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Spectator
17-06-2025
- Politics
- Spectator
Israel will not be cowed by Iran
Yesterday morning, as families in central Israel emerged from bomb shelters after yet another sleepless night, the air was once again rent by sirens and the thunder of incoming missiles. Fires ignited across multiple cities. In Petah Tikva, a building lay smouldering from a direct hit. In Haifa, Iranian missiles struck near the port, severely damaging a power facility and forcing Bazan, Israel's major oil refining and petrochemicals company, to suspend activity at all its plants. With grim efficiency, medics and emergency teams scrambled to locate survivors. It was the largest barrage of the war so far – around 100 ballistic missiles launched in a single salvo. And yet, amid the wreckage, Israel stood upright. Israel, for all its high technology and military prowess, fights this war not merely as a state but as the embodiment of a people That barrage marked the fourth day of Operation Rising Lion, the name given to Israel's air campaign, which has shifted the strategic centre of gravity into the heart of Iran. Over 250 targets have been struck in Tehran alone. Nuclear facilities, intelligence headquarters, ballistic missile sites, oil fields, and command centres have been devastated in coordinated strikes. Top Iranian generals, including Brigadier General Mohammad Kazemi and his deputy, have been killed. Explosions and air defence activity have now been reported in Mashhad, Isfahan, and across the road to Qom. Yesterday, the IDF Spokesperson, Brigadier General Effie Defrin, stated that Israel had destroyed one third of the Iranian regime's surface-to-surface missile launchers and achieved full aerial operational control above Tehran. But Israel is not the only actor with staying power. The regime it now faces is one that reveres patience as a sacred principle. For 46 years, the Islamic Republic has bled its own people without flinching, executing, imprisoning, and terrorising Iranians in service of a messianic worldview rooted in Twelver Shiism. It neither dreads death nor shuns devastation. On the contrary, it thrives in crisis. Chaos is a doctrine, martyrdom a tactic. It is centred on the belief in a divinely guided line of twelve Imams, culminating in the hidden Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, who is expected to reappear to establish justice. This messianic theology infuses the regime with a potent mix of fatalism and militancy. Western diplomats often treat Iran as a 'normal state'. But Iran sees itself as a sacred revolutionary project with a divine mission. This explains its willingness to wait decades to achieve strategic goals, its hostility to compromise – especially with Israel or the US – and its dual language: rational diplomacy abroad, apocalyptic zeal at home. The same regime that once sent children into minefields during the Iran-Iraq war now launches missiles at Israeli children in Bat Yam and Tamra. Twenty-four civilians have been killed in Iranian missile strikes on Israel, including several children. Hundreds more have been wounded. And yet, even now, the streets of Israeli cities do not empty. Medics operate under fire. Firefighters contain blazes ignited by hypersonic missiles. Citizens comply with civil defence instructions and emerge, again and again, to rebuild and restore. Beyond that, people still go to the shops, to work, and even to the beach. This is not only a display of operational competence. It is a demonstration of national will. Israel, for all its high technology and military prowess, fights this war not merely as a state but as the embodiment of a people. It is a people that has internalised, across centuries of exile and persecution, a simple truth: no one else will fight their wars for them. When Prime Minister Netanyahu stated that 'everything they've experienced until now will be nothing compared to what they will feel in the coming days,' he was not offering bluster. He was signalling resolve rooted not in vengeance, but in existential necessity. That necessity has grown more acute. Just past midnight last night, the IDF reported that missiles were once again launched from Iran toward Israeli territory. Defensive systems engaged. The Home Front Command ordered civilians to remain in shelters. By around 2 a.m., renewed Israeli airstrikes hit Iran's Natanz nuclear enrichment facility. And around 4.30 a.m., Iran fired another small wave – single-digit numbers, likely cruise missiles. No impacts were recorded. Some interpret this as a sign of depletion, others as a change in tactics. In Tehran, unrest and disarray are growing. Internet service has collapsed in parts of the capital. Footage circulating online shows protests continuing. The IDF released news this morning documenting waves of Israeli airstrikes overnight in western Iran, targeting dozens of missile launch sites, drone storage facilities, and surface to air missile launchers. