{"id":166190,"date":"2026-03-17T14:21:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T14:21:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/166190\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T14:21:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T14:21:13","slug":"demonstrators-in-great-neck-cheer-us-israeli-war-efforts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/166190\/","title":{"rendered":"Demonstrators in Great Neck cheer US, Israeli war efforts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over 100 protesters took to the Village Green Park in Great Neck to cheer on the U.S. and Israeli war efforts on Sunday, March 15, as the Iran conflict stretched into its third week.<\/p>\n

North Hempstead Town Supervisor Jennifer DeSena, Village of Great Neck Mayor Pedram Bral, and Nassau County Legislator Mazi Melesa Pilip spoke at the protest, organized by Port Washington activist Farshid Dror Bakhshi.<\/p>\n

Great Neck is home to the second-largest Iranian community in the United States, consisting largely of Persian Jews and their descendants who fled the country after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Many from the peninsula\u2019s Persian community came to the protest draped in the pre-revolutionary flag, waving American and Israeli flags, and singing Iranian songs.<\/p>\n

Protest organizers placed several props around the gazebo where speakers addressed the crowd \u2014 a demon mask with a turban fixed atop its horns, an edited headshot of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei with fangs and a red \u201cX\u201d drawn over him, and a cardboard cutout of the recently installed Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei with bloody bandages.<\/p>\n

\"ActivistActivist Farshid Dror Bakhshi speaks at the protest beside a demon mask with a turban fixed to the top and a picture of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.Michael Campbell<\/p>\n

Bral, who grew up in Iran, said the Islamic Republic has faced bipartisan condemnation in the United States and that no one should be opposed to this latest war.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody talked, but no one took action. President Trump said it, and he did it,\u201d Bral said, to cheers of \u201cThank you, Trump!\u201d from the crowd.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] is an amazing leader! He has been fighting this war way before Oct. 7,\u201d Pilip said, to which the crowd responded in cheering, \u201cThank you, Bibi!\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the protesters\u2019 fervent support for the war, it remains largely unpopular nationwide. Only a week after the war began, a Quinnipiac poll<\/a> showed that 53% of Americans opposed the attacks, with 60% of Independents against the effort.<\/p>\n

Bral blamed the media for the lack of support.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFor all these idiots who are sitting out there and complaining and yelling and screaming that they want to stop this war, they must realize that if this war ends without a complete change of the regime, America and all of our allies are in huge trouble,\u201d he said<\/p>\n

Bakhshi also said he believed Americans were not supportive of the war because either they were sympathetic to the Iranian regime, like New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, or they were not informed about foreign policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe majority of them don\u2019t have enough information about the Middle East,\u201d said Bakshi.<\/p>\n

DeSena refused to say whether she supported the war.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not my job,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are a patriotic country, and our military \u2014 they are prepared to fight \u2014 they are fighting to protect democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bakhshi painted the war as the latest development in the long history between the Jewish and Persian people.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 539 BC, Cyrus the Great freed the Jews from Babylonian captivity and allowed them to return to Israel and build a temple. Israel today is doing its part to assist the valiant people of Iran to free themselves from the tyranny of the regime of mullahs in Iran,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump has made conflicting statements about whether he will push for a regime change or if he is looking for a more pliant regime, as the United States aopears to have achieved in Venezuela after it abducted former President Nicolas Maduro in January. Still, the protesters were overwhelmingly insistent on achieving a complete regime change.<\/p>\n

\u201cIran is not Venezuela,\u201d Bakhshi said. \u201c[The Iranian] regime is irredeemable.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey need a regime change there,\u201d said Ohebshalom, one of the protesters. \u201cI feel bad for them because a lot more people are gonna die \u2026 fortunately, I have a lot of hope. Hopefully, it\u2019s gonna end soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be more sacrifices, unfortunately. That\u2019s the reality. That\u2019s the nature of revolution, but we want to prevent what happened two months ago,\u201d said Bakhshi.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In January, Iran was engulfed by protests<\/a> against the government, and the regime responded with a brutal crackdown, killing thousands of its own people.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow long it might take, we shall see. We might have months of chaos,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"DemonstratorsDemonstrators in Great Neck gather to cheer on US and Israeli war efforts in Iran.Michael Campbell<\/p>\n

The protesters displayed pictures of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the former shah of Iran, and his son, Reza Pahlavi, who lives in exile in Washington, D.C.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 1953, a CIA-backed coup overthrew Iran\u2019s democratically elected prime minister, and the Shah was reinstalled as the country\u2019s leader. The shah presided over a period of prosperity in the country that many protesters reminisced about, but he also ruled the country with brutal, dictatorial force \u2014 torturing, imprisoning, and killing many dissidents, before his ouster in the 1979 Islamic Revolution.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Many at the event said they wished Reza Pahlavi to be similarly installed as Iran\u2019s leader after the war.<\/p>\n

Bral said he did not think this war would end up like other regime change wars the United States has waged in the Middle East because he said Iran is not a country with many sectarian, tribal, or ethnic wedges.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do believe it\u2019s a lot easier in Iran to change the regime and be successful than it was in other places,\u201d Bral said.<\/p>\n

\"VillageVillage of Great Neck Mayor Pedram (C.) speaks at the Iran War demonstration in Great Neck beside Farshid Dror Bakhshi (L.) and Trustee Eli Kashi, Nassau County Legislator Mazi Melesa Pilip, North Hempstead Town Supervisor Jennifer DeSena, and North Hempstead Receiver of Taxes Mary Jo Collins (L. to R.). Photo by Michael Campbell<\/p>\n

Iran, a country of 92 million people, is only 62% ethnically Persian, and the country faces two separatist movements in its Kurdish and Balochi majority regions. Bral said Trump could make promises for separatist groups to establish their own countries.<\/p>\n

North Hempstead Receiver of Taxes Mary Jo Collins was also present at the event. Collins said her son is a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy stationed on the USS George H.W. Bush. The Bush is rumored to be deploying to the Eastern Mediterranean, which would become the third U.S. aircraft carrier in the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish the press would be more receptive to what we\u2019re fighting for. It\u2019s freedom. It\u2019s democracy. It\u2019s the freedom to do this,\u201d Collins said, pointing to the demonstration.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Collins said she did not have mixed emotions about her son\u2019s deployment. \u201cI\u2019m very proud. It\u2019s what he signed up to do,\u201d she said with teary eyes.<\/p>\n

Many spoke fondly about Iran. Village of Great Neck Trustee Eli Kashi said he left the country when he was just six years old, but he still misses it.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore the revolution, it was beautiful. It was very Westernized. The Iranians were very pro-America,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Janet Shahaeim, one of the demonstrators, said she never thought she would be able to return to her birthplace, Iran, but now she thinks there might be a chance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was itching to go back to Iran,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Shahaeim said she was robbed in California a couple of weeks ago and that something like that would never happen in Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cIran was simple,\u201d she said. \u201cCompletely different. All of those years that I was there, I\u2019d never see something like that \u2026 I\u2019d rather live there.\u201d<\/p>\n

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