TEHRAN – In a commentary Middle East Eye said Tel Aviv rulers have unintentionally provided Iran with a “powerful political gift” by uniting Iranians against a “common enemy” called Israel.

“Israel might have inadvertently provided the Islamic Republic with a powerful political gift: a moment of cohesion, a common enemy, and a temporary suspension of internal divisions,” the MEE said. 
The following is part of an edited version of the article:

Israel appears to have forgotten a lesson from the Iraqi invasion of Iran in 1980. Instead of inducing regime change, it led to the people of Iran rallying behind the Islamic Republic in the name of nationalism. 

Rather than fuelling internal dissent, Israel’s recent strikes have similarly sparked a resurgence of nationalist feeling. 

There have been public mourning ceremonies and online tributes. Even some of those once aligned with the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement have begun expressing solidarity with those they frame as “defenders of the homeland”. 

Israel’s attempt to divide the Iranian people from their state has backfired. The dominant reaction inside Iran has a rallying around the flag - a phenomenon familiar to those who study the mechanics of national trauma and external threat. 

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The targeting of officials has been interpreted by many Iranians as a direct assault on national sovereignty. 

While Israeli officials claim that their core objective is to stall or derail Iran’s nuclear program, the strikes suggest broader ambitions. 

Israel regards Iran not merely as a hostile state, but as a regional civilisational rival whose power must be contained, not just its nuclear program, but its very political and geographic coherence.
This view has shaped decades of covert operations, diplomatic isolation efforts, and economic sanctions. It also informs long-standing ideas-whispered and sometimes stated outright-to fracture Iran into smaller, weaker states. 

Such visions, once confined to hawkish policy white papers in Washington and Tel Aviv, gained renewed currency in the wake of protests in Iran in 2022. 

Sensing an opportunity, both the U.S. and Israel amplified their support for opposition groups. Among them, Reza Pahlavi - the exiled crown prince - emerged as a symbolic figure. His widely publicised visit to Israel and his statements openly calling for coordinated support to overthrow the Islamic Republic were unprecedented. This convergence of opposition figures and foreign governments marked a shift from passive solidarity to open alignment.

The Israelis claim this is not a war against Iran, but against its rulers. Public campaigns have sought to connect Israel’s military actions to the aspirations of ordinary Iranians. Diaspora figures such as Pahlavi have publicly echoed this framing, calling on Iranians to support the downfall of the government.

But despite the clear strategic communications effort, the campaign has failed to capture the domestic imagination in Iran. 

What the Israeli leadership and its allies might have underestimated is the Iranian public’s deeply ingrained historical memory and reflexive resistance to foreign intervention. The sight of a foreign military killing Iranians on Iranian soil greatly angers the people.

This shift is not just symbolic. The level of domestic unity being observed, especially in contrast to past periods of internal unrest - such as the 2019 fuel protests or the Mahsa Amini demonstrations - suggests that Israel have inadvertently provided the Islamic Republic with a powerful political gift: a moment of cohesion, a common enemy, and a temporary suspension of internal divisions. 

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has thus joined the ranks of Saddam Hussein, whose decision to invade Iran in 1980 consolidated Ayatollah Khomeini’s position among other revolutionary factions in Iran.