The Dawn of a New Golden Age for Jews

In this post–October 7, 2023, world of heightened antisemitism, normalized Jew-hatred, and fashionable anti-Zionism — a world where detractors of the Jewish people are gaining power and exploiting that hatred across government, unions, K–12 schools, university campuses, academia, the media and social media, and professional associations — a world in which the Global Intifada has morphed from obstruction into murder — a new dawn is beginning, and with it, the next Golden Age for Jews.

This golden age will not take place in the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada, or Australia, and it is surely past its glow in the United States. Nor will it grow in the despot-led nations of the world. Instead, it will take hold in a new Golden Crescent composed of Israel, a free Iran, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The Golden Crescent and a New Golden Age for Jews

The fall of the Iranian regime represents a new beginning for the Iranian people. The collapse of the regime is far less likely to descend into the kind of chaos that erupted after the fall of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. For one, the people have an interim figurehead in Reza Pahlavi, the eldest son of the Shah, who has committed himself to a democratic transition.

From an Israeli perspective, Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi is friendly toward Israel, much as the Iranian people were before the current regime came to power and broadly remain so today. This warmth echoes the legacy of Cyrus the Great, the Persian leader who allowed Jews to return to Israel in 538 BCE after the Babylonian exile. Anti-regime Iranians understand that Israel faces the same enemy — a tyrannical leadership obsessed with annihilating Israel. The regime has spent tens of billions planning Israel’s destruction through nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles, and the encirclement of Israel on seven fronts via terrorist groups — Hezbollah, Hamas, Iraqi militias, the Houthis, and its own IRGC — while suppressing and impoverishing its own people, mismanaging its water aquifers, and diverting technology toward weapons rather than the well-being of its population.

Consider how the Middle East is likely to reshape after this Iranian revolution. Iran switches from being an obsessed enemy of Israel to becoming a friend. The nuclear and missile threats disappear. Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and the Iraqi militias will lose their sponsor. Lebanon will be able to wrest control from a financially and militarily unsupported Hezbollah. Turkey, a rising enemy of Israel, will have to act cautiously in the face of an Israel–Iran alliance.

Qatar, a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood and host to billionaire Hamas leaders, will lose its Iranian ally, which, along with Turkey, helped break the 2017–2021 boycott imposed by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain. They were demanding that Qatar cut ties with the Muslim Brotherhood and shutter Al Jazeera, a platform used to amplify the Brotherhood. (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain have all outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood, unlike countries in the West.) The current Qatari regime could find itself unsustainably isolated.

Now picture a new geopolitical map: the Golden Crescent spanning from Israel, the startup nation, through a neutral Iraq, to an industrious, well-educated Iran, its people soon free to blossom, and on to the United Arab Emirates, a friendly country already benefiting from warm relations with Israel. Jews will be safe and prosper alongside the citizens of these countries and will experience a new golden age — free from the Western normalization of Jew-hatred and the onslaught of anti-Zionism.