It must begin with the acknowledgment that no war—however just it may seem—can birth peace if built on the graves of the innocent. Tehran must look beyond its revolutionary zeal and re-enter the world of diplomacy with accountability and transparency. It must abandon its proxy warfare model that weaponizes Gaza, Lebanon, and Houthis as pawns in a game of ideological chess. It must see that real strength lies not in missiles, but in moral authority regained.
Israel, too, must look inward. It must shed the illusion that security can be achieved through disproportionate force alone. The Israeli doctrine of preemptive containment must evolve into one of strategic reconciliation. It must recognize that existential fear, while understandable, cannot justify an endless state of emergency. It must, for the sake of its own soul, rekindle the memory of Rabin—whose vision of peace, though assassinated, still flickers in the conscience of a weary region.
Both must be brought into a Middle East Security Compact, modeled not after the failed Oslo Accords nor the toothless Arab League declarations, but after post-Cold War security architectures that balanced mutual threat perception with international guarantees. Such a pact must be co-mediated by a neutral bloc—perhaps one led by South Africa, Brazil, Indonesia, and India—nations who are neither traditional allies nor historic enemies, but credible voices of the Global South seeking a rebalanced international order.
And yet diplomacy is not merely about structure—it is about sincerity. There must be truth commissions—not just about this war, but about the decades of manipulation, coups, occupation, proxy wars, and assassinations that have formed the psychological terrain of mistrust. The world must reckon with its own complicity. The United States must admit that its dual-track policies—arming one while sanctioning the other—have fed the beast. Russia and China must halt the transactional empowerment of Iran’s military complex. Europe must step beyond the theater of peace conferences and play a more active economic and humanitarian role.
The media, too, must cleanse its lens. We must move past the binary coverage of “terrorist” and “defender” and examine the cost of war on children, the aged, the dismembered cities, and the desecrated hopes of artists, poets, teachers, and mothers on both sides. The war must be seen in human terms again, not just strategic analysis and political posture.
The future demands a reshaping of identity. For Iran and Israel to step back from the abyss, they must no longer see themselves solely as warriors or victims, but as stewards of civilizations that once led the world in thought, medicine, music, and law. They must reach into their own classical legacies—the poetry of Rumi and the wisdom of Maimonides—and find a new language for coexistence.
For peace is not the absence of war; it is the presence of justice, the sound of dialogue, and the rediscovery of mutual destiny. A shared horizon awaits—one where Jerusalem and Tehran no longer glare across minefields, but mirror one another as cities sacred to time, history, and humanity.
We do not write this merely for politicians or generals. This is a call to artists, students, clergy, and civil society—those who carry the enduring light of culture and conscience. Let them rise. Let them demand peace not as appeasement, but as courage. Let them break the chains of inherited fear and plant gardens where rockets once fell.
And if the leaders of today fail to heed this call, let history inscribe their names not as saviors, but as warnings.
For if this war is not ended by diplomacy, it will be ended by disaster. The choice remains. The time is now.
About the Author:
Olujide Stephen Adesina is an award-winning author, security analyst, and cultural diplomat. He writes extensively on geopolitics, postcolonial conflicts, and African renaissance. His works bridge literary grace with strategic insight, rooted in both historical memory and future vision.
By Olujide Stephen Adesina
Global Afrika Network Publishing, June 2025
