Our Hope for a New Middle East

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA (February 28, 2026) — Right now, our hearts are with the Iranian people. We stand with the Iranian people and with the Persian community in the United States, many of whom know firsthand the cost of standing up for freedom. A regime does not define a people; their courage does. For too long, they have lived under repression, unable to live freely and choose their own future. Their struggle is not against another nation; it is against a regime that has constrained their potential and exported instability far beyond Iran’s borders.

We also stand with the people of Israel and our American service members serving abroad. The people of Israel and Iran are not natural enemies. Both are heirs to ancient civilizations that have given the world faith, scholarship, poetry, and innovation. Both deserve security. Both deserve dignity. Both deserve a future free from extremism.

History teaches that when conflict escalates, old prejudices quickly resurface. Jewish communities, and others, must not become scapegoats for crises they did not create.

For further information, please email Aram Goldberg at agoldberg@wiesenthal.com or Erik Simon at esimon@wiesenthal.com. Join the Center on Facebook, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent directly to your X feed.

About the Simon Wiesenthal Center

The Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) is a global Jewish human rights organization that combats antisemitism, defends the State of Israel, and uses the lessons of the Holocaust to teach tolerance and combat hate. It holds consultative status at the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the Council of Europe, the OAS and the Latin American Parliament (PARLATINO). Headquartered in Los Angeles, the SWC operates in key centers of Jewish life including New York, Chicago, Florida, Toronto, Jerusalem, Vienna and Buenos Aires. To learn more, visit www.wiesenthal.org.