OPINION: Cyber warfare and the ideological assault on freedom
The fight against Iran’s influence is not just Israel’s struggle. It is a battle for the integrity of all democracies, writes the executive director of We Believe In Israel
There was a time when warfare was defined by tanks and fighter jets, when borders were patrolled by armed guards and fortresses. But today, the most insidious threats to our freedom do not emerge from the obvious instruments of violence but from the dark recesses of cyberspace.
The Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI), a regime notorious for exporting terror and destabilising entire regions, has discovered that it can wield far greater influence through a keyboard than it ever could with a battalion.
We live in a world increasingly bound by digital infrastructure, where convenience is shadowed by vulnerability. The UK, like many of its allies, remains woefully unprepared for the kind of cyber onslaught that Tehran is now capable of unleashing.
This is no distant dystopia; the threat is real and present. In 2012, Iran launched a crippling cyberattack on Saudi Aramco, wiping out data from 30,000 computers and sending shockwaves through global energy markets. More recently, during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Iranian hackers targeted the UK’s National Health Service, attempting to sabotage life-saving operations while the nation struggled to cope with a health crisis.
It doesn’t require much imagination to envision the chaos a coordinated attack on the UK might bring. Picture this: small businesses wake up to find their bank accounts frozen, their systems locked by ransomware spreading like wildfire.
Families discover their smart devices—those supposed tools of convenience—hijacked and turned against them, leaving homes and businesses alike exposed.
Communications falter, emergency services crippled. A simple click by a regime operative halfway across the world could bring Britain to its knees, leaving ordinary citizens and small enterprises scrambling in confusion, without the resources to defend themselves against this unseen assault.
Yet, cyber warfare is only one aspect of Tehran’s broader strategy. Far more dangerous is the ideological subversion that it conducts under the guise of resistance and liberation. For years, the regime has exploited online platforms and international forums to fan the flames of division, particularly by targeting Jewish communities and Israel’s allies under the convenient label of “anti-Zionism.”
In this twisted form of cultural Marxism, identity becomes a weapon and any questioning of the narrative is met with accusations of racism, reactionism, or worse
Let’s be clear: this isn’t about social justice. What is being marketed as resistance is merely a rebranding of ancient hatreds, repackaged for modern sensibilities, now driven by the disinformation machine of a state intent on destabilising societies.
The true menace of this strategy lies in its ability to masquerade as a movement of empowerment, when in reality, it strips people of their freedom of thought and choice. Under the guise of liberation, the regime’s proxies and sympathisers lock individuals into rigid ideological traps that stifle debate and dissent.
What emerges is a twisted form of cultural Marxism, where identity becomes a weapon and any questioning of the narrative is met with accusations of racism, reactionism, or worse. Genuine discussion shrinks, giving way to a culture of grievance and perpetual victimhood.
Tehran’s assault is not confined to anti-Israel rhetoric; it seeks to redefine the very terms of discourse, turning vice into virtue and virtue into vice. Anti-Zionism, laundered through the language of human rights, is stripped of its historical context to obscure its real intent: denying Jewish self-determination and delegitimising the Jewish state. What was once the domain of openly antisemitic movements has now found a home in progressive circles, where it is disturbingly celebrated as moral high ground.
The sleight of hand here is deliberate—by presenting itself as a champion of the oppressed, the regime infiltrates Western societies that are too eager to adopt any cause that promises justice, however illusory.
This ideological subversion doesn’t merely silence opposition; it conditions entire communities to view liberation through a lens of enmity and exclusion. The so-called “resistance” Tehran supports offers no genuine path to freedom; instead, it perpetuates cycles of hatred and conflict. By glorifying victimhood while demonising reconciliation, the regime traps those it claims to support in a narrative of resentment and self-righteous rage.
It is a strategy as cynical as it is effective, ensuring that genuine dialogue is replaced by a culture of perpetual hostility.
The ultimate irony is that those who champion this ideology in the name of liberation are, in fact, agents of control. They deny people the freedom to think independently, to engage critically, and to arrive at their own conclusions. Instead, they enforce a rigid orthodoxy where moral complexity is sacrificed on the altar of political purity.
Tehran’s influence, far from offering liberation, is a tool of intellectual enslavement, a grotesque parody of the freedoms it pretends to uphold.
This is not merely a problem for Israel or the Jewish diaspora. The narrative Tehran promotes is one of division and supremacy, a pernicious ideology that weaponises free societies against themselves. Anti-Zionism, as it is propagated today, is not a harmless critique but a Trojan horse for theocratic fascism. It exploits Western freedoms and tolerance to embed itself within our discourse, cloaked in the language of human rights, while its true goal remains the delegitimisation of the Jewish state and the erosion of societal cohesion.
Tehran’s influence, far from offering liberation, is a tool of intellectual enslavement, a grotesque parody of the freedoms it pretends to uphold.
The potential for a cyberattack isn’t just an abstract concern; it’s a window into how Iran’s hybrid warfare strategy seamlessly blends the digital with the ideological. By failing to take these threats seriously, we leave ourselves perilously exposed on two fronts: cyber and moral. While Iran’s proxies and bots wage digital warfare, its ideological agents infiltrate our institutions and corrode our values, all while the world dithers.
It’s time to stop treating these issues as isolated concerns. The fight against Iran’s influence is not just Israel’s struggle; it is a battle for the integrity of our democracies and the preservation of our fundamental freedoms. Israel, once again at the frontline, offers the expertise and experience desperately needed to counter these threats. But this potential remains untapped, held back by an international community too captivated by its own anti-Zionist narratives to recognise the dangers on its doorstep.
The road ahead demands clarity and courage—traits that are increasingly rare in a world more eager to placate than to confront. We must rise to meet these threats, whether they come in the form of a digital blackout or the creeping acceptance of malicious ideologies.
Our security, principles and future depend on it.
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