Great Neck Rally Cheers US-Iran War Effort in 2026

More than 100 people packed Village Green Park in Great Neck on Sunday to do something you don’t see much of anywhere else in America right now: cheer on the war with Iran.

The rally, organized by Port Washington activist Farshid Dror Bakhshi, drew local elected officials and members of Great Neck’s large Persian Jewish community, many of them draped in the pre-revolutionary Iranian flag, waving American and Israeli flags, and singing songs from a country their families fled after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Great Neck is home to the second-largest Iranian community in the United States, and the personal stakes here are not abstract. These are people with memories, relatives, and history baked into every chant.

The scene around the gazebo told the story plainly. Organizers placed a demon mask with a turban fixed to its horns near the speakers’ podium. A doctored photo of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei showed him with fangs and a red “X” across his face. A cardboard cutout of the newly installed Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei was shown wrapped in bloody bandages. Nobody in this crowd is interested in nuance about the Tehran regime.

Village of Great Neck Mayor Pedram Bral, who grew up in Iran, drew loud cheers when he addressed the crowd directly on President Trump’s decision to launch military action now three weeks into the conflict. “Everybody talked, but no one took action. President Trump said it, and he did it,” Bral said, triggering a wave of “Thank you, Trump!” from the crowd. Bral also pushed back hard on Americans who oppose the war, warning that ending the conflict without a full regime change would leave the United States and its allies in serious danger.

Nassau County Legislator Mazi Melesa Pilip, who has never been shy about her support for Israel, praised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in similar terms, drawing cheers from the crowd for her remarks. North Hempstead Town Supervisor Jennifer DeSena was more careful with her words. She declined to say whether she personally supports the war, calling it outside her job description, but praised the military and framed the effort as a defense of democracy.

The enthusiasm in Great Neck stands in stark contrast to the broader national mood. A Quinnipiac poll taken just one week after the conflict began showed 53 percent of Americans opposed the military campaign. Among Independents, opposition ran even higher, at 60 percent. Those are not comfortable numbers for any administration trying to sustain a war effort, and they reflect a public that is war-weary after years of Middle East entanglements.

Bakhshi and Bral both offered their explanations for the gap. Bral pointed the finger at media coverage. Bakhshi argued that most Americans either lack sufficient knowledge about Middle Eastern politics or, in some cases, have sympathies with the Iranian regime. He specifically named New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani as an example of the latter. Bakhshi framed the war as the latest and most consequential chapter in a decades-long struggle against the Islamic Republic.

From a political standpoint, this rally is a snapshot of something worth watching. The Persian Jewish community on Long Island is organized, passionate, and increasingly aligned with the Republican Party. DeSena, Pilip, and Bral all showed up. That is not an accident. Nassau County Republicans understand where this community stands, and they are cultivating those ties carefully heading into what promises to be a bruising election cycle.

The harder question is whether the enthusiasm in Great Neck translates into broader support for the war across the county and state. Right now, the polling suggests it does not. Suburban voters who might cheer the flag-waving in theory get nervous when gas prices climb and the casualty reports start rolling in. We are only three weeks into this conflict. The next few months will test whether the political coalition backing this war can hold together as the costs become clearer.

Sunday’s crowd was convinced they were on the right side of history. They may well be. But the rest of the country is not there yet, and that gap matters.