{"id":2466494,"date":"2025-07-25T00:24:01","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T04:24:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/life-imitates-art-in-tehran-washington-examiner\/"},"modified":"2025-07-25T00:28:32","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T04:28:32","slug":"life-imitates-art-in-tehran-washington-examiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/life-imitates-art-in-tehran-washington-examiner\/","title":{"rendered":"Life imitates art in \u2018Tehran\u2019 &#8211; Washington Examiner"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Flife-imitates-art-in-tehran-washington-examiner%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2466494&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The Apple TV+ series *Tehran*, now in its third season, <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >intriguingly parallels real-life events<\/a> following Israel&#8217;s recent covert operations against Iran&#8217;s nuclear program. The show centers on Tamar Rabinyan, a skilled Mossad agent and Tehran-born computer hacker, who undertakes risky missions to disrupt Iran&#8217;s nuclear ambitions. Throughout the series, Tamar navigates complex loyalties to family, country, and humanity, often facing moral dilemmas and personal sacrifices.<\/p>\n<p>The story also explores the lives of key figures such as Milad, a passionate Iranian cyberhacker and Tamar&#8217;s love interest, and Faraz kamali, an Iranian Revolutionary Guard counter-intelligence chief torn between duty and personal ties. Season 2 introduces Marjan Montazeri, Tamar&#8217;s Mossad handler played by Glenn Close, who guides Tamar as she targets prominent Iranian figures involved in nuclear activities, further complicating personal and political conflicts.<\/p>\n<p>Season 3 deepens these divided loyalties amid heightened tensions over nuclear weapons growth. characters like South African weapons inspector Eric Peterson add layers of ambiguity and shifting allegiances. Tamar struggles to balance her Iranian heritage with her Israeli identity, facing arduous ethical choices that challenge her mission and conscience.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately,*Tehran* goes beyond espionage thrills to portray the nuanced human struggles behind geopolitical conflicts,emphasizing that while the protagonists seek to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/doug-collins-what-feels-good-does-not-always-heal-you-these-bipartisan-gun-control-measures-are-a-cruel-charade\/\" title=\"Doug Collins: What Feels Good Does Not Always Heal You \u2013 These Bipartisan Gun Control Measures Are a Cruel Charade\">protect innocent lives<\/a> and thwart evil,their adversaries also act from a deeply flawed sense of patriotism. The series highlights the moral complexities of covert warfare and the heavy costs involved, resonating with the recent real-world Israeli-iranian tensions as art imitates life.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Life imitates art in &lsquo;Tehran&rsquo;<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<p>The night <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/israel\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Israel<\/a> launched its stunning aerial campaign against <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/iran\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Iran<\/a> last month, incredible stories began emerging from Tehran of senior generals and nuclear scientists assassinated in their apartments, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/vance-urges-nonintervention-with-india-and-pakistan-as-conflict-escalates\/\" title=\"Vance urges nonintervention with India and Pakistan as conflict escalates\">attack drones launched<\/a> by Israel from warehouses inside Iran, explosions at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/iran-nuclear-program\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">nuclear facilities<\/a>, and even Mossad agents in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/tehran\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Tehran<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>No matter how outlandish the rumors, they&rsquo;d almost all been foretold in <em>Tehran<\/em>, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/premium\/3442560\/apple-tv-murderbot-review\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Apple TV+ series <\/a>now in its third season. The series follows the daring exploits of Tamar Rabinyan, a highly-skilled Mossad agent dispatched to the Iranian capital to undermine the mullahs&rsquo; burgeoning <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/nuclear-weapons\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">nuclear weapons <\/a>program.