They strike, we dance Iranians damn the regime amid Israeli barrage

Cries of “death to Khamenei” filled the night air in Tehran on June 15, rising above the thunder of Israeli airstrikes.The same defiant chorus had echoed through the city the night before, as if the people were rehearsing for the fall of the very system they were raised to fear.After five inconclusive rounds of talks between Iran and the United States, Israel launched its military campaign against the Islamic Republic’s leadership last week — and ordinary Iranians are not rallying around the regime.Instead, many are now mocking Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s fundamental miscalculation when he declared during President Donald Trump’s first term, “There will be no war, nor will we negotiate!”Neither prediction held true.A review of Persian-language outlets based outside Iran, which have broadcast a stream of comments and video updates from Iran residents in recent days, indicates that the conflict is widely seen as a war between Khamenei’s regime and Israel, not as an attack on the populace.Many of the callers are blaming Khamenei for “dragging the people into a pointless war.”“Ordinary Iranians are falling victim to the decision of one person: Ali Khamenei,” railed Farshid, who phoned in from Tehran. “We are not compatriots with those who execute our kids,” exclaimed Artemis, who called Iran International — a London-based satellite channel popular among the Iranian diaspora — to voice her frustration with the regime’s attempts to exploit Iranians’ deeply held sense of patriotism and use it against Israel.The Islamic Republic has long been hostile to Iranian nationalism, criminalizing the observance of ancient Persian holidays and preventing people from visiting the tomb of Cyrus the Great.It takes a great deal of effort to turn such a patriotic people against their government — and yet the regime has achieved exactly that.“We trust that Israel will not strike us [ordinary people],” said one caller to a Persian-language out...