Despite the barbaric Hamas massacres on 7 October, extremist Muslims, the far left and the mainstream media predictably rallied to attack Israel. Although Jews have been indigenous to the land for more than 3,000 years, these groups brand Israeli Jews as non-indigenous colonisers. Such accusations turn a blind eye to Iran; a belligerent, imperialist coloniser with antisemitic, genocidal intent.

Iran’s patronage of its proxy Hamas led to the latest conflagration in the volatile Middle East, exposing the Islamic Republic’s radical Shia ideology that threatens Israel, Sunni Gulf Arabs and beyond. Yet Iran’s malign extra-territorial warfare has attracted little general attention.

In contrast, the egregious human rights violations within Iran’s authoritarian theocracy are well known, although executions of gay men and minors, or imprisonment of women for ‘bad hijab’, have not mobilised the left or feminists. During waves of unrest, protesters were killed, injured and arrested by ‘morality police’.

Recently increased surveillance and punishments for hijab transgressions are consistent with the hard-line views of current President Ebrahim Raisi, known as ‘The Butcher of Tehran,’ for his part in the mass executions of Iranian political prisoners during 1988.

Iran’s leadership applauded the vicious torture and murder on 7 October, and its fingerprints can be seen in the training, weapons and finance for Hamas in Gaza – about US$100 million annually with additional funding for its sister militia, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).

Hamas, PIJ and many Palestinian Arabs have been infected with antisemitic ideology from two sources. First, the wartime Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, who collaborated with Hitler. Second, the antisemitic Soviet propaganda that inspired current Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to write his thesis on Holocaust denial while studying at the Patrice Lumumba People’s Friendship University in Moscow.

Little wonder that Hamas ideology incorporates an extermination jihad against Jews and Israel in addition to creating a global caliphate. These goals align with the ideology of Isis jihadis, who tried to secure a worldwide caliphate. With similar aims, Iran deploys the radicalised Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), sworn to Iranian expansionism and an ‘ideological mission of jihad’ to export the theocracy’s Shia revolution globally. Any attempts at reform or Westernisation are rejected in the drive to create a greater ‘Islamic civilisation’.

As part of Iran’s agenda of Holocaust denial, the regime has held international Holocaust cartoon contests and a conference with neo-Nazi participants.

Hamas is a minor example of the multiple, armed, Iran-backed proxy militias based in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Gaza, Yemen and Bahrain that form a string of conquests for their hegemonic patron. The largest militia, Lebanese-based Hezbollah, receives about US$700 million annually from Iran, and boasts a greater army than Lebanon itself, with drones and more than 130,000 surface-to-surface precision-guided and unguided rockets. Hezbollah was part of a coalition that won the 2018 Lebanese election, gaining a majority of seats in parliament and markedly increasing Iran’s regional expansion. During the Syrian civil war, the paramilitary fought for President Bashar al-Assad’s survival. Together with Iran-supported militias in Syria and a line of credit from Iran, al-Assad’s dependence on the Islamic Republic was ensured. At the same time, Iran began to colonise Syria by transferring Shia Muslims from Iraq and Lebanon to areas abandoned by Syrian refugees.

Unlike Hamas, Hezbollah has a global footprint, perpetrating suicide attacks and bomb plots in Europe, the UK, Africa, Turkey, the Middle East, Pakistan, Thailand, Indonesia and the US. The militia also has deep roots throughout Latin America, and is reportedly involved with drug cartels and money laundering.

In Iraq, several Iran-backed militias or Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMFs) together with allied political parties are bent on imposing a Shiite state and preventing the emergence of secular parliamentary democracy. Exploiting their advantage in the International Zone, Iran-sponsored PMFs have attacked the US and British embassies in Iraq, and two years ago bombed then prime minister, Mustafa al-Khadimi’s residence while he slept.

When the PMFs fought together with the coalition to destroy Isis, they were accused of committing such sadistic atrocities there was little difference between PMFs and Isis.

Another proxy militia, Yemen’s Iranian-allied Houthis, have fired deadly drones and missiles on Saudi Arabia and the UAE, causing massive worldwide disruption of oil supplies after the attack on Saudi Aramco oil facilities.

Training of Iran’s proxies is coordinated by the IRGC and its extraterritorial arm, the Quds Force (IRGC-QF). Comprising ground, aviation and naval troops, the IRGC, which reports directly to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, protects Iran’s missile program and nuclear facilities, and controls a significant portion of the economy.

The US has designated as terrorist groups the IRGC and IRGC-QF, as well as Hamas, Hezbollah and the Iran-backed PMFs. But the Biden administration’s perceived weakness associated with the humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan, inadequate response to escalating IRGC-QF maritime attacks, and appeasement of Iran during nuclear deal negotiations, has energised terror groups. Crucially, billions of dollars became available for the IRGC-QF because the US chose to ignore the Islamic Republic’s sanctions evasions.

As a regional and global threat, Iran tests the will and moral compass of the West. Simply placating Iran’s proxies won’t succeed. Israel tried to deal with Hamas by improving life in Gaza, where unemployment was nearly 50 per cent. They believed economic progress, stability, goodwill and growing social contacts would tame Hamas after Israel opened its gates to about 20,000 Gazans workers. Unfortunately, Hamas remained true to its foundational charter and patron’s ideology.

Gulf Arab states such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain fear Iran and seek peace and stability, but believe it prudent to form closer ties with their old adversary Qatar, a state-sponsor of Hamas that blamed Israel for the massacre and harbours Hamas rulers in Doha.

With the force of a tsunami, moral coherence was quick to drown after 7 October, and a shocking reversal of roles washed up when large demonstrations of Islamists and the far left blamed the victim for the genocidal terror, hatred and bestial impulses of the aggressor.

Nevertheless, the free world is waking up to the danger of an aggressive, colonialist Iran and its brutal jihadi proxies dotting the globe.