To be clear

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English translation is in the image.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/riwwCXcPVZisc4Xn/

For those who might not want to click on the link, there’s a graffiti image and the quote:

“To be clear, if people worldwide participated in protests and exerted pressure against the Iranian regime instead of fighting Israel, they would free the people of Palestine and Lebanon from this conflict more swiftly.”

— Mohammed Sadeghi, artist and former Iranian political prisoner

Iran is already, and has been for many years, subject to severe international sanctions -- not so much by crowds of people, but by many governments around the world. (See Wikipedia article International sanctions against Iran.)

As I remarked here, in my thread "Ongoing injustices as a national vulnerablity":

Israel can blame Iran all it wants. But as long as Israel refuses to deal equitably with the Palestinians, that very fact creates a vulnerability to any and all external enemies.

Gosh, golly, gee willickers, I never thought of it that way!

That is an extremely inciteful observation to everyone gullible enough to think Iran is the sole reason Palestinians and the Lebanese are resisting!

Zionists and other nationalists live in the fantasy world where people who disageee with them are all just naïve pawns of foreign interference. Anti-Zionists in America? They're just blindly listening to Qatar and Iran! Communists in America? They're just blindly listening to China!

I'm tempted to not correct Zionists on this point. It is advantageous to us if Zionists can be manipulated into thinking Iran is the source of all this. Manipulate Zionists into doubling down on their beliefs--keep them complacent in their fantasy world--and their capacity to make political or moral sense of the situation will cease to exist.

Will Iran beat Russia in the race to recruit useful idiots?

Israel seems to be winning the race to recruit them.

It is an error to make this argument a binary between it’s all Iran’s fault vs it’s all Israel’s fault.

The current war is between Iran and its proxies and Israel and America. Iran’s goal is Shite conquest. The reason these groups are proxies is the common goal of ending Israel.

OOOppss... Think Russia is major Ally with Iran in the middle East . So Iranians and Russians share weapons tech.
So any war ..has great potential to create problems around the entire globe..( no nuclear clouds please)

Last edited by Jakki on 02 Nov 2024, 9:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I'm unsure as to how exactly the Iranians are in the wrong here. They aren't doing anything that the US doesn't do and Israel is the one that bombed the Iranian embassy, not the other way around.

Very Poignant in this above post....am in agreement as this above post is presented.

The Iranians are mostly a regional power, most of their ambitions at the present are centered on not having a repeat of the Iran-Iraq war. There's a bunch of horrible domestic policies, but most of their activities are centered around not having another war that kills a million+ of their own.

That's what the translation says, but I think it's either a mistranslation or represents a misunderstanding of politics. If they were somehow able to get a regime change in Iran, that would leave the Israelis free to continue stealing land that isn't theirs. Yes, the Iranians do have a bunch of influence in Lebanon, but there's a limited ability to resolve things in the area that doesn't involve the Israelis being held accountable for their crimes against humanity.

Have to say...by the things , I have read about Iran over the past many years in US media. Was that they were a power for stability in that region ..... . . . . . And you can bet if someone here knows that the Iranians do not have a stomach for War,,then , not hard to presume Israel knows this TOO. And will obviously do all they can to exploit that. Judging by Israel actions in that area. . . . . imho

I translated the Farsi using Chrome and got this translation which doesn't seem subject to a different interpretation than the English in the image:

Ever since Donald Trump's first campaign for the US Presidency, there has been a movement towards admiration for Russia, in contrast to the attitude that had prevailed since the end of World War II. It would seem that since last year, there is also a movement towards reconsidering attitudes towards the Iranian government and its proxies.

I'll just say that both those countries have a tradition of authoritarianism, and it seems to me that the West or at least the US has become increasingly enamored of authoritarianism. Donald Trump's popularity with rank-and-file Americans grows every day, despite all the bad press he seems to get. Trump's popularity is without doubt related to the rise of Russian influence over US popular opinion. I can't point to anything specific tying this phenomenon to Iran, but it is well known that the alliance between Russia and Iran is probably the most important alliance for either at the moment, so it seems reasonable to suspect there is something there.

In contrast, it's not hard to imagine that Israel's free-wheeling domestic political culture has contributed to the degree of animosity it has now attracted. It would seem that modern-day Americans have developed a disdain for open societies of any sort. The desire for authoritarianism is essentially what we used to think of as Fascism, so I guess that's the direction we are going in.

To be clear, I happen to hold the following opinions regarding the situation in the Middle East.

Hamas wanted the war in Gaza to happen. They attacked Israel on 7 October with the intent of starting that war. Having said that, I believe Binyamin Netanyahu shares some of the blame, but I'm not going to focus on that aspect of the situation.

Hamas leaders don't privately regret the loss of Palestinian life and general suffering in Gaza. To them, the dead are martyrs who contribute to their long-term goal which is annihilation of Israel.

I don't know details of IDF battle plans, however I don't believe the IDF conducts missions into Gaza with the sole purpose of killing as many civilians as possible. They are actually fighting Hamas, however the war is never reported that way except possibly in blatantly pro-Israel news media. Instead, it is being reported as equivalent to the genocide in Rwanda. I think the characterization of the war as a program of genocide is deceitful and misleading. I don't hold Israel responsible for genocide of any sort and any sort of argument predicated on the "fact" of genocide in Gaza is based on an unfounded supposition. Having sad that, I think the war is awful and I accept the premise that civilian deaths and suffering could be lessened. But if that's the case, I would blame Netanyahu and his clique rather than blame Israel as a nation or Zionism as a "philosophy".

anti-Zionism is the belief that the Jewish state shouldn't exist. Simply by that definition, it is inherently antisemitic.

Anti-Zionism isn't "criticism of Israel". Defending anti-Zionism on that basis is unfounded. You are entitled to your beliefs but please own your prejudices.

Iran has a decades-long animosity towards Israel. Setting aside their reasons, it is clear that Iran is actively supporting Hamas and Hezbollah and without that support, those two organizations wouldn't have the limitless resources on which they continue to draw to wage war on Israel. So Iran does have a lot of responsibility for the bloodshed.

I am expressing these views. I won't attempt point-by-point rebuttals of others' views. I'm not going to be able to change anyone else's opinion.