Writer on Saudi Website Praised Israel’s Operation Rising Lion

In an article on the Saudi website Elaph titled “The Israeli Defense Forces – Mankind’s Defense against the Forces of Darkness,” Muhmmad Sa’d Khairallah, an Egyptian writer and political analyst who resides in Sweden, expressed unreserved support for the Israeli military operation against Iran and its nuclear facilities. 

By Rachel Avraham

According to a recent report published by MEMRI, “In an article on the Saudi website Elaph titled “The Israeli Defense Forces – Mankind’s Defense against the Forces of Darkness,” Muhmmad Sa’d Khairallah, an Egyptian writer and political analyst who resides in Sweden, expressed unreserved support for the Israeli military operation against Iran and its nuclear facilities, and slammed all those in the Arab world who condemn this operation. He argued that, by coming out against the Iranian regime, which is responsible for immense bloodshed in the many Arab countries and for grave crimes against the Iranian people themselves, Israel is doing a great service to the region and the world at large. Furthermore, he said, by attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities Israel is ridding humanity of an existential threat. “Israel is not just defending itself but waging a campaign on behalf of the [entire] free world against the Iran-led forces of darkness,” he wrote.”

According to the MEMRI report, “Stressing that the moral Israeli army focuses its attacks on military targets and avoids harming civilians, whereas Iran deliberately targets innocent people, Khairallah stated that Iran must be held accountable for its crimes, including the crime of orchestrating Hamas’ October 7 attack against Israel. He concluded by calling on the Iranian people to take advantage of this “historic opportunity” to topple their regime, and by thanking Israel “for defending itself [along with] the future of our children and grandchildren… and the values of freedom, dignity and the right to live.””

According to MEMRI, Khairallah wrote, “Looking at the horrific devastation Iran has wrought in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Gaza, we cannot be anything but astonished by those who attack Israel while ignoring the mounting destruction [caused by Iran in those countries]. The Arab victims killed by the Iranian militias and their proxies far outnumber the victims in all the wars between Israel and the Arab countries over the years. [There have been] millions of refugees and missing persons, as well as countless wounded and dead..”

Khairallah stressed, “This is in addition to the ongoing crimes [of the Iranian regime] against the Iranian people themselves: the suppression of protests, the murder of nonviolent demonstrators, and the silencing of any voice that demands freedom and a civil state instead of the blood-soaked rule of the clerics. One of the tools of this criminal machine is Iran’s Houthi puppet, as it has come to be known, namely that gang that threatens the security and stability of the Gulf under direct orders from Tehran just because the peoples of the Gulf have chosen the path of construction and peace over the hollow slogans of war.”

According to Khairallah’s article that was translated by MEMRI, “The precise strikes carried out by the Israel Defense Forces [IDF] against Iranian military sites and facilities early Friday morning were the epitome of justice, and proclaimed loud and clear that the [Iranian] machine of destruction must pay a price for its crimes. With this legitimate act, Israel is not just defending itself but waging a campaign on behalf of the [entire] free world against the Iran-led forces of darkness, those forces that sanctify death and that murder the future in the name of a distorted past and false slogans that have brought [people] nothing but misery…”

“”Here lies the true test of our shared humanity: [deciding] to which camp we belong – the camp of life, liberty and dignity, or the camp of darkness…,” Khairallah asked rhetorically. “Israel, in its humanity, repeatedly demonstrates that it does not target innocent Iranian civilians, but directs its strikes precisely at [Iran’s] military commanders, nuclear facilities and military facilities, in order to save itself, the region and the world from an impending disaster. Iran, on the other hand, deliberately targets civilians, and launches missiles at Israeli cities in order to cause casualties among innocent people.” So far, 24 Israelis have been killed and nearly 600 have been injured in Iran’s ballistic missile strikes. All of the Israeli victims are civilians. Khairallah noted, “What a vast difference between values that protect human life and forces that can breathe only the scent of blood.”

According to Khairallah, “It is disheartening to see that some people condemn Israel for defending itself and the region from a nuclear threat that endangers all of mankind. Is there a greater injustice than shielding a criminal from punishment while condemning the victim for defending his existence? Is it not justice that Iran should bear the consequences for orchestrating the October 7, 2023 terror [attack]? Is it not reasonable to hold it to account for its crimes against the peoples of the Middle East?”

According to MEMRI, Khairallah then recounted Iran’s crimes against its own people: “In this context, we must remember, with both pride and pain, the names enshrined forever in the annals of the resistance against the ayatollah regime – foremost among them Mahsa Amini, the young Kurdish-Iranian woman who was killed by the [Iranian] morality police in September 2022 simply because her hijab did not meet the standards of the oppressors. Her martyrdom sparked a sweeping popular uprising inside Iran and beyond that embraced the slogan ‘Woman, Life, Freedom.’ [Another martyr is] Neda Agha-Soltan, who was shot to death by the oppressive [regime] forces during the 2009 Green Movement protests for demanding a simple right: freedom and dignity for her people. In addition to these two there are hundreds of women and young girls who paid for their courage with their lives or their freedom. Many of them are incarcerated to this day in the prisons of the Rule of the Jurisprudent [i.e., the Iranian regime]. After all that has been said above – can anyone truly condemn those who come out against this criminal regime?”

Khairallah then concluded: “With this legitimate [act of] defense, Israel is doing an immense service to the region and to the world. If it manages to destroy or paralyze Iran’s nuclear program, it will effectively prevent a regime that harms other nations in the most abhorrent way from possessing deadly nuclear weapons…To the honorable Iranian people, [I say]: this is your historic opportunity to rid yourselves of the nightmare of the ayatollah regime. The entire world is watching as the masks of the clerics fall. The time has come to unite your will for the sake of a new Iran, one that belongs to its noble culture, not to the crimes of the ayatollahs committed in the name of religion.”

Photo from Avash Media: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_2025_Israeli_strikes_on_Iran#/media/File:Batch_3_Avash_15.jpg

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