Israel’s Scientific Powerhouse Under Attack – Physically by Iran, Morally by the West. Opinion.
As Iran rains missiles on Israel’s leading research centers, the international academic establishment appears to be turning its back—not on the aggressor, but on the victim.
The International Sociological Association (ISA), a body founded in 1949 under the auspices of the United Nations to foster global academic cooperation, has suspended the Israeli Sociological Society, just days ahead of its global forum in Rabat. This move comes shortly after the ISA publicly expressed solidarity with Iranian scholars, responding to a formal request by none other than the Iranian Sociological Association—affiliated with a regime that persecutes academics and funds terror worldwide.
Adding to the pressure, 4,500 European academics have signed a petition urging European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to expel Israel from Horizon Europe, the EU’s flagship research and innovation program. The initiative is backed by Belgium’s university rectors, some of whom are now openly campaigning to isolate Israel’s scientific community.
Meanwhile, Israel’s universities have suffered direct missile attacks from Iran—a targeted assault not just on infrastructure, but on decades of pioneering research.
- The Weizmann Institute of Science, a jewel of global scientific innovation located in Rehovot, sustained catastrophic damage. Iranian ballistic missiles obliterated 40–45 laboratories and damaged 20 more, causing $300–$500 million in losses. Shockwaves shattered windows and walls across 40 buildings on campus.
- The Weizmann Institute is no ordinary campus. It was there that:
- Amniocentesis was pioneered.
- Copaxone, a breakthrough treatment for multiple sclerosis, was developed.
- Ada Yonath won the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her work on ribosomes.
- Three researchers earned the Turing Award, the “Nobel Prize of computer science.”
- In Be’er Sheva, Ben Gurion University and Soroka Medical Center were also hit. The entire medical school was severely damaged, and six laboratories were completely destroyed.
- Daniel Chamovitz, president of the Rectors’ Association, estimates the cost of rebuilding could run into billions of shekels, not including decades of irreplaceable research lost.
- Fruit fly samples painstakingly collected over 17 years by Dr. Oren Schuldiner, chair of cell biology at Weizmann, were wiped out. His lab—vital to research into autism and schizophrenia—was reduced to rubble.
While Israel counts the cost of lost innovation, the West lauds Iran’s nuclear scientists. Nature, one of the world’s most respected scientific journals, ran the headline: “Protect Iranian scientists from attack.” No mention was made of the missiles that tore through campuses in Rehovot, Be’er Sheva, and Tel Aviv.
This global double standard has not gone unnoticed. While Iran builds bombs, Israel builds cures. And yet, it is Israeli academia being sanctioned, not the regime funding Hezbollah, Hamas, and terror militias from Syria to Yemen.
As Giulio Meotti, Italian journalist and author, rightly points out: “The crazy West chooses to boycott the country that heals, discovers, and uplifts—while shielding those who aim to blow up the globe.”
Israel’s scientific brilliance is being tested—not only by Iranian missiles but by hypocrisy masquerading as human rights. The tragedy lies not only in the labs destroyed, but in the world’s refusal to recognize who is preserving life and who is determined to end it.
