11 Shevat 5786
A people with a long history cannot afford to have a short memory.
I'm concerned about how quickly the Jews have taken up the fiction that the Iranian people are our natural friends. It's only their leadership who is at odds with us and why? - because of their Islamic beliefs. If they could only be liberated from the oppression of Islam and be made over into another Western democracy on the Israeli model, all would be well in the Middle East. This is the same story we are being sold about Gaza.
Let's not forget that the first genocide of Jews (men, women, children, elderly to babies) was proposed and accepted in ancient Persia and even when the Jews were given permission to defend themselves, still tens of thousands of Persians attacked the Jews and were killed in turn.
Not everyone in Iran opposes the Islamic regime. Granted it does not enjoy the support it did initially, but it was still the Iranian people who put it in power.
Reza Shah Pahlavi, the Shah in power when Hitler, y"sh rose to fame in Germany, was an admirer...
Reza Shah Pahlavi’s attitude toward Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany in the 1930s and early 1940s was characterized by sympathy, admiration, and strategic partnership, primarily driven by a desire to modernize Iran and break free from the traditional influence of Great Britain and the Soviet Union. While he maintained formal neutrality at the outbreak of World War II, his deep ties to Berlin ultimately led to the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran and his forced abdication in 1941.Reza Shah admired Hitler and the Nazi regime, viewing his own career as similar to the German leader's—a strongman transforming a nation. He was attracted to the Nazi concept of the "Aryan race," which Nazis used to justify a supposed kinship between Germany and Iran.In 1935, Iran’s name was changed from Persia to "Iran" (meaning "Land of the Aryans") in part to emphasize this perceived shared Aryan kinship with Germany.Reza Shah hired Nazi military advisors, and Germany provided educational materials, such as the "German Scientific Library," to promote the idea of shared ancestry. Anti-Semitism Inconsistency: While the Shah was a "Nazi-friendly" ruler, he generally did not adopt Nazi-style anti-Jewish policies internally, and his government sometimes acted to protect Iranian Jews during the war.As the war progressed, Britain and the Soviet Union feared that the heavy German presence (roughly 1,000 German residents in 1941) and the Shah's "pro-Nazi" tendency would allow the Axis to seize control of the Persian oil fields and railway. Consequently, they invaded Iran in August 1941, forcing Reza Shah to abdicate in favor of his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and sending him into exile in South Africa where he died. (Source: Google)
In our own time, lest we forget, a publicly avowed Holocaust denier (Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) was elected President of Iran twice - in 2005 and again in 2009. [See also, Denial of Holocaust nothing new in Iran].
The most positive spin says that fully 80% of the Iranian population (93 million people) oppose the current regime. The 20% who support would be hard-core Islamists numbering at least 18 million. That is a considerable number and they are not our friends. They will continue to exert influence - an anti-Israel influence.
All I'm saying is don't hold onto any illusions about the chances for peace through regime change alone. Remember that nations don't have friends, they have only interests. It's in our best interests to keep everyone at a distance - a nation who dwells alone.