<\/p>\n<div class=\"recommended-stories\">\n<h2>Recommended Stories<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/entertainment\/3481364\/joy-behar-slips-the-view-hiatus\/\">Joy Behar slips The View is going on &#8216;hiatus&#8217; after this week<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/entertainment\/3480980\/south-park-season-premier-mocks-paramount-deal-pro-trump-messaging\/\">South Park mocks Paramount deal and &#8216;pro-Trump messaging&#8217; in season premiere<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/entertainment\/3481068\/cbs-tanya-simon-60-minutes-producer-bill-owens\/\">CBS fills longtime 60 Minutes producer&#8217;s role months after his resignation<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>But even more compelling than the propulsive on-screen action and its eerie predictive power are the tortured psychological gymnastics performed by the key characters as they stretch and leap to reconcile the competing loyalties to family, to country, to humanity, pulling them in multiple directions.<\/p>\n<p>Take Tamar, a 20-something Israeli operative and computer hacker extraordinaire who was born in Tehran and fled the regime by immigrating to the Jewish state with her family. Played by the steely yet vulnerable Israeli actress Niv Sultan, Tamar infiltrates her former country with ease and initially takes shelter in Tehran with her aunt, who had remained behind. Despite severely imperiling her family, Tamar relies on her aunt&rsquo;s protection for much of Season 1, no matter the consequences.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-full is-resized\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Glenn Close and Shila Ommi in Tehran. (Courtesy of Apple TV+)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Along the way, she encounters, befriends, and, inevitably, falls in love with Milad, a brilliant young cyberhacker whose love for his people and their freedom is matched only by his hatred for the regime. Tamar doesn&rsquo;t exactly exploit Milad &mdash; their love is genuine, and their goals are mostly aligned &mdash; but circumstances frequently test their relationship, with uneven results.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Tamar&rsquo;s main antagonist in Season 1 is Faraz Kamali, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps&rsquo;s counter-intelligence division. Spellbindingly depicted by the elegant Iranian-born American actor Shaun Toub, Kamali ruthlessly hunts for Tamar and clashes with his own beloved wife, Nahid. As the first season climaxes, with Tamar and Milad struggling to shut down radar installations to enable an Israeli aerial attack and Kamali hot on their tail, all characters find themselves having to make painful sacrifices.<\/p>\n<p>When Season 2 begins, we meet Marjan Montazeri, a widowed, American-born therapist in Tehran who, we later learn, works for the Mossad. She becomes Tamar&rsquo;s handler. Following the traumas of the previous season, Tamar herself contemplates escaping to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/canada\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Canada<\/a> but ultimately finds herself drawn back to the fundamental mission, which now shifts toward eliminating a particularly loathsome IRGC general playing a pivotal role in the mullahs&rsquo; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/evidence-of-undeclared-nuclear-activities-discovered-at-locations-in-iran-that-raise-new-concerns-report\/\" title=\"\u2018Evidence Of Undeclared Nuclear Activities\u2019 Discovered At Locations In Iran That Raise New Concerns: Report\">nuclear weapons program<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Marjan, played chillingly by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/entertainment\/3280760\/hillbilly-elegy-star-glenn-close-jd-vance\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Glenn Close<\/a>, has suffered her own losses and undertaken her own conciliations, and she steers Tamar toward doing the same. This time, however, Tamar aims to seduce the general&rsquo;s fabulously wealthy, secular, partygoing, supercar-driving, playboy son in an effort to get close to the father, a gambit that badly strains her bond with Milad. Meanwhile, Kamali faces his own painful choice between Nahid and his future place within the regime&rsquo;s hierarchy. When the smoke clears, success mixes with sorrow, and both Tamar and Kamali are once again mired in self-doubt over whether their choices, however necessary for the mission, have compromised their humanity.<\/p>\n<p>By the time Season 3 begins, viewers have thus become accustomed to the divided loyalties afflicting the key characters. (And note: due to mysterious behind-the-scenes decisions made by Apple execs in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack, the latest season is currently available in the U.S. only via VPN and Israel&rsquo;s Kan 11 app.) Those contradictions become heightened as the Mossad targets key components recently delivered to Tehran that appear to enable the weaponization of the ayatollahs&rsquo; enriched uranium.