In 1984, one of Orwell’s characters explains that “doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.” There’s a less elegant, yet equally absurd, way to describe the behavior of a politician who expresses two contradictory beliefs at once. People do what they want, and retrofit their ideological justification after the fact.
Israel’s war against Iran provides an unambiguous example of political doublethink. The United States is supporting Israel militarily, Trump called Israel’s attack “excellent,” and members of Congress from both major political parties have issued statements backing the Jewish state.
Yet the same U.S. and political leaders support Ukraine.
No two wars are identical, yet the circumstances of the Russo-Ukrainian War and the Israel-Iran conflict are remarkably analogous. Israel is to Iran as Russia is to Ukraine.
Russia claimed that the Ukrainian government’s ideological extremism and increasing ties to anti-Russian regional allies, particularly its professed desire to join NATO, presented an existential threat to its national security when it launched its “special military operation” in 2022. U.S. and Russian representatives met in Geneva a month before the invasion to try to hash out a peace deal. European leaders attempted to mediate between Ukraine and Russia. Talks failed; the Russians crossed the border.
Russia said it had to act to preempt a future attack. “Any further expansion of the North Atlantic alliance’s infrastructure or the ongoing efforts to gain a military foothold of the Ukrainian territory are unacceptable for us,” Putin said. Ukraine, Putin said at the time of the invasion, had to be stopped. “It is only a matter of time: they are getting ready, they are waiting for the right time. Now they also claim to acquire nuclear weapons. We will not allow this to happen. We have been left no other option to protect Russia and our people, but for the one that we will be forced to use today.”
Similarly, U.S. and Iranian diplomats met in Oman in the months leading up to Israel’s attack. The UAE passed messages between Iran and Israel, to no avail.
Israel said it was scared of Iran. It argued that Iran’s ideological and religious extremism and its anti-Israeli regional proxies, like Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis in the “Axis of Resistance,” endangered its security. “We are embarking on a campaign that is nothing short of existential—against an enemy that seeks to destroy us,” Major General Shlomi Binder, head of the intelligence directorate of the Israeli military, explained after Israel attacked Iran. “We aim to disrupt, degrade, and eliminate this threat.”
As Putin had said about Ukraine, Israel worried aloud that Iran wanted nuclear weapons and might use them. Israel refused to live with that possibility. “We have no alternative but to act swiftly,” Benjamin Netanyahu said. “We can’t leave these threats for the next generation. If we don’t act now, there won’t be a next generation.”
So Russia’s 2022 ground invasion and Israel’s 2025 air invasion were each preemptive wars sold as necessary to avoid threats that were not imminent (the standard required by international law) but inevitable, like America’s 2003 invasion of Iraq to neutralize its (nonexistent) WMDs.
In 2022, America sided with the defending state. In 2025, it sided with the aggressor.
The hypocrisy of the U.S.’s clear contradictory messaging on the two wars would be hysterical if it didn’t involve death, destruction and the further erosion of American credibility.
Russia was a U.S. adversary. So its professed worries were dismissed out of hand. “This was never about genuine security concerns on their part,” Biden said when the war began. “It was always about naked aggression…by choosing a war without a cause.” Secretary of State Tony Blinken chimed in: “It couldn’t be more clear. We have an aggressor. We have a victim.”
Israel, on the other hand, was a close U.S. ally and the top recipient of U.S. military aid. So its concerns were taken at face value, and amplified. “We of course support Israel, obviously, and supported it like nobody has ever supported it,” Trump said after Israel started the war. “Israel decided it needed to take action to defend itself. They were clearly within their right to do so,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said.
Which is it, America? Are we a country that stands up against invaders and aggressors? If so, we should be treating Israel the way we treated Russia. Kick Israel out of the international community. Impose harsh economic sanctions on Israeli officials and businessmen. Send billions of dollars in weapons to Iran so it can defend itself. Invite Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to address a joint session of Congress; put Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on the cover of Vogue. Festoon the suburbs with Iranian flags.
Or, are we instead a nation that sides with the visionary leader who boldly acts rather than stand idly by as an ominous threat against his country gathers force? If that’s who we are, we ought to write the same blank check to Vladimir Putin, who harbors legitimate concerns about a NATO-ized Ukraine, that we’ve given to Israel for its unsubstantiated paranoia about Iran. Give Russia targeting information so it can bomb Ukraine more effectively. Run interference for Russia whenever it gets criticized in the United Nations. If a student writes an essay supporting Ukraine for her college newspaper, drag her off the street and deport her. Ideological consistency demands no less.
There is, of course, zero chance that the United States will ever adopt a set of principles and adhere to them with integrity—i.e., even when it hurts a friend and helps a foe. So let’s stop pretending to care about ideas and ideals. Might makes right. We do whatever we want. Maybe, now that we’re 250 years old, being an empire means never having to make up excuses.
(Ted Rall, the political cartoonist, columnist and graphic novelist, is the author of “Never Mind the Democrats. Here’s WHAT’S LEFT.” Subscribe: tedrall.Substack.com.)
