The Ayatollah Did Decree

"Iran’s Chief Cleric Says Country Is Not a Friend to Israelis," A9, Saturday, 9/20/08
By Nazila Fathi

For those of you counting at home, this is Nazila Fathi's fourth article in a little over a month detailing the ridiculous dispute in Iranian politics regarding the ever-so-conciliatory remarks of Esfandiar Rahim Mashai, Iranian vice president for tourism, to the Israeli people.

In one of these statements, Mashai shared, "I say for a thousandth time that we are a friend of all people in the world, even Israelis and Americans." This "provacative" remarks, that Israelis could possibly be friends of the Iranians, set off a firestorm calling for Mashai's dismissal. In defense of Mashai, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stated, “We have no problem with people and nations” but “Of course, we do not recognize a government or a nation for the Zionist regime.” How it makes any sense that one can be friend of Israelis while advocating the dismantling or destruction of the political entity they compose is byeond me.

And now finally, top-dog Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme religious leader, has entered the fray, "rejecting the notion that his country was a friend to the Israeli people." At the same time though, he has asked other Iranian politicians to stop using this as an issue to undermine Ahmadinejad, effectively showing support for the vitriolic president.

I hope this article makes clear how absurd all this rhetorical theatricality truly is. The leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran is not a friend of the Israeli people, nor has it ever been, nor will it ever be one, given the nature of such a regime.

If one wishes to destroy Israel, "the Zionist regime," one is an enemy of the Israeli people, and the enemy of the Jewish people, as Israel serves as the political manifesation of the Jewish people in their historic homeland.

It is not an "advanced" or "progressive" position for Iranian leaders to declare that they are friends of the Jewish people or Israelis while emblazoning a truck in an Iranian military parade with a banner saying "Israel should be eliminated from the universe." At least the "pious" Ayatollah does not attempt to obfuscate the issue any longer. Such a radical regime can do little to obscure its extremist nature. It survives and thrives on it.