World View: Iran's Supreme Leader Claims to Seek Annihilation of Israel, Not Jews

This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• Iran’s Supreme Leader wants to annihilate Israel, but not Jews
• Influence of the Great Islamic Revolution and Iran/Iraq war today
• A brief note on Iran’s nuclear issue
• Israel extends the Gaza ceasefire by 24 hours, but Hamas does not

Iran’s Supreme Leader wants to annihilate Israel, but not Jews

It’s not unusual for Iran to call for the annihilation of Israel, andthis week was no different, especially in the context of the war inGaza. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei gave aspeech on Friday, Qods Day (Jerusalem Day), an annual event by Iran tooppose Israel’s control of Jerusalem. His speech called for an end toIsrael:

These crimes [of Israel in Gaza] defy imagination.They are the essence of [Israel’s] wolf-like and child-killerregime, for which the only solution is its annihilation andliquidation. Of course, until that time [when this happens], thedetermined and armed Palestinian resistance, and its spread to theWest Bank, are the only way to deal with that bestial regime. 

…

As the Imam [Ayatollah Ruhollah] Khomeini [Khamenei’s predecessor]said, Israel must be liquidated. [But] the annihilation of Israelas the only way to a real solution does not mean the annihilationof the Jews in the region. In order [to carry out] this logicaloperation [of annihilating Israel] there is a practical apparatusthat the Islamic Republic [of Iran] is presenting to theinternational community. Based on this apparatus, which isacceptable to the nations [of the world], people living in theregion, and belonging to it, will be polled to find out whatregime they prefer. In this way, the occupying and forged regime[of Israel] will be annihilated. Of course, until that heartlessand child-killer regime is destroyed, the forceful struggle, anddetermined and armed resistance, are the [only] path to solving[the problem of] this destructive regime…

Therefore, it is my belief that the West Bank should be armed justlike Gaza. Anyone who cares about the fate of Palestine, and whois capable of doing something, should provide arms to the people[of the West Bank] too…

I can’t recall ever seeing this sharp distinction between thepeople, who will NOT be annihilated, and will even be permitted tolive in the region. He’s actually recommending that all the people inthe region participate in a referendum to decide who will govern them.This sharp distinction may represent a change in Iran’sIslamic hardline policies.

Before commenting more on this, I’d first like to quote anotherIranian Qods Day speaker, a military commander named Ali Fazli whosays that the Palestinians in Gaza are partners in the resistanceagainst Israel:

The people of Gaza are undoubtedly Shi’ite… becausethe people of Gaza could not have stood against the Zionist regimeand sacrificed itself for two weeks with resistance alone. Theblood spilled in Gaza and Palestine for the defense of all ofIslam connects the Shia and the Sunna, and therefore theresistance front should unite and preserve its unity against thearrogance.

There are frequently many bizarre statements coming out of Iran, butthis has to be one of the most bizarre of all time. In no way are thepeople of Gaza “undoubtedly Shi’ite.” To the contrary, Gaza isoverwhelmingly Sunni Muslim, with a tiny minority of Shia Muslims.Furthermore, there have been outbreaks of sectarian violence betweenShia and Sunni groups in Gaza, and Shias have complained about theviolence against them. Memri andAl Monitor

Influence of the Great Islamic Revolution and Iran/Iraq war today

When you’re commenting on Iran, as I have been for many years, youhave to understand that Iran is in the midst of a generationalAwakening era, like America in the 1960s, and that there’s a cavernoussurvivors of the 1979 Great Islamic Revolution and Iran/Iraq war, andthe attitudes of the people in the younger generations that grew upafter the war.

Iran’s population was enormously unified by the Great IslamicRevolution and the Iran/Iraq war, and that’s the social climate thatthe geezers, like Khamenei, would like to bring about again. A signalevent in 1979 was the takeover of the American embassy in Iran, andIran’s senior leaders look for ways to repeat that event in one way oranother, to bring about renewed unity today, something that’simpossible in a generational Awakening era.

So what you have in Iran is a senior leadership holding fantasticalbeliefs that are totally out of touch with reality.

The principal fantastical belief, which I’ve written about a number oftimes over the years, is Khamenei’s fantasy of gaining hegemony overthe entire Arabian peninsula and governing the Muslim world in thesame way that the Ottoman Empire governed prior to its destruction.We’ve pointed out that this fantasy can never be realized because theSunni Arab population will never agree to be governed by the ShiaPersian Iranians.

The bizarre excerpts from the two Qods Day speeches that I quotedabove are manifestations of these fantasies. In the view of Iran’sgeezers, Sunnis, Shias and Jews will be all alike and will all begoverned by a new Persian empire, just like the old Ottoman Empire.The only thing standing in the way of a new Persian Empire is thesettled by a referendum.

What’s new in Khamenei’s speech this time is the sharp distinctionbetween Israel and Jews, where one is to be annihilated and the othernot. However, with or without this distinction, the whole thing is abizarre fantasy on the part of the senior Iranian leadership.

A brief note on Iran’s nuclear issue

When I write about the attitudes and beliefs of senior Iranianleadership coming out of the Great Islamic Revolution and theIran/Iraq war, it’s worthwhile to add a brief note on the nuclearissue.

There is no doubt in my mind that Iran will develop nuclear weapons.Iran was attacked with weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in 1988 by Iraq, and Iran would already have developed nuclear weapons if SaddamHussein hadn’t been expelled by the Iraq war in 2003. Iran seesitself surrounded by potential enemies, Pakistan and Israel, both havingnuclear weapons. For Iran, developing nuclear weapons is anexistential issue.

However, as I’ve described before, Iran takes an enormous amount ofpride in not having invaded other countries, even though othercountries have invaded Iran. If you look back at Iran’s major wars ofthe last century – the Constitutional Revolution of the 1900s decade,the Great Islamic Revolution of 1979, and the Iran/Iraq war of the1980s – Iran never attacked anyone else. This is now part of Iran’sDNA, and even the top leadership would be repulsed by the idea of apreemptive attack on Israel.

So my conclusion is that Iran will develop nuclear weapons as adefensive measure but has no plans at all to use them on Israel,which is what is widely believed. In fact, even the Qods Day speechesquoted above emphasize this fact. Khamenei is calling for thedestruction of the Israeli regime, not the destruction of Jews, andcertainly not the destruction of all the Muslims who also live in andaround Israel. 

Israel extends the Gaza ceasefire by 24 hours, but Hamas does not

Hamas has given Israel a new major credibility boost by refusing toextend Saturday’s 12-hour truce by 24 hours, to Sunday midnight GMT,while Israel has done so unilaterally. In fact, reports indicate thatGaza was shooting rockets at Tel Aviv within 3 minutes after the12-hour ceasefire.

Although Israel is observing a unilateral ceasefire, it is continuingmilitary operations against the tunnels on the border between Gaza andIsrael, since these tunnels are used by Hamas to enter Israel forterrorist operations. BBC

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