None of the upheaval we are seeing in Gaza, Ramallah, Beirut, Damascus, and especially Tehran would be happening if Israel had bowed to international pressure and simply "stopped the war." But Israel didn’t — and the shockwaves are still spreading.
For 12 days in June, the world was transfixed. Israel, against all warnings, struck deep into Iranian territory. Not just once, but repeatedly — and decisively. Iran’s air defenses were outmaneuvered, its leadership embarrassed, and its proxies left scrambling. Many observers called the war "one-sided." They were right.
But what the world failed to notice is that the war didn’t end when the airstrikes stopped. In fact, for Iran, the internal fallout is just beginning.
The once-invulnerable image of the Islamic Republic has cracked. And inside Iran, people are starting to say what they were once too afraid to whisper.
This week, a jailed veteran activist issued an open demand: Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei must either allow sweeping changes to Iran’s political structure — or step down. That alone would have been unthinkable weeks ago. Even more shocking: a top adviser to Khamenei publicly acknowledged the need for reforms to ease public anger in the wake of the war.
These are not isolated tremors — they are signs of an earthquake building beneath the surface.
The regime that for decades defined itself by defiance — against the West, against Israel, and even against its own people — now faces a reckoning. Iran was not just militarily humiliated; it was politically exposed. And the people of Iran are watching.
What Israel and the United States did was not just strategic — it was psychological. It shattered the myth of invincibility that Tehran has long relied on. The Iranian people, exhausted by repression and economic collapse, may now see a window for change.
The world thought the war was over. But inside Iran, it may just be beginning.