Khamenei’s Rhetoric Revives the Hitler's Ghost

Israel’s preemptive strike on Iranian nuclear facilities on June 13 stunned Tehran and ignited a 12-day wave of retaliatory missile attacks, many targeting Israeli civilian centers. The operation, aimed at disrupting Iran’s nuclear capabilities, marked a significant escalation in regional tensions and caught Iran’s leadership, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, off guard.

The Israeli offensive — surgically focused on military and nuclear infrastructure — was met with a fierce response. Iran launched a barrage of missile attacks across Israeli cities, plunging daily life into a cycle of sirens, sheltering, and uncertainty. At least 28 Israeli civilians were killed in the bombardments, a toll that would have been far higher without the Iron Dome missile defense system.

While Israel’s military actions were confined to strategic targets, Iran’s counterstrikes appeared indiscriminate, aimed at inflicting terror and civilian casualties. The contrast in tactics has reignited long-standing international debates about proportionality, self-defense, and the targeting of non-combatants in conflict.

A provocative parallel is therefore drawn — particularly between Ayatollah Khamenei’s rhetoric and that of Adolf Hitler. Both leaders have invoked ideologies that dehumanize Jews and justify violence under the guise of national salvation. Hitler’s campaign of extermination was built on framing Jews as the root of societal decay. Similarly, Khamenei has long characterized Israel as an illegitimate entity — a "plague" in the Middle East — and has portrayed recent Israeli military actions as evidence of inherent evil, fueling public support for Iran’s aggressive response.

The recent attacks, while differing vastly in scale from the Holocaust, have revived fears of ideologically motivated violence. Both Hitler and Khamenei employed false moral narratives to legitimize actions widely condemned by the international community. Both, too, withdrew from public view when international pressure intensified — Hitler into his bunker, Khamenei into seclusion. Hitler went out dead, after commiting suicide. In contrast, the Ayatollah reappeared after days of absence from public life by attending an annual Shiite religious ceremony for Ashura (the end of a 10-day mourning period, considered a celebration of Shiite identity), which was held at his compound, on Saturday, July 5th. 

Though separated by time, geography, and context, the underlying logic of power through scapegoating and spectacle — particularly when directed against Jews — has left a chilling sense of déjà vu for many observers.    

As the region braces for further developments, the world is once again confronted with urgent questions about deterrence, ideological extremism, and the costs of silence in the face of escalating threats.