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Iranian-Americans could strengthen US strategy against Iran - opinion

On May 6, 2026, The Jerusalem Post published an opinion column, Iranian-Americans could strengthen US strategy against Iran - opinion, by Rafael Castro. He describes himself as an independent political analyst based in Berlin. He argues that the United States should form Army units of Iranian-Americans and send them into Iranian cities. An American family should care because a writer in a major Israeli paper is proposing that Americans, picked for family ties to Iran, be parachuted into Tehran and Isfahan.

Background for new readers: On 28 February 2026 the United States and Israel began a joint air war on Iran. The Pentagon calls its part Operation Epic Fury; Israel calls its part Operation Roaring Lion. It came eight months after a shorter war in June 2025, when US bombers hit Iran's nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. The question running through this section is whether the air war turns into American soldiers fighting on Iranian soil. This article is filed under Israeli Press on US Ground Troops; the full article index lists every article on this shelf.

Evidence rating: MODERATE. A named commentator, Rafael Castro, published this plan in The Jerusalem Post's opinion pages. The rating covers what the column proposes.

What the article says​

Castro writes that the United States should build specialized Army units from first- and second-generation Iranian-Americans. He wants soldiers who speak Farsi, the main language of Iran, and who know the culture. He says they would outperform ordinary units in high-risk operations against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Basij, in cities such as Tehran and Isfahan. The Revolutionary Guard is Iran's powerful armed force tied to the clerical leadership. The Basij is Iran's paramilitary volunteer force.

Parachuting or inserting Farsi-speaking American units into Tehran or Isfahan would not feel like invading a foreign land to them; it would be closer to finishing the liberation their families began by emigrating.

Rafael Castro, The Jerusalem Post, May 6, 2026.

He writes that the United States has roughly 500,000 to 750,000 Iranian-Americans. He points to census and Pew figures he puts at about 568,000 write-ins, and up to 750,000 in 2024. He says many oppose the clerical government. He argues that the Pentagon, the headquarters of the US military, and the CIA have long been short of Persian speakers. He says ordinary units lean on contractors and interpreters. He compares his idea to Polish-Americans and Italian-Americans who served in the US military in World War II, and to French-Americans in the liberation of France.

He writes that the Revolutionary Guard has around 190,000 active personnel. He writes that the Basij adds roughly 90,000 active members, plus a much larger pool the government could call up. He says diaspora units could tell fighters from civilians, read Farsi signs, and encourage defections in a regime-change fight or a battle in a city. He says US interests include blocking Iranian dominance over the region, keeping energy routes open, protecting Israel and Gulf partners, and countering nuclear proliferation. He says drawing on the diaspora is a cheaper option short of a full conventional war, or in support of one.

He writes that skeptics may raise loyalty concerns. His answer is that US service members are vetted, trained, and take an oath, and that Iranian-Americans already serve.

What other reporting adds​

An American military outlet put this column in a pattern. In September 2026, Military.com, a news site for service members and veterans, published a report by Haley Fuller on a later Jerusalem Post column by AJ Jaff, a retired Canadian Armed Forces officer. Fuller writes that Jaff proposed canceling recruits' "student loans, credit card debt, auto loans and other personal debts" after 24 or 36 months of service, to produce the troops a ground war in Iran would need. She quotes Jaff: "The debt was the trap." "The forgiveness is the bait." (Military.com, 9 September 2026; research capture: twitter/t58__v694.md). In the same article, Fuller lists Castro's column as another English-language Israeli-paper proposal: "organizing Iranian Americans into specialized U.S. Army units and inserting them into Tehran and Isfahan."

Fuller's note on the authors. She adds: "These opinion columns do not represent every Israeli journalist, citizen or government official. Several contributors are American, Canadian or European." She also notes that "Congress would have to authorize and fund Jaff's proposal." (research capture: twitter/t58__v694.md). Castro, as this page says above, describes himself as based in Berlin.

A similar diaspora idea. In March 2026 an Iran analyst floated "a diaspora-based Immortal Guard unit to spearhead an invasion of southern Iran from one of these islands, absorbing defectors and volunteers as it heads north," calling it "an out-of-the-box idea that's been circulating" (as captured, 26 March 2026; research captures: twitter/t48__v572.md, twitter/t48__v575.md).

What it shows​

A major Israeli newspaper printed a plan to recruit Americans by ancestry, Farsi-speaking sons and daughters of Iranian immigrants, and parachute them into Tehran and Isfahan against the Revolutionary Guard. Four months later the same paper printed a plan to recruit indebted young Americans by the hundreds of thousands. Military.com, writing for American service members, put the two columns side by side as proposals for filling an American ground war with Americans. Israeli opinion pages kept supplying the recruiting ideas; the soldiers in every one of them are American. See Israeli Press on US Ground Troops and The Jerusalem Post Column.

Check it yourself​

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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