This article originally appeared on JNS.org on June 16, 2025.
The skies over Tehran have changed. For the first time in decades, a regime that believed itself untouchable—entrenched in fear, power, and brutality—is facing the unthinkable: a direct confrontation from the very people it has long oppressed, and from the only nation that dares to stop it.
And now the call goes out to brave Iranians: Stand up! Show yourselves!
For years, tens of millions of Iranians—more than 80% of whom now say they want a secular state—have suffered in silence or in defiant bursts. They have taken to the streets in waves: in 1999, 2009, 2011, 2017 and 2019. And each time, they’ve faced the same response: clubs, bullets, mass arrests, and gallows.
They have stood before the Revolutionary Guards, the Basij, the police—unarmed, unflinching. They have seen their daughters arrested and murdered for a misplaced headscarf. They have watched mothers executed and young men hanged in public squares, even as the so-called international community looked the other way.
And yet, they march.
Now, as Israeli jets streak across the skies and explosions shake the foundations of the regime’s power centers, something extraordinary is happening.
The nerve centers of the Islamic Republic—the very institutions that have exported terrorism, suppressed women, and tortured dissenters since 1979—are in disarray. Much of their infrastructure is in ruins. Their leaders, who envisioned a global religious empire built through violence, proxies, and nuclear weapons, have been eliminated.
This is no longer just a regional conflict. It is a historic opportunity.
The world remembers Jina Mahsa Amini, the young Kurdish woman beaten to death in September 2022 by Iran’s morality police. Her murder ignited the most sustained uprising in the regime’s history, driven by women and joined by citizens across dozens of provinces under the rallying cry: “Woman, Life, Freedom.”
It was the most human expression of courage, made more powerful by the silence it was met with abroad. While women were being brutalized in Iranian prisons, Western diplomats and UN officials softened their tone, covered their statues, and appeased the ayatollahs.
They ignored the 834 executions in 2023. They barely acknowledged the 400 more in the first half of 2024, justified under charges ranging from blasphemy to fabricated violence.
Even as Iran hanged gay men from cranes and hunted down protest leaders, the global community looked away.
Why? Because confronting evil is inconvenient. Because condemning Israel is easier.
For decades, the Islamic Republic’s leadership believed this silence was power. They built alliances with Russia and China. They created a ring of terror through Hezbollah and the Houthis. They pursued a nuclear weapon with open intent: to finish what the worst of radical Islam began—to wipe out the Jews and reshape the world.
They believed no one would stop them. They were wrong.
Israel has now struck at the heart of that regime—with precision, intelligence, and extraordinary resolve. While the world debated sanctions and appeasement, Israel acted.
From within Iranian territory, built quietly over the years and from the air, the Jewish state made a fateful choice: intervene now, or face a nuclear theocracy.
As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a recent message, the fight is not against the people of Iran—quite the opposite. Israel believes a future is possible—one of partnership, rebuilding, and peace—once the nightmare regime is gone.
That future cannot be won by Israeli air power alone. It requires courage on the ground—from those who’ve already shown it in blood, in banners, in whispers, and in defiance.
To the brave citizens of Iran: the road is open. The moment is here.
You’ve known darkness. You’ve risked everything. Now, with the sky no longer silent, the world may finally be listening.
