Controversy in Iran over Israel, Zionism
In what would indeed make for a great Monty Python episode, Iranian political and religious leaders are fighting with each other over Israel. No, the question is not who loves Israel more, rather it is about who hates it more.
It all started when Iranian Vice President and close ally of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, said that Iran does not hate the Israeli people but it’s leaders.
Using such words is common in the West. Everytime a diplomatic row ensues, Western leaders quickly point out that they are not angry with the ‘people’ of another country, but merely with their leaders. When Western countries go to war too, this difference is pointed out time and again.
So Mashaei studied the West and learned from it. In order to sound less radical for foreigners, he decided to point out that Iran does not ‘hate’ the Israeli people. No, Tehran’s ire is directed at the leaders who dupe Israelis in accepting their crimes, etc.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sided with his VP. In a recent press conference he said that the real evildoers are approximately 2,000 leaders, who manipulate the larger population (of Israel). The goal of Iran, then, is to liberate the Israeli people from their leaders and to ‘open the gate’ so they can go back to where they or their parents and grandparents came from.
Shortly after all hell broke loose. Ayatollah Khamenei himself went on record during his Friday sermon saying that he does hate the Israeli people.
“Who are the Israelis,” he said. “They are responsible for usurping houses, territory, farmlands and businesses. They are fighters at the disposal of Zionist operatives.
“A Muslim nation cannot remain indifferent to such people who are stooges at the service of the arch-enemies of the Muslim world,” the ayatollah said.
Mashaei immediately expressed his support for the grand Ayatollah, but failed to take back his words. Instead, most observers believe that Ahmadinejad and Mashaei are in this together; a minor rebellion, one could say, against the country’s religious - and non-elected - rulers.
Some believe that the debate is about more than theological considerations; they say it could very well be that Iran will change its approach to Israel. The goal of Iranian foreign policy, then, would be to let Israel disintegrate like the Soviet Union did. Peaceful, mostly.
In the end, that seems unlikely, however. What is going on here is an internet theological debate and, perhaps, a clash between the president and the grand Ayatollah about who the true ruler is. Does Ahmadinejad have to back down, or will the Ayatollah give in? And if both refuse to give way, can the two exist aside each other, much like presidents and prime ministers do in other countries?
More than anything, though, it is pure entertainment. Sick entertainment. But entertainment nonetheless.
