Why Make it Easier for the Mullahs?

 

My witty childhood friend Aaron Kopolowitz of blessed memory once commented that if you've got nothing nice to say about somebody, you must be thinking of the Ayatollah Khomeini.

I thought of Aaron and what he said about the gepaygerter Ayatollah when I spotted a photo in The New York Post of former president Jimmy Carter looking hospice frail at 99. Carter and Khomeini go together in my mind.

Ruhollah Khomeini, from exile, led the Islamist opposition to the Shah of Iran during the revolution that culminated on February 11, 1979.

The overthrow of the Shah’s Pahlavi dynasty allowed for the emergence of what is indisputably the most wicked regime in the Middle East.

Shah made the mistake of crushing secular opponents of his rule, which left the Islamists poised to lead the resistance. When anti-government demonstrations began in October 1977 against the Shah, Jimmy Carter's administration had no good options to save this vital American ally. US intelligence had been blindsided by the revolution. The ailing monarch fled Iran on January 16, 1979, leaving behind the reasonable Shapour Bakhtiar as interim leader. Bakhtiar was assassinated by the Islamist regime while in French exile on August 6, 1991.

In the event, on February 1, 1979, Khomeini returned from exile in France to a tumultuous welcome. And by February 11, he was ensconced as leader until he died on June 3, 1989, at age 86. Not only did the people of Iran welcome Khomeini, but in March 1979, they also overwhelmingly backed the referendum declaring the country an Islamic Republic.

While the embers of the revolution still smoldered, PLO leader Yasser Arafat arrived in Tehran on February 17, 1979, to celebrate the Shah's overthrow with Khomeini. Iran and Israel had close, if unofficial, ties. Most of Israel's oil came from Iran. Meantime, Arafat had connected with all the contending anti-Shah groups based in Lebanon (the south of which was then his Fatahland). Eventually, he put most of his cards on anti-Shah factions loyal to Khomeini. The PLO would later take credit for suggesting that Iran form the Islamic Revolutionary Guards.

Not unappreciative, Khomeini turned the Israeli diplomatic mission (one of our largest anywhere) in Teheran over to the PLO.

The regime began a series of executions of Jewish community leaders on accusations of Zionist sympathies, starting with Habib Elghanian.

Khomeini agreed with Arafat that Israel had to be wiped off the face of the earth. Iran has never deviated from this position. That is why Teheran opposed the March 1979 Egyptian-Israel peace treaty and worked to isolate Egypt from the Muslim world.

When, in October 1979, the Shah was admitted into the US for medical treatment, the Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line took over the American Embassy on November 9, 1979. Khomeini promptly blessed the capture. Fifty-three Americans were held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979, until January 20, 1981, and freed just as Ronald Reagan was about to be inaugurated.

When in 1993, Arafat himself disingenuously professed to accept the existence of Israel in the Oslo Accords, Persian Iran's three proxy groups Hamas, Islamic Jihad (both Sunni Palestinian Arab), and Hezbollah (Shi'ite Lebanese Arab) intensified their jihadist resistance. Alawite-led Syria, another Iranian satellite, also joined the rejectionist camp.

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Fast forward to June 2024. Israel, isolated and condemned in the international arena, prepares for all-out war with Hezbollah. The possibility that Iran will not stand on the sidelines is real. Iran is a formidable enemy – a massive country with a population of 88 million. Its major export trading partners are China and Turkey. Iran's other key allies are Russia and North Korea. Ordinary Iranians may regret the embrace their elders gave to the Islamists, but there is no freedom of expression in Iran, and all broadcast media is state-run.

Now, Israel finds itself fighting a multiple-front war – funded, instigated, and enabled by Iran:

-       Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon

-       Syria

-       Iraq (where pro-Iranian militias have a free hand)

-       West Bank (Iran funds various terror groups besides Hamas)

-       Yemen (Shi'ite Houties control large parts of the country)

-       Gaza (Hamas and Islamic Jihad remain dominant)

-       Iran itself

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On the threshold of nuclear weapons, Holocaust-denying, genocide-instigating Iran and its so-called Axis of Resistance is responsible for untold death and suffering across the Middle East (and beyond, including fatal attacks against Jewish targets around the globe).

Iran sees itself in a zero-sum conflict with the West and Zionism. It is Israel's mortal enemy. However, Europe does not see itself as being at war with Iran. Iran Air flies to Paris and London. In February 2024 alone, Europe's trade with Iran was estimated at €847 million. The US seeks any opportunity to engage with Iran, most recently holding secret talks last month in Oman. Both the UN General Assembly and Security Council paid tribute to the memory of Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi, the Iranian president who, together with his foreign minister, was killed in a helicopter accident on May 19, 2024. Alas, no one held a moment of silence for the thousands of Iranians Raisi ordered hanged when he sat on the regime's Death Commission.

How far will Iran push its hatred of Israel? Will its Twelvers' eschatological Shi'ism lead it to disregard rationality by attempting a surprise knockout blow against the Jewish state? Such a decision may await the demise of the current Supreme Leader, 85-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He is the final decision-maker on issues of war and peace. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its hyper-terrorist Quds Force branch are loyal to him.

Iran is the most significant external strategic threat to Israel, no doubt.

None of its proxies are mindless puppets, but the mullahs in Teheran provide the essential military, diplomatic, and logistical wherewithal.

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Now, let’s cut to the chase. Iran has somehow been able to bridge the usual divide separating Turks, Persians, and Arabs, not to mention Shi'ites and Sunnis. We need to ask ourselves whether any of Israel's policies have contributed to Iran's extraordinary achievement. What might we be doing to infuriate Muslims in a way that makes them willing to overlook their historic ethnic and theological differences?

Here's something to ponder. Israel has ostentatiously changed the status quo on the Temple Mount. Mohammed Deif cited this in the Hamas declaration of war of October 7, 2023. You can say that the enemy does not need an excuse to strike out. But the unity among Muslims is unprecedented. What do you think explains it? Or, maybe you think that on principle that praying, prostrating, and prancing on and around the Temple Mount – may be schecting a lamb – is a price worth paying. And the Iran-led united front against Israel will crumble because our God is bigger than theirs. In other words, our apocalyptic vision will prevail over theirs.

On the other hand, if you don’t see the world through this sort of messianic prism, you, like me, are left to wonder if we are imprudently uniting our enemies even as we fragment ourselves.

Jerusalem Day, 2024. Prostrating near Temple Mount