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When listening to U.S. President Donald Trump or U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, one gets the sense that the war they are now pursuing in the Middle East is solely about Iran. The campaign, now six days old and apparently open-ended, is chiefly about Iran, but it is already having a profound impact across the region. Washington cannot undertake a military operation of this magnitude without causing significant transformation in political dynamics. This change will be especially pronounced when it comes to the future of Islamism, Palestinian resistance, the status of the West Bank, and the prospect of Arab normalization with Israel.

The establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979 provided the ideological ardor for Islamists throughout the Middle East, whether Shia or Sunni. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s triumph came only a dozen years after the defeat of the Egyptian, Syrian, and Jordanian armies in June 1967. If Israel’s drubbing of three Arab armies in just a few days stripped bare the failures of Arab nationalism for all the world to see, the Iranian Revolution of 1979 animated Islamists, demonstrating for them what was possible. The Muslim Brotherhood, its various branches, and other Islamist groups around the region did not share Khomeini’s commitment to direct clerical rule, but they found inspiration and encouragement in his success. As a result, they seized the opportunity to fill an ideological and social void.

When listening to U.S. President Donald Trump or U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, one gets the sense that the war they are now pursuing in the Middle East is solely about Iran. The campaign, now six days old and apparently open-ended, is chiefly about Iran, but it is already having a profound impact across the region. Washington cannot undertake a military operation of this magnitude without causing significant transformation in political dynamics. This change will be especially pronounced when it comes to the future of Islamism, Palestinian resistance, the status of the West Bank, and the prospect of Arab normalization with Israel.

The establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979 provided the ideological ardor for Islamists throughout the Middle East, whether Shia or Sunni. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s triumph came only a dozen years after the defeat of the Egyptian, Syrian, and Jordanian armies in June 1967. If Israel’s drubbing of three Arab armies in just a few days stripped bare the failures of Arab nationalism for all the world to see, the Iranian Revolution of 1979 animated Islamists, demonstrating........

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