Oxford Union declares Israel a greater regional threat than Iran

UN Watch’s Hillel Neuer rejected the framing entirely, calling the motion not only incorrect but “the inversion of reality.”

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

A charged debate at the Oxford Union on Thursday ended with members voting decisively for a motion portraying Israel as a bigger danger to Middle Eastern stability than Iran, The Jewish Chronicle reports.

The session brought former Palestinian Authority prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh and UN Watch director Hillel Neuer into direct confrontation over the motion.

Shtayyeh opened with a sweeping indictment of Israel, describing it as a project imposed by colonial powers and claiming that its political leaders embrace an expansionist worldview.

He argued that Israel “acts above the law,” ignores UN resolutions, and operates a “nuclear-armed colonial regime” he said had inflicted “occupation, crimes and genocide” on Palestinians. Israel, he concluded, was “the biggest cause of destabilization in the region.”

He also said Israeli security zones in neighboring states exist simply to push hostile armies farther away and labeled Israel a “pariah state” whose actions have generated recurring conflict.

Neuer rejected the framing entirely, calling the motion not only incorrect but “the inversion of reality.”

He argued that stability is determined by actors who ignite wars rather than those who attempt to contain them, and said Iran is the one arming and directing terror proxies across the region.

Arab governments, he added, understand this clearly and quietly rely on Israel for their own security.

As an example, Neuer pointed to Iran’s large-scale missile and drone attack on Israel, during which several Sunni states aided Israel’s defenses.

Their cooperation, he said, amounted to a regional vote of confidence in Israel and a stark judgment about Iran. “You don’t intercept missiles that threaten destabilization,” he said. “You intercept missiles fired by the source of that destabilization.”

Neuer listed what he described as the cumulative toll of Iran’s activities — its shaping of Hezbollah in Lebanon, its role in atrocities in Syria, its backing of the Houthis in Yemen, and its extensive support for Hamas. Iran, he said, helped turn Hamas into a “mini army” buried beneath civilian areas, ultimately enabling the October 7 massacre.

The Oxford Union has not yet formally released the vote tally.