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) spokesman had earlier announced the ninth wave of what Iran calls 'Operation True Promise III', declaring it would continue until dawn. But last night's retaliatory attacks were minimal, sporadic, and largely ineffective. The campaign against Iran's nuclear and military infrastructure has already achieved tactical depth. At Isfahan, strikes reportedly disabled a uranium conversion facility and a fuel fabrication plant. The IAEA has warned of cascading technical setbacks. Several nuclear scientists are confirmed dead. But Fordow – the most fortified site – remains. It is widely acknowledged that only the United States possesses the bunker-busting capability to strike it. The United States has not joined Israel militarily. Yet President Trump did order the deployment of the USS Nimitz carrier group overnight. Last night, Trump convened the National Security Council in the White House situation room, having left the G7 summit early. French President Macron claimed Trump had departed to work on a ceasefire. Trump rebuked this claim on his Truth social platform: 'Wrong! He has no idea why I am now on my way to Washington, but it certainly has nothing to do with a Cease Fire. Much bigger than that.' Indeed, Trump has issued a series of declarations, consistent in message if escalating in tone. 'IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON,' he wrote. 'Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!' He added, 'I gave Iran 60 days and they said no, and the 61st you saw what happened.' Asked whether Israel could destroy Iran's nuclear capability without American support, he replied, 'It's irrelevant, something's going to happen.' Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth struck a less Trumpian diplomatic tone: 'We are postured defensively in the region to be strong in pursuit of a peace deal, and we certainly hope that's what happens here. Curiously, even late-night pizza orders seem to signal something. Two restaurants near the Pentagon, District Pizza Palace and We, The Pizza, have recorded unusually high demand two nights running, according to publicly available Google data. That may seem trivial, but it suggests a headquarters still bustling deep into the night – perhaps drafting contingency plans for a war it insists it is not yet part of And so, the enemy may be fanatical. But Israel, too, knows endurance. Not for messianic reward or imperial ambition, but for children asleep in shelters, for families huddled in stairwells, for the memory of pogroms and gas chambers, and for the unyielding belief that Jewish life is worth defending at any cost. Israel's resilience is rooted not in apocalypse, but in survival, self-reliance, and a moral obligation to outlive its enemies. Israel's will remains unbroken, but its means may soon face a critical test. Whether the United States will intervene militarily is a live and looming decision. As Israelis receive yet another warning alert this morning and prepare to enter shelters, the quiet power of that resilience continues to define this war. Iran may fight for apocalypse. Israel fights for tomorrow. And that is the unshakable difference that may yet shape the outcome.
The Hindu
15-06-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
The last ‘revolutionary' of Iran
In Tehran's Ebrat Museum, once a notorious prison for political detainees under the Shah, a narrow corridor is lined with photographs of former inmates. Among them, in a brown wooden frame, is the image of a middle-aged man with a bearded face and thick rectangular glasses. The name beneath, written in Farsi, reads: Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei. Preserved by the revolutionary regime as a grim reminder of the brutality of the Shah's secret police, SAVAK, Ebrat displays torture chambers and documents torture methods. One tiny, dimly lit cell, with a single barred window, has been left intact – it is where Mr. Khamenei was held. Inside stands a life-size wax figure of the Ayatollah, older than he appears in the photograph. Dressed in a black turban, which suggests lineage to the Prophet Mohammed, round spectacles, and a brown robe, the statue evokes both suffering and resolve. 'Khamenei was imprisoned six times by the Shah's police. He was brought here in 1974,' a museum official told this writer during a visit in February 2022. 'In autumn 1974, he endured the most brutal and savage torture for eight months in there,' reads a short biography posted outside the cell. 'The Shah wanted to break him. But God wanted him as the country's rahbar (leader),' said the museum official. Mr. Khamenei, who has been the rahbar of the Islamic Republic since 1989, has built a theocratic system that is loyal to him. He is the Supreme Leader, the jurist of the guardians. A conservative cleric, he has led Iran through political and economic upheavals, and has survived both reformist and hardliner Presidents. But in recent years, on Mr. Khamenei's watch, unrest has spread across the country. In recent months, Iran's influence abroad has dramatically waned, particularly after Israel started attacking the so-called 'axis of resistance', the Iran-backed militia network in West Asia. On June 13, Israel, Iran's arch foe, launched a daunting attack inside Iran, targeting its nuclear facilities and ballistic missile sites, and assassinating its top chain of command. With the Israeli leadership threatening to 'burn' Tehran, the 86-year-old Ayatollah must be feeling the weight of the revolution on his shoulders. Child of revolution Born in 1939 in royalist Iran, Ali Khamenei grew up in the holy city of Mashhad, which hosts the shrine of Imam Reza, the eighth Imam of Twelver Shiism. Like many clerics of his generation, his political views were influenced by the 1953 coup, a covert operation orchestrated by the CIA and the MI6, against the elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. The coup reinstated Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran. This episode turned a generation of Iranians against the Shah. The clerical establishment, under the leadership of the exiled cleric, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, played a critical role in the anti-Shah agitation that was building up across the country. From the early 1960s, Mr. Khamenei was actively involved in the protests. When the Shah regime collapsed and Khomeini returned to Tehran from Paris in February 1979 to establish a new Islamic Republic, Mr. Khamenei rose quickly through the clerical ranks. Khomeini named him as Deputy Defence Minister. He became the Imam of Friday prayers in Tehran, a position which he still holds. If Imam Khomeini was the Supreme Leader of the new regime, Imam Khamenei emerged as its chief commissar. In June 1981, he was seriously wounded by a tape recorder bomb that went off in Tehran's Abouzar Mosque. His right arm got paralysed and he lost hearing in one ear. 