Freedom often advances through unlikely alliances. This is one of those moments

Stop right now and erase everything you thought you knew about Iran.

Western coverage treats the country like a cartoon: tyrant versus dissident, East versus West, Islam versus Israel. It’s convenient. It’s lazy. And it’s dead wrong.

Look closer. Across Tehran, Munich, Sydney, Toronto and, particularly after the death of the Ayatollah, all around the rest of the world, Iranian flags fly next to Israeli flags. Iranian dissidents since October 7 have joined pro‑Jewish anti-Hamas rallies. Jewish communities stand with Iranians chanting “zan, zendegi, azadi” — woman, life, freedom — demanding the end of the clerical state. Millions of Iranian Muslims, both inside the country and in the diaspora, are rejecting

This shatters a long-standing western myth: that Muslims are instinctively hostile to Israel. That hostility wasn’t natural. It was manufactured — a tool to justify domestic repression. Iranian protesters are speaking for themselves, crossing historical, cultural and political divides that western commentators have ignored for far too long.

And make no mistake: these protesters knew the stakes. They faced bullets, mass arrests, intimidation and years of sanctions. The regime has survived decades of moral outrage and financial boycotts. For it to fall required additional external leverage. Not occupation. Not dominance. But support that empowers liberation, that amplifies the courage of those risking everything.

Enter Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He invoked Cyrus the Great, the king who freed the Jews from Babylon and allowed them to rebuild the Temple of Jerusalem. Today, he suggests, Israel is returning the favour and is promising what he calls the Cyrus Accords, supporting the liberation of Iranians — not to conquer, but to dismantle tyranny.

Critics are warning that the current military attack has risked civilian harm and regional instability. They are not wrong. Iraq. Libya. Afghanistan. Recent history offers grim reminders. But caution must not become paralysis. Smart intervention targets oppression, protects civilians and strengthens civil society. This is strategy, not chaos. Precision, not panic. And Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan lacked the sizable educated population already clamouring, risking their lives, to be liberated from their government.

A striking reality is the alignment between Iranian protesters and Jewish communities worldwide. This is not a clash of civilizations. It is a clash of wills. Millions of Iranians are rejecting decades of anti-Israel rhetoric and seeing Israel, Jewish communities, and allies as necessary partners in dismantling tyranny. Israeli and pre-regime Iranian flags commingle at every rally, just as they did in rallies around the world after October 7, because the Iranian people understood that they shared a common enemy. Policy-makers in the West cannot ignore that reality.

Supporting Iran’s protesters and the joint U.S./Israeli attack does not mean celebrating war. It means recognizing the regime’s lack of durability and aligning international action with the aspirations of the people it is oppressing. Strategic intervention, paired ultimately with diplomatic, economic and technological support, amplifies Iranian agency rather than undermines it.

History does not ask if we were comfortable. It asks if we acted wisely. The Iranian people will not remember whether analysts debated sanctions endlessly. They will remember that the U.S. and Israel provided them with a real chance at freedom — one that matches their courage, their strategy, and their emerging global alliances.

From Cyrus the Great to today’s streets of Tehran, history often hinges on unlikely alignments. Millions of Iranians have embraced liberty in ways that intersect with Jewish communities worldwide. This could be one of those pivotal moments — a chance to reshape the Middle East into a pro-western, freedom-aligned alliance, without the need for further costly U.S. intervention or a constantly imperilled Israel that generations have dreamed of but few dared to imagine. Iran’s foolishness in attacking its neighbours, some of which are now talking about joining the fight, will further increase the prospect of a new Middle East-western alliance.

Here is what the West must understand: this is not about ideology, religion or ancient grudges. It is about human will against tyranny. Millions of Iranians are saying, clearly and courageously: “We will not be silenced. We will not accept oppression. We will align ourselves with anyone who respects our freedom.”

If the U.S. and Israel had failed to act strategically now, history would not have been kind. It has not been kind in recalling Barack Obama’s appeasement and funding of the regime and the increased Iranian militarization and influence which that permitted. Opportunities like this do not come twice. But if approached with strategy, precision and respect for the agency of the oppressed, the result could be transformative — a Middle East where freedom has allies, and tyranny faces consequences.

We are at a crossroads. The millions of Iranians risking everything for liberty were not naïve. They were calculating. And they have been reaching across historical and cultural divides to form alliances that were unimaginable even months ago.

From Tehran to Toronto, from Munich to Sydney, Iranians are rewriting the rules. They are showing the world that tyranny depends on division, that propaganda works only if it goes unchallenged, and that allies can emerge from the most unexpected places.

This is the moment to act wisely. Not recklessly. Not hesitantly. But decisively. To support Iranian protesters, to dismantle the instruments of oppression, to empower civil society, and to recognize that the future of the Middle East may well turn on this extraordinary alignment of courage, principle and historical insight.

History will remember who acted, who chose strategy over inaction, and that they saw Iranian protesters not as pawns of geopolitics, but as the architects of their own liberation. From Cyrus the Great to today, the lesson is clear: freedom often advances through unlikely alliances. This is one of those moments.

And it will be forever remembered.

National Post