Dueling Times Square rallies on Iran distill differing visions for America |
NEW YORK — On Saturday, several hundred demonstrators gathered in Times Square, beneath its giant illuminated American flag, to denounce the US and Israeli strikes against Iran.
“We understand this war and this attack for what it is — an extension of this genocide and an aid to advance imperialist Zionist interests,” a speaker told the crowd, to shouts of “Shame” from the audience.
A day later, hundreds of others gathered in the same square to celebrate the campaign, chanting “Iran” to the beat of a drum.
“As an American, I want to say that this is what America’s all about. We are just so proud,” a speaker said. “This is the voice of the Iranian people. This is the voice of the American people supporting you. We sacrificed many lives because of this regime.”
The two rallies, held in the heart of America’s leading city, illustrated two opposing views of America’s role in the world, marking ripples on the surface of deeper waters. Saturday’s protest represented the left’s antagonism toward an assertive US, while the rally the following day highlighted the increasingly narrow, pro-Israel center-right that views American power as a potential force for good.
The anti-war rally was organized by socialist and pro-Palestinian groups. The well-practiced activist outfits regularly hold rallies in Times Square and elsewhere around the city, with organizers carting prefabricated signs to the events and a set list of speakers from each group addressing the crowd.
The protesters’ rhetoric is defined by an anti-imperial, decolonial worldview that views the US and Israel as malign forces oppressing the downtrodden. For some, the Iranian regime is part of the anti-imperial axis. At Saturday’s rally, speakers connected the Iran war to Gaza and to domestic issues, such as healthcare and immigration enforcement.
“This attack on Iran comes in the context of this brutal, unending genocide that has been made possible and carried out by the US and Israel,” a speaker said.
Signs said, “Defend Palestine,” “For Iran’s right to a nuclear deterrent,” and “Hands off Iran.” One woman wore a sign on her head that said, “White men ruin everything.”
The protesters are to the left of the mainstream Democratic Party, but likely not by that much. Early polling found that, for Democrats, 74 percent opposed the Iran campaign, compared to 13% of Republicans.
The isolationist right, represented by figures like Tucker Carlson, dovetailed with the far left’s anti-imperialism in their shared opposition to action against Iran. The surveys suggested, though, that that vocal wing of the Republican Party had not made the same inroads with the public.
Signs at Saturday’s rally pointed to a conspiratorial bent that is also shared at both ends of the political spectrum, with several placards tying the Iran campaign to Jeffrey Epstein. “Operation Epstein Fury. Maoist Communist Union,” said one sign, showing Epstein’s face, the Israeli and American flags, dollar signs, and drops of blood.
Other surveys have found sinking support for Israel among Democrats, alongside a growing disillusionment with their own country. The only American flags at the leftist rallies were splattered with red paint reminiscent of blood.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are firmly in the anti-war camp. Mamdani called the campaign “a catastrophic escalation in an illegal war of aggression,” in a statement that did not mention the regime’s misdeeds. In an odd aside, he told Iranian New Yorkers, “You are a part of the fabric of this city… You will be safe here.” The DSA said it “stands against imperialist war and with the Iranian people.” But while Mamdani’s camp protested against the strikes — the city’s Iranians were celebrating.
At Sunday’s rally, demonstrators brandished the American, Israeli, and pre-Islamic Revolution Iranian flags, bearing the lion-and-sun emblem. Lion Sun NY, a group supporting the late deposed shah’s son, Reza Pahlavi, led the event.
One man in a hat that said, “We the people,” held up an energy drink that said “Proud American” on the side of the can. Some of the demonstrators wore hats for US President Donald Trump, and the crowd cheered repeatedly for the NYPD officers on the scene.
It is an awkward fact for the activist left that Iranians abroad appear to strongly support the strikes against the regime. There were mass protests in support of the campaign in cities with larger diaspora populations, such as Los Angeles and London. Speakers addressed the crowd and conversed in Farsi. One woman held up a photo of herself as a young child, still in Iran.
“God bless the US and Israel,” one speaker said, to cheers. “We hope it’s the beginning of the end for this horrible regime.”
The campaign also marked another break between the mainstream US Jewish community and the Democratic Party, most Jews’ traditional home. Most major US Jewish groups backed the strikes on Iran.
pic.twitter.com/g6JfYHKVTF — Luke Tress (@luketress) March 1, 2026
pic.twitter.com/g6JfYHKVTF
— Luke Tress (@luketress) March 1, 2026
Some leftist Jews did show up to the anti-war rally, with several wearing watermelon kippahs in solidarity with the Palestinians.
At the same time, Jewish demonstrators circulated information about Sunday’s pro-strike rally in WhatsApp groups, sharing its location as it marched across Manhattan, from the UN to Times Square, so that others could join.
Members of the Persian Jewish community, centered on Long Island, also showed up, with some traveling from Brooklyn and New Jersey. Jewish singer Ghazal Mizrahi performed a song in Farsi called “Air of Lovers,” and loudspeakers blasted music in Farsi and Hebrew. A man wearing an Iranian flag held hands and spun in a circle with a demonstrator holding an Israeli flag.
In recent weeks, Persian Jewish activists have connected with Lion Sun NY and another anti-regime outfit, Woman Life Freedom NYC, and the groups have been supporting each other’s events.
While the left has made immigrants a cause celebre, attendants of the rally were likely not the kind of immigrants they have in mind — conservative, hawkish, and pro-Israel.
New York’s Iranian Jewish community is largely centrist or conservative, like Jews from the former Soviet Union. The two groups arrived in the US later than other American Jews, many of whose ancestors immigrated before the immigration cutoff in the 1920s. For these later immigrants, leftist and Islamist persecution remains in living memory, in contrast to most American Jews, for whom antisemitism was largely associated with old-school European Jew-hatred and fascism, or until recently.
Both the Iranian groups and the anti-war activists have announced more rallies planned for Monday and Tuesday.
It remains to be seen which camp will be vindicated — whether Iran turns to chaos and a quagmire, or if something better will emerge. The way the war resolves, and which group proves ascendant, will likely have vast implications for Washington, Jerusalem, and American Jews.
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