To the proud people of Iran:
This is not a message to your rulers. It’s a message to you—the heirs of Cyrus the Great, of Ferdowsi, Avicenna, and Rumi. For centuries, Iranian civilization was one of the most admired in the world. Your science, art, and literature helped shape humanity’s understanding of beauty and wisdom. Your gardens inspired the world. Your poetry spoke of mercy, truth, and the soul.
But that light has been dimmed by a regime that fears freedom. A regime that crushes dissent, bans art, jails women, and spends your national treasure on weapons, militias, and war.
This week, Israel acted—not to punish Iran, but to stop the machinery of destruction that threatens the region and the world. We struck facilities and commanders tied to the regime’s nuclear and terror infrastructure. These strikes were precise and limited—aimed not at the Iranian people, but at the violent ideology that endangers them too.
We acted because no sovereign nation can accept the threat of annihilation. But we also acted because we believe in a different future—one we know is possible.
Our two peoples have known friendship before. There was a time—not so long ago—when Israel and Iran were close partners, exchanging knowledge, trade, and good will. That friendship was not a fluke. It was a reflection of two ancient civilizations that, when working together, can bring tremendous good to the region and to the world. That potential still exists. It is only blocked by the extremist regime that came to power and tore that friendship apart.
A new Middle East is taking shape before our eyes. Countries that once saw each other as enemies are working together—through the Abraham Accords—to build a region based on cooperation and shared prosperity. Israeli and Emirati entrepreneurs develop startups together. Bahraini and Moroccan students study at Israeli universities. Regional air defense is being built across borders.
This isn’t some distant dream—it’s happening now. And a free Iran could be part of it.
We’re not naïve. We know the regime will try to crush hope. But we also know that hope is already alive. We saw it in 2009’s Green Movement, in 2019’s street protests, in the women-led resistance of 2022. We’ve seen you risk everything to sing in your language, to dance in your cities, to choose how you live and who you worship.
We write to you not as rivals, but as partners in a shared struggle—against tyranny, against extremism, against the silence that fear imposes. We, too, come from a people who faced darkness. Our own state was born from suffering, but we built a democracy. We know what it means to be isolated, to be targeted, and to rise anyway.
Israel is ready to work with any nation that seeks peace. And one day, we believe, that can include a free Iran—one that no longer exports weapons and terror, but science, poetry, medicine, and innovation. Imagine Iranian engineers working side by side with Israeli ones on clean energy. Imagine Iranian music echoing through regional festivals. Imagine Tehran’s universities as centers of knowledge, not repression.
This isn’t a fantasy. It’s a choice. And only you can make it.
No foreign army can bring freedom. But people can. When enough citizens say, “no more.” When they say, “our identity will not be defined by fear.” When they say, “our children deserve a life of dignity, not propaganda.”
The world is watching. This is your moment—to rise on your own terms and reclaim the story of your country.
History has not forgotten the beauty and greatness of Iran. And neither have we.
We stand with you, coalition and opposition in Israel together—not above you, not beyond you, but beside you.
Dan Illouz is a Member of Knesset for the coalition Likud Party and Co‑Chair of the Knesset Abraham Accords Caucus. Michael Biton is a Member of Knesset for the opposition National Unity Party and Co‑Chair of the Knesset Abraham Accords Caucus.
The views expressed in this article are the writers’ own.
The post We’re Members of the Israeli Knesset. Here’s Our Message to Iranians appeared first on Newsweek.
