By Ardeshir Ommani, 2 August 2006
To the right of the spectrum known as Iran's reformists lie amorphous bourgeois political groups and individuals, that at the present time of war and destruction try to discourage the Iranian people from giving support to the oppressed nations of Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Palestine. As an example, in the opinion of Ibrahim Yazdi, secretary general of Freedom Movement in Iran, a liberal opposition group, "The events in the Middle East will have a negative impact on democracy in Iran." Therefore, in his judgment the overwhelming opposition of the Iranian people and government to the Israeli onslaught in Gaza Strip and Lebanon, and their heightened sympathy for the plight of close to one million refugees and injured is not in line with his strangely envisioned democracy. Accordingly, his version of democracy is incompatible with compassion and support for the oppressed nations standing up to the oppressors.
Another proponent of a similar ideology is the now infamous and discredited, but well paid, Amir Taheri, an Iranian born collaborator with the neo-conservative and Zionist bloc at Benedor Assoicates who authored the completely fabricated story in the /National Post/ of Canada, alleging that the Parliament of Iran had passed a law requiring Iranian Jews, Christians and other minorities to wear badges for distinction.
Taheri is at it again. In a July 23, 2006 article in the London TimesOnLine, he writes,
"The mini-war that is taking place between Israel and Hezbollah is, in fact, a proxy war in which Iran's vision for the Middle East clashes with the administration in Washington." In that pro-Zionist mythology, Mr. Amir Taheri, an old-hand at spewing Israel's anti-Arab, anti-Iran propaganda, laboriously tries to marginalize the fundamental causes of the 60 years of war, intifadas and fruitless negotiations between the U.S.-Israeli camp and the Arabs, with the Palestinian people at the center of the conflicts.
For the sake of clarity, let us pose the basic cause of those conflicts. The response by a non-Zionist and impartial observers would be it is the occupation of the Palestinian territory, Syrian territory of Golan Heights and the Lebanese territory of the Shebaa Farms.
Palestine: The Israeli Gulags
Today, more than ever before, it is common knowledge throughout the world that the U.S.-satellite state of Israel has violently refused the right of return of some 6.5 million Palestinians to their homeland. It is disturbing to know that the identity card of a Palestinian living in the U.S., Britain or Australia, for example, says nothing about his or her nationality, that is, the individual cannot claim a country as his or her birthplace. She/he is neither an Israeli nor a Palestinian. For those Palestinians confined to the splintered territories of Gaza Strip, with 141 square miles occupied by 1.4 million people, one of the most densely populated areas in the world, life is not better than that in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany in WWII. The settler state of Israel has made sure that no normal and viable economic growth, industrialization, technical and scientific progress and socio-political institutions would take root. The territories and the people of the West Bank and Gaza Strip are under siege by air, land and water every day, all day.
By all three dimensions, the military outpost of Israel, with its air force, its army and navy, equipped to the teeth by U.S. made and supplied weapons, including 250 or more atomic bombs, have turned the tiny Palestinian territories into dungeons of the 21^st century, much worse or at best equal to those prisons in Guantanamo Bay in the Orient Province of Cuba or the Abu Gharib prison in Iraq. Today, there are more than 8,500 Palestinian prisoners, men, women and youths, mostