The world watched on Tuesday as Iran launched a direct military strike against Israel for the first time. But unlike the predictable script of retaliation and restraint, this felt different. This felt like a regime testing its muscles, not lashing out. In Tehran, there is a new swagger in the air, a quiet confidence that the old rules of engagement no longer apply.
On the streets of West Jerusalem, sirens sent families scrambling for shelters. But in the cafes of north Tel Aviv, conversations buzzed with a strange mix of fear and fascination. ‘They’ve never done this before,’ a retired military officer told me. ‘This changes everything.’ Indeed, it does. But not in the way official statements suggest.
To understand the cultural shift, one must look at the psychology of power inside Iran. For decades, the regime operated through proxies, from Hezbollah to the Houthis. Direct confrontation was anathema, a gamble that risked existential ruin. But recent events have reshaped that calculus. The assassination of General Qasem Soleimani, the nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, and the repeated sabotaging of Iran’s atomic infrastructure created a narrative of vulnerability. The regime needed to prove it could project strength, not just rhetoric.
This strike was staged. It was calibrated to minimise civilian casualties while maximising psychological impact. The choice of targets, the limited scale, the coordinated media rollout all point to a regime that has learned from its own history. The IRGC now runs a parallel public relations machine, one that understands optics as well as any Western spin doctor.
On the Iranian side, the mood is triumphant. In Tehran’s Grand Bazaar, shopkeepers have been playing patriotic anthems. A young woman told me, ‘We are not afraid. We have stood up to the world before.’ This is not just propaganda. It is a genuine cultural shift, a generation that has grown up under sanctions learning to equate resistance with pride. The regime feeds on this, and it knows that external threats are the best way to unite a fractured population.
But the human cost is real. In the Israeli border towns, children now sleep in bomb shelters. The trauma of nightly alarms will leave scars that no political settlement can heal. And in Gaza, where the indirect consequences are always felt, families brace for a new round of escalation. The geopolitical game has always been played on the backs of ordinary people. This latest move is no exception.
The class dynamics are also worth noting. In Israel, the wealthier suburbs have private bomb shelters; the poorer neighbourhoods make do with public ones. The divide between those who can afford security and those who cannot is widening. And in Iran, the working classes are the ones who will bear the brunt of further sanctions while the elite in north Tehran enjoy their Swiss bank accounts. Revolution may have changed the flag, but not the distribution of power.
So what does this strike tell us about the future? It tells us that Iran no longer sees itself as a pariah or a victim. It sees itself as a regional power with a right to defend its interests, by any means necessary. The old order of American dominance and Israeli invulnerability is crumbling. And in its place, a more chaotic, multipolar world where every regime flexes its muscles, often with terrible consequences for the people caught in between.
Clara Whitby, Culture & Society Editor