<\/p>\n<p>Emblematic of these twists and turns is Eric Peterson, a South African weapons inspector for a fictional equivalent of the International Atomic Energy Agency, who seems to switch sides multiple times over the course of the season. Peterson, whose South African accent flows off the tongue of a compelling Hugh Laurie, has one North Star: a love for Iran and its people.<\/p>\n<p>Tamar, too, labors to reconcile her many impulses, much to the consternation of Yulia, her handler back in Tel Aviv, who occasionally frets that Tamar&rsquo;s &ldquo;Iranian side&rdquo; has triumphed over her Israeli one. &ldquo;Remember who you are,&rdquo; Yulia chastises Tamar at one point, &ldquo;and remember which side you&rsquo;re fighting for.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Yulia is right to worry: Early in Season 3, after defying another of Yulia&rsquo;s commands, the wily, magnetic Tamar wins over a key character who initially intends to do her harm. And shortly thereafter, Tamar confronts the wife of a nuclear scientist that the Mossad had previously eliminated, and who herself is now aiding the program. She has to choose between her mission and her ethical sensibilities, as the widow is raising a 9-year-old girl.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The people [your husband] built the bomb for want to wipe us off the face of the earth,&rdquo; Tamar coolly reminds the widow, gun cocked and aimed. &ldquo;My husband never got to see his daughter grow up because of you people!&rdquo; the widow shoots back.<\/p>\n<p>In a critical sequence, all of the characters must make an impossible choice involving grave nuclear peril. Tamar and Kamali, who again face Nahid&rsquo;s accusations of betrayal, find themselves, not for the first time, at loggerheads.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I never doubted your love for Tehran,&rdquo; Tamar tells the IRGC man. &ldquo;So don&rsquo;t you doubt <em>my<\/em> love.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I choose Iran over everything,&rdquo; Kamali smugly retorts.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/magazine-features\/3446879\/from-tehran-to-tel-aviv-israeli-war-iran\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">FROM TEHRAN TO TEL AVIV: HOW ISRAELIS ARE EXPERIENCING THE WAR WITH IRAN <\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>But ultimately, while <em>Tehran<\/em>&rsquo;s writers admirably entertain competing motivations and, in depicting the costs and benefits of adhering to the mission, transcend black-and-white moralizing with the nuance inherent in every conflict, they nevertheless make their choices clear. In other words, Tamar, Milad, Marjan, and their allies care deeply about the Iranian people, while Kamali, the general, and the other antagonists defend the Iranian regime.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It&rsquo;s undoubtedly true that Israel, the Iranian opposition, weapons inspectors, and the Western world in general make mistakes and sacrifices in furtherance of their mission. And sometimes the costs of those mistakes and sacrifices seem downright unbearable. But the mullahs and their enablers <em>intend<\/em> to bring about evil out of a misguided sense of love of country. While we must wring our hands over the unintended and often terrible consequences of our well-intentioned actions, we must never lose sight of the motivations of our adversaries. Accepting evil in the service of good always beats the alternative. This message resonates throughout <em>Tehran<\/em> over its brilliant five-year run, much as it has resonated in the actual Tehran over the last few months as life has imitated art.<\/p>\n<p><em>Michael M. Rosen is an attorney and writer in Israel, a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and author of <\/em>Like Silicon From Clay: What Ancient Jewish Wisdom Can Teach Us About AI<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Life mirrors art in &#8216;Tehran&#8217; amid Israel&#8217;s Iran strikes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3449,"featured_media":2466495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/LA.TV_.073025.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[9792,59856,21929,34780,32076],"class_list":["post-2466494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-drama","tag-life-imitates-art","tag-tehran","tag-tv-show","tag-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/LA.TV_.073025.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2466494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3449"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2466494"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2466494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2466498,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2466494\/revisions\/2466498"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2466495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2466494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2466494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2466494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}