TEL AVIV—Down by a goal and on the verge of elimination from World Cup, Iran's footballers struggled to compose an attack. Thousands of miles away in unlikely corner of the Middle East, a chant of encouragement went up: Ee-ran! Ee-ran! Eran!

The soccer fans weren't in Tehran but in Tel Aviv, where a group of some two dozen young Israelis at a downtown bar put aside the political divide between the countries to wave Iranian flags and nibble on 'nogal' wedding sweets while they cheered on the Iranian side in its must-win match...