By Hanif Qamar
ISLAMABAD, Friday, June 27, 2025 (WNP): As Israel celebrates its “military success,” Iran holds its own victory parades, and the United States declares itself the ultimate peacemaker, a stark question emerges: who actually won this war? Each player claims triumph, but the truth may lie beneath the rubble—in Gaza, Beirut, and Tehran. Let’s analyze the facts dispassionately.
Though Iran now claims it was a victim of unprovoked aggression, the roots of this war can be traced back to Hamas’s attack on Israel—an operation Iran openly supported both financially and ideologically. Framing the conflict as a religious war between Muslims and Jews, Iran positioned itself as the ideological patron behind Hamas’s actions.
In the initial attacks, several Israeli soldiers were killed or captured. However, the response was swift and brutal: Israel dismantled the top leadership of Hamas and Hezbollah, flattened vast areas in Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria, and killed thousands—including civilians. Even the Iran-backed Syrian regime crumbled under joint U.S.-Israeli pressure. All proxies Iran had invested in—state and non-state actors—were neutralized.
With its regional allies devastated, Iran found itself isolated. Then came Israel’s most ambitious move: direct strikes on Iranian soil, aimed at regime change and the destruction of its nuclear program. Here, Iran managed to shift the narrative.
Although the war began with Hamas, Iran successfully reframed the conflict as an Israeli invasion, gaining sympathy across the Muslim world. Commentary and analysis began focusing not on Hamas or Gaza, but on Israeli attacks inside Iran. The initial trigger of the war—the October 7 Hamas assault—faded into the background.
Iran suffered major losses: top military, political, and scientific figures were killed, and the estimated financial damage is massive. In response, Iran launched missile attacks on Israeli cities including Tel Aviv and Haifa, causing civilian casualties and infrastructure damage—but failed to eliminate any major Israeli military or political target.
Then came the U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Tehran retaliated by targeting a U.S. military base in Qatar, and within days, the war abruptly ended.
From Tel Aviv’s vantage point, the war was a strategic win. Israel claims it: decimated Hamas and Hezbollah leadership; paralyzed the operational capability of these groups; toppled the Assad regime in Syria; and killed key Iranian leaders and destroyed nuclear facilities.
Though regime change in Iran wasn’t achieved, Israel asserts that it fulfilled most objectives—and thus, has every reason to celebrate.
Iran counters by saying it shattered Israel’s myth of invincibility. It successfully hit deep inside Israeli territory, inflicted economic damage, and, most importantly, foiled regime-change plans. Iran’s narrative leans heavily on martyrdom: the loss of top leadership is seen not as defeat, but as divine elevation.
According to Iran, resisting American and Israeli aggression and standing tall amid devastation is a win in itself.
The U.S. sees itself as the ultimate victor—restoring balance by degrading Iran’s nuclear program, punishing both sides for regional instability, and then stepping in as the arbiter of peace. America claims to have forced both Israel and Iran into submission, treating them as squabbling schoolchildren in need of discipline.
While regional powers congratulate themselves, a frail Palestinian elder stands amidst the ruins of Gaza, draped in tattered clothing and soaked in grief, asking: “What about me? This war began in my name—what victory do I get to celebrate?”
It is this poignant question that cuts through the fog of declarations and diplomacy. Perhaps none of the triumphant claims hold as much weight as the silence of those who lost everything in a war they neither started nor had the power to stop.