'I won't need the hand; it would suffice if my brain and tongue work,' Mr. Khamenei once said about the attack. The blast, however, solidified his image as a survivor – a living martyr of the revolution. Within a few months, he got elected as Iran's President. When Khomeini died in 1989, the revolution became an orphan. Khomeini had established a unique system in Iran — vilayat-e-faqih, 'guardianship of the jurist' or the rule of the clergy. With no clear successor in line, senior clerics tuned to Mr. Khamenei. Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, another revolutionary figure with considerable influence in the system, played a key role in the selection of Mr. Khamenei. 'I am truly not worthy of this title,' Mr. Khamenei told the assembly that picked him. 'My nomination should make us all cry tears of blood.' But he took the chalice. And Rafsanjani became President. Soon after his ascent to the top office, Mr. Khamenei promised Iranians that the revolution would 'lead the country on the path of material growth and progress'. But he faced daunting political and economic challenges. He became the Supreme Leader at a time when the revolutionary fervour was receding. The Iran-Iraq war was over. The new regime's internal enemies and critics, from the terrorist Mujahideen-e-Khalq to the leftist Tudeh party, had been suppressed. But there were still strong liberal currents in Iranian polity and society. Despite Mr. Khamenei's vision for a centralised clerical rule, voters elected Mohammed Khatami, a moderate reformist, as President in 1997. Mr. Khatami had promised reforms from within. But when protests broke out seeking more individual freedoms, Mr. Khamenei stood by the hardliners. The protests were brutally suppressed, and Mr. Khatami was turned into a lame-duck President. The election of Khatami was an opportunity for Iran to open up the system and implement incremental reforms. But the way the regime handled the protests only reinforced the rigidity of the system, which led to further cracks. In 2009, when President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a hardline favourite of the establishment, was 're-elected', protests broke out. Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who served as Prime Minister of Iran under Mr. Khamenei's presidency in the 1980s (Iran later abolished the post of Prime Minister), was the opposition candidate. Mr. Mousavi's followers accused election fraud. Protests spread, with many calling for the downfall of the rahbar. That was a moment of challenge for the Supreme Leader. But he endorsed Mr. Ahmadinejad's victory, while security forces cracked down on Mr. Mousavi's 'Green Movement'. Perilous cycle While political tensions persisted, what made them worse was the economic mess Iran was in. A country rich with natural resources, Iran was grappling with hyperinflation, stymied growth and a tanking currency, mainly due to the Western sanctions. Mr. Khamenei knew that the future of the revolution was linked to the state's ability in creating economic opportunities. So even when he called America the 'Great Satan', he sanctioned nuclear talks with the U.S. after Hassan Rouhani, a moderate cleric, became President in 2013. The 2015 agreement between Iran and world powers was the best chance for Tehran to enter the global economic mainstream and rebuild itself. But then Donald Trump entered the scene. In 2018, Mr. Trump, in his first term, destroyed the agreement and reimposed sanctions on Iran. Ever since, the economic crisis at home got worsened, along with tightening repression, which triggered frequent uprisings. It became a perilous cycle for Iranians. And then Israel, after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack, turned against the Iran-backed network in West Asia, which acted as Tehran's forward defence and its deterrence. Mr. Khamenei watched helplessly when Israel destroyed Gaza, degraded Hezbollah and bombed the regime of Bashar al Assad in Syria, which eventually collapsed. It was only a matter of time before the Israelis came for Iran. And they did so on June 13. Set against Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, Ayatollah Khamenei finds himself with few good options. Iran's retaliatory strike against Israel on the night of June 13 was a bold display of force – a message that the Islamic Republic still has the firepower to hit the 'Little Satan'. But the conflict is far from over. Iran's defences remain vulnerable; its regional axis has been rolled back; its partners have their own problems. And Mr. Trump, who extended an offer of dialogue which Iran had cautiously accepted, is throwing his weight behind Mr. Netanyahu. Mr. Khamenei, once described by a reformist politician as the 'Sun of the Iranian solar system', now faces the greatest test since the revolution — to protect the regime and protect the nation.
