Yahav Zohar / April 2026

This April fools’ day, more than a month into the American-Israeli attack on Iran, it is time to ask, who are the fools in this story?  Going into the war, we were told of two goals- to remove the oppressive Iranian regime and to destroy Iran’s nuclear program. A month in, not only are these goals not achieved, the situation has become considerably worse on both fronts. 

Most of the Iranian government leadership was killed on the first day of the war, and many of their replacements have been assassinated since. This has meant the appointment of younger politicians, many of them linked with the revolutionary guard, and in general more hardline in their anti-american and anti-democracy positions. The attacks has also had a ‘rally around the flag’ effect, bringing many Iranians who despise the regime to put internal politics aside to counter the threats of invasion. 

On the nuclear front, the enriched uranium may or may not be buried under rubble, as the US claims, but there is little doubt that the Iranians will be able to retrieve it eventually. More importantly, the new Iranian government will have every reason to move forward with the development of nuclear weapons. With the death of Khamenei, his ruling against  nuclear weapons development is no longer in place, and the threat of US-Israeli invasion is a great motivator to rush the production of atomic weapons and to demonstrate its capabilities, to deter future invaders.

Perhaps strangest of all, during the war the US has eased sanctions on Iran, allowing it to sell more of its oil at higher prices. It seems that Iranian daily income from oil sales has risen some fifty percent, allowing the military and revolutionary guards to pay salaries and keep up the war effort. 

In the last few days we’ve heard statements from both Israeli and US governments suggesting that the war is nearly over, that somehow its goals have been achieved. 

Maybe this entire war was just a very foolish, counterproductive misstep, costing many thousands of human lives and many many billions of dollars and achieving less than nothing of its goals. Those who started this seem even more foolish when you realize that pretty much every military and intelligence expert predicted this right at the start of the war, or before: that bombing could not achieve regime change, nor the destruction of the nuclear program.

But can our leaders really be so foolish? 

What if this attack was never about destroying the Islamic Republic or its nuclear program but about preserving them? For the Israeli government and Netanyahu in particular, the idea of the ‘Iranian threat’ and especially the nuclear threat, has been fundamental for a generation, it is the reason why we must never compromise with Palestinians, who are somehow part of an Iranian axis of evil bent on destroying us, why we must keep building up our army and why Netanyahu himself must stay in power, nevermind is corruption and the dismantling of Israeli civil service and legal system.

I cannot speak for American motivations, but what if the Israeli system of military government and occupation needs the Islamic Republic to justify and distract, just as the Islamic Republic needs “the zionist entity” for much the same reasons?

In this case, the fools are all of us who buy into a story of good against evil, and of war being the means for one to triumph over the other. The fools are those Israelis and Americans risking their lives to fight this war under false pretences, the exiled Iranians pushing for more bombing to ‘liberate’ their country, and those  in Iran rallying to support their oppressive government  against the invaders.

Just as this war has brought about a more extremist government in Iran, it has done the same in Israel. As we’ve reported here in previous weeks, the war has been the cover for an escalation of settler and military attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, and a tightening of the siege on Gaza.  Also under the cover of war, the Israeli parliament has passed a law instituting a death penalty for (Palestinian)  ‘terrorists’, a law that extends the power of rabbinic courts over civilian matters, and a government budget that buys the support of the Ultra Orthodox parties with huge funding for their institutions. Under the cover of war, Netanyahu’s trial for corruption has been put on hold and a new push to pardon him has been made public.

It almost seems like under the cover of war with Iran, Israel is modeling itself after the Islamic Republic, with religious law, public executions, and a supreme leader who is above democratic elections and normal law. 

On the eve of Passover, the Jewish holiday of liberation from enslavement, we must ask ourselves who are our enslavers, and what we can do to break free of bondage?  If what is keeping us enslaved is a fear of the other, if the external threat is what allows our leaders to keep robbing and oppressing us, our route to liberation is through solidarity with those we are told are our  enemies. 

Those Israelis who stand in solidarity with Palestinians under attack in the West Bank, those Americans who stand in solidarity with the immigrants persecuted by ICE are also the ones who stand in clearest opposition to their governments’ war, who can see through the thin veil of ‘democracy’ fighting dictatorship. 

Solidarity is the shortest route out of the enslavement of fear and constant war, it is our way out of being constantly fooled, to see more clearly who our true enemies are.

This seder night, Israelis will almost certainly be running for shelter, just as Iranians were two weeks ago on their spring holiday of Nowruz. Our liberation will come, if it comes, not with one side or another ‘winning’ this war, but with the understanding that our governments, consciously or not, are working together to keep us oppressed.  That our route to freedom is not through fighting some external enemy, but by no longer being our oppressors useful fools, bjoining with those we are told are our enemies, to overthrow those who would keep us in fear.