Israel-Iran conflict: Peaceful coexistence or global annihilation?

A damaged building after a missile strike launched from Iran in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Sunday, June 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Last night, I had the most terrifying dream I’ve had in over 50 years.

The sky was ablaze with fire stretching across the Middle East, reaching Hawaii and even Alaska. Millions were dead – Iranians, Americans – lying lifeless in the streets of Tehran. Buildings crumbled, chaos reigned and the world economy collapsed.

And humanity? We were mere spectators to the horror unfolding before us. I awoke with tears streaming down my face – not from the dream, but from the grim realization that there are individuals, governments and institutions shaping a narrative that war is the only solution to the Israel-Iran conflict.

Today, that nightmare crept closer to reality.

In a stunning and unilateral move – without Congressional consultation or approval – President Donald Trump ordered the bombing and destruction of Iran’s three major nuclear sites. Just hours after the strikes, Iran filed an urgent request for a United Nations Emergency Meeting, calling it an act of “unprovoked aggression” and “a declaration of war.”

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The geopolitical fault lines are now more fragile than ever, and the world inches perilously toward a point of no return.

I write this not as a policy expert or legal analyst alone, but as a father, a lawyer, a Filipino American citizen and a human being who refuses to surrender to the logic of mutual destruction. I ask: Is peaceful coexistence still possible – or have we crossed the Rubicon? Is annihilation the new normal? Or is there still a sliver of hope for humanity?

The legal and political quagmire

The Israel-Iran conflict is as much about legal justifications as it is about political paralysis. Both nations claim the right to self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter. Yet the very same Charter also compels them to seek peaceful dispute resolution. Unfortunately, these obligations are drowned out by hawkish narratives, political maneuvering and historical trauma.

Israel, surrounded by threats and haunted by existential memories, sees Iran’s nuclear ambitions as a death sentence. Iran, long isolated and demonized, sees resistance as survival. Now, with Trump’s latest decision to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities, the United States has inserted itself squarely into the center of the firestorm – despite a clear constitutional requirement that only Congress can declare war. This raises urgent legal and constitutional questions, both domestic and international.

A recent poll shows that more than 60 percent of Americans oppose another foreign war. Yet again, the will of the people has been ignored. And yet, the machinery of escalation continues.

Where are the peace architects? Where is the moral leadership? Why is silence louder than diplomacy?

The social cost: A war on civility and civilization

This conflict is not just political – it is deeply personal. It scars societies. In Iran, sanctions and authoritarianism have bred despair. In Israel, trauma and siege mentalities fuel fear. The hatred is generational. And yet, I have seen ordinary Israelis and Iranians defy the boundaries drawn for them. I’ve seen them love, dialogue, dream of peace.

But those voices are suffocated.

When peace is branded as weakness, and war is branded as strength, our very definition of civilization collapses. The social consequences –especially for children, displaced families and wounded veterans – will echo for generations.

Economic catastrophe: The war we cannot afford

A war between Israel and Iran will not remain regional. The Strait of Hormuz – through which a fifth of the world’s oil passes – would become a death trap. Gas prices would spike. Global markets would plunge. Trade routes would freeze. Tourism would vanish. The domino effect would crash into every economy, rich or poor.

Now, with US involvement deepening and retaliatory threats emerging from Tehran, the global economic risk has escalated to a level unseen since the 1973 oil embargo – or worse, the 2008 global financial crisis.

In short: We cannot afford this war. Not in dollars. Not in lives. Not in conscience.

Rejecting the false choice: It’s not war or surrender

I refuse to accept the false binary of “destroy or be destroyed.” History teaches otherwise.

Israel and Egypt were once enemies. Peace prevailed. The Cold War ended not in fire but in negotiation. South Africa transitioned from apartheid through truth, not tanks.

There is a middle ground – but it requires imagination. It requires courage to renounce vengeance. It demands that we listen to those crying for peace over those profiting from war.

Building the architecture of peace

Here’s how we reclaim the future:

• Create a regional peace and security forum akin to Europe’s OSCE, with real teeth and regional participation from Arab, Turkish and Asian actors.

• Revive and expand the Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA) with robust international guarantees and timelines for compliance.

• Promote Track II diplomacy, where civil society, faith leaders, academics and artists collaborate outside state channels.

• Rebuild the cultural bridge—film, poetry, shared history – between Jewish and Persian civilizations, which share more in common than we admit.

• Call for a UN emergency peace envoy empowered to negotiate immediate de-escalation, with support from both Western and neutral powers.

The time to rebuild is now – before the last bridge to peace burns beyond repair.

A cry to save our humanity

I cried in my dream because we should know better. Humanity should know better. With the lessons of Hiroshima, the ashes of Auschwitz and the ruins of Syria still visible in our memory – why must we walk again toward the abyss?

Let me be clear: This is not about politics. This is about survival.

There will be no victors in a nuclear war. Only shadows.

Let this not be our legacy. Let this be the moment we reimagine peace. Let this be the hour when reason triumphs over revenge.

I may have only one voice – but I raise it, broken and hopeful, to say:

Stop this war. The world wants peace. 

Atty. Arnedo S. Valera is the executive director of the Global Migrant Heritage Foundation and managing attorney at Valera & Associates, a U.S. immigration and anti-discrimination law firm for over 32 years. He holds a master’s degree in International Affairs and International Law and Human Rights from Columbia University and was trained at the International Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. He obtained his Bachelor of Laws from Ateneo de Manila University and earned his AB Philosophy from the University of Santo Tomas. He currently teaches International Security and Alliances at San Beda Graduate School of Law (LL.M. Program).