The Israeli airstrike earlier this week targeting the Iranian consulate in Damascus, which reportedly killed a senior Quds Force Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and 16 others, including representatives of Hezbollah and, perhaps, Hamas, is sure to set off another deadly round of retaliatory strikes by Iran and counter strikes by Israel.
And so, the grizzly bloodletting between Iran, its Hamas and Hezbollah proxies, and Israel and other nations continues unabated. Iran and its proxies are committed to keeping much of the world off balance. It should surprise no one. It will continue until the civilized world or the Iranian people say, “Enough!”
There is at least a half-century of tortured history informing the current antagonism between Iran and Israel, as well as between Iran and the United States. It is hard to imagine that less than a half-century ago, Iran and Israel were strong allies.
To somewhat egregiously oversimplify, a half-century ago, the United States, Israel, and many other nations had strong diplomatic, cultural, and military ties with the Iranian government of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The Pahlavi monarchy came to an abrupt end in 1979 with the return from exile of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a fanatical Iranian Islamic theocrat.
The overthrow of the monarchy represented the end of royal rule in Iran and the establishment of a hardline, fanatical, and murderous theocracy. Iranian foreign policy since the overthrow of the Pahlavi monarchy has, essentially, been deep-seated hatred of America, which the theocracy describes as the Great Satan, and an even more fanatical hatred of Israel, which the theocracy describes as Little Satan. The risk of war between Israel and even the United States and Iran may be the greatest it has been since the fall of the Pahlavi monarchy.
Also essential to understanding the sea change that Khomeini and his radical form of Islam brought to Iran is the historical antipathy between the Sunni Arabic-speaking world and much of the Iranian Shite Farsi-speaking world. Farsi is also widely spoken in Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iraq, Oman, Yemen, and the United Arab Emirates.
Iran’s stated threat to Israel is unambiguous. The destruction of Israel has been, and is, the centerpiece of Iran’s foreign policy. It is a primary purpose, if not the sole purpose, of Iran’s massive arms supply to Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis in Yemen.
The barbarous Hamas October 7th attack on Israel and Hamas’s long history of rocket attacks from Gaza in the south, the deadly rocket fire from Hezbollah in the north, and the Houthis missiles targeting Israel from Yemen all represent Iran’s proxy war against Israel. Iran provides the planning, the munitions, the training, and the money for these proxies to wage war against the Jewish nation and, to a lesser extent, various Sunni Arab countries. These are all Iran’s wars. Without Iranian training, money and munitions it is doubtful that any of these wars would be taking place.
Israel responded to the misery Iran has fomented against Israelis with the attack on its consulate in Syria this past week, where meetings were reportedly taking place to coordinate Iran’s proxy war against Israel. Israel’s message: the theocratic dictatorship will no longer be able to rain destruction on Israel through its proxies without paying a price. Iran’s proxies fool no one. Israel, it seems, will now consider rockets from Hamas, Hezbollah, or the Houthis as attacks by Iran, which these attacks are, and Israel is making it clear that it will respond as it sees fit at times and places of its choosing.
The United States designated Iran as a State Sponsor of Terrorism in 1984, barely five years after the fall of the Pahlavi monarchy, and Iran’s worldwide role in terror has continued almost unabated ever since. The October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre of largly defenseless Israeli men, women and children was but a notch in the terrorist baton Iran has been wielding for nearly 50 years.
Iran does little to hide the terrorist role of its Revolutionary Guards’ so-called Quds Force, known as the IRGC-QF. It is the unit that specializes in developing and supporting terrorist activity around the world. The reader might recall the notorious bombing of the Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires in 1994 in which 85 men women and children died and 300 more were wounded. Two years before that 29 were killed by Iran’s bombing of the Israeli embassy in Argentina.
Five years ago the United States finally and belatedly designated the IRGC, including IRGC-QF, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. Every country in the world knows Iran’s leading export is terrorism. Iran’s use of regional armed militias and marauders to provide a fig-leaf of deniability fool no one.
Iran is, in almost every respect, a pyriah among nations. America is far more popular among Iran’s general population than the theocratic government that runs the country. It is largely a thugocracy that has two capabilities that enable it to rub shoulders with decent society. It is the fifth largest crude oil producer in OPEC and the world’s third-largest producer of natural gas. It sits above the world’s third largest oil and second largest natural gas reserves. It’s other capability, is its ability to block the straits of Hormuz through which thirty percent of the world’s oil transits to markets throughout the world.
Iran also has a young, bright, but largely captive population. Other than that, the country has little redeeming quality.
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Novels by Hal Gershowitz
We should avoid the danger of thinking that the Iranian rulers' theocracy is somehow worse because it is Muslim (whether Sunni or Shiite). It is important to add that all theocracy is bad -- all. It doesn't matter which religion a dictator uses to mask their authoritarianism. Theocrats pretend to be doing the will of God, whether it be a Muslim, Christian, or Jewish version of God. All theocracy is an abuse of religion. Believers are dupes if they think the dictator is keeping them safe or procuring God's favor by ruling in His name. We see it in Iran, on the Israeli right wing, and in some quarters of the right wing in the U. S. It is always fake, always dictatorial, and always wrong.
One thing we can be proud of is the solution to this problem that we Americans have found. It's called our Constitution, especially the First Amendment. The beauty of our solution can be adapted to fit any country. "No government shall make any law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Bingo! That's it! End of story! Let freedom ring!
As you noted, the atrocities and support of attacks on civilization will continue until either the Iranian population or some combination of civilized societies say 'ENOUGH' and do something. Unfortunately, the Iranian leaders and military have had a half century to develop control over their country, to recruit and train their proxies, and to distribute propaganda worldwide. Apologists such as John Kerry lulled the U.S. into the false notion that money and the ability to build bombs would satisfy Iranian leaders. Welcome to the real world John. It's a shame that you were not closer to Henry Kissinger.