While much of the Jewish world marked Purim yesterday, Jerusalem is celebrating it today. The reason rests within Jewish law and memory. In antiquity, Jerusalem was a walled city, so it observes Purim on Adar 15, a day later than most communities in what Jews call Shushan Purim (Purim in walled cities).
Per the Book of Esther, Jews in Persia’s capital, Shushan, fought one more day, thus celebrated one day later. Jerusalem keeps that tradition alive, as if the city insists on living within the tale’s original rhythm.
One phrase from Purim captures the holiday’s spirit better than any military briefing. It is the term v’nahafoch hu, which suggests that all on this day is the opposite, all on this day is flipped upside down.
In the megillah, the plot reverses: The threatened become the defenders, the confident become the anxious, and the power dynamics turn upside down. Jerusalem reads that line in the scroll today with costumes in the street and, this year, with a war in the background.
The war has already delivered its own v’nahafoch hu.
Iran's attacks on Gulf States backfire
Since the opening of the US-Israel strikes and the killing of Iran’s now ex-supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Tehran has attempted to transform the entire region into a pressure chamber.
It has fired missiles and drones well beyond Israel, aiming at Gulf states that host American forces and that depend on stability to survive. Reuters reported Iranian threats have targeted Qatar, the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Oman, with the intention of raising the cost for Washington’s partners.
Yet the pressure has produced a different result. Instead of isolating Israel, Tehran has pushed elements within the Arab world into an uncomfortable alignment with Israel and the US, because Iranian missiles do not care about slogans. When one targets airports, ports, energy sites, and cities, one forces governments to pick defense over posture.
Take Qatar, for example. After Doha said it thwarted an Iranian attempt to strike Hamad International Airport and warned that attacks on civilian infrastructure would have consequences, reports surfaced on Tuesday that Qatar carried out strikes inside Iran. Qatar publicly pushed back on the framing, saying it is acting in self-defense and deterring further attacks, rather than joining a broader campaign.
Saudi Arabia sits in the same storm. Iranian strikes and Iran’s threats around maritime choke points have sharpened the kingdom’s incentives to react. Israeli reports suggested Saudi action might follow, and Reuters has described how Iran’s Gulf strikes may widen the war by pulling those states closer under Washington’s military umbrella.
Even Cyprus entered the picture, a reminder that Iranian proxies can widen a battlefield faster than diplomats can narrow it.
British sources and UK media reported a drone strike on the RAF Akrotiri military airbase in Cyprus, with suspicion falling on an Iranian-linked network.
This is the reversal that matters for Israel’s story. For years, too many in the public Arab discourse treated Israel as the region’s permanent villain, the convenient “demon” for every grievance.
Now, the region watches Israel fight alongside the world’s superpower against a regime that has threatened Israel, armed proxies, destabilized neighbors, and flirted openly with regional warfare. Reuters quoted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying the war may take “some time,” and framing it as a campaign with broader consequences for the Middle East’s future.
The Jerusalem Post calls on Israeli leaders to speak clearly to the region, in plain language that respects Arab nations even when their governments play both sides. Iran fired at your cities, too. Iran threatened your shipping, too. Iran treated your stability as collateral. This is a fact.
That said, Jerusalem and Washington should define a realistic political agenda concerning Iran’s governing body. Because military brilliance without a credible “day after” becomes a loop. The goal cannot be an endless cycle of regional panic that burns interceptors, budgets, and patience.
The Islamic Republic’s regime is the enemy; the Iranian people are not the target. This will shape whatever comes next, including whether Iran’s future turns toward rebuilding or deeper radicalization.
Purim in Jerusalem always carries a double message: Jewish survival and Jewish responsibility. Jews celebrate because they survived. They also celebrate because Jews recognized the danger in time, organized, defended themselves, and refused to outsource their fate.