Operation Midnight Hammer is over, and the June 24 ceasefire between Israel and Iran endures, but there are no guarantees for a lasting peace between Israel and Iran.
There is also great uncertainty among Denver’s Iranian Jews.
“This was kind of brewing for many, many years because everybody knew that Iran is up to no good,” says Dr. Robert Salehrabi, a longtime endodontist in Denver.
Salehrabi was born in Tehran and emigrated to the US 40 years ago. (He was actually smuggled out during a time when the Islamic government did not all anyone from a religious minority to leave the country). Salehrabi moved to Denver 20 years ago.
He absolutely does not support the current Iranian regime.
“Something has to be done because this is a government that not only nobody can trust,” says Salehrabi, “but the Islamic fundamentalists have lunatic ideas and, they’ve been threatening Israel for decades.
“So neither Israel nor the US could take that chance and at some point something had to be done.”
David Farahi feels the same way. Farahi was born in Reno, Nev., to parents of Iranian origin. They emigrated to the US in 1972.
“I’m not conflicted at all,” says Farahi, “because while Israel is not with Iran, Israel’s war is with the Iranian regime. It is not a war against the Iranian people.
“If anything, Israel and the IDF are fighting for the freedom of the Iranian people against the regime. Over 80% of Iranians do not support the regime that suppresses them today.
“I know many Iranians who are not Jewish, who do not support Israel, who do not support Israel’s actions over the last two years, even as they were tacitly supporting Israel’s strikes on the Iranian regime in hopes that this may bring about regime change and free the Iranian people from their oppressors.”
Farahi, who has helped run his family’s casino business until 2024, has cousins who live in Tehran, and was in touch with them during the 12 Day War.
“People were scared and rightfully so,” says Farahi.
“If you are a regular Iranian, you’ve been fed up with all of the regime propaganda for the last 46 years, and particularly over the last two years when the regime propaganda just showed images of Gaza and lies about what the IDF was doing.
“You could forgive them for thinking that the IDF’s goal here was to level the city of Tehran. Obviously, that was not the goal of the IDF and that’s not what they did, but that’s what the regime wanted their people to think.”
Salehrabi and Farahi monitor Iran’s fate during the current ceasefire.
“What the 12 Day War has accomplished,” says Farahi, “is that it is clear to the world and to the Iranian people that this regime is a paper tiger. They have been humiliated, they have been decapitated, and they have been deeply penetrated.”
Salehrabi views the Israel-Iran conflict from all perspectives.
“I do read regularly the opposition websites and what people post on X,” Salehrabi says, “to know what’s going on inside Iran and what are opposition people are doing.
“I think it’s actually smart of Israel not to kill the supreme leader because you don’t really know who’s going to take his place. That’s actually a good recipe for this incompetent, corrupt status quo. The system will eventually collapse on its own.
© IJN 2025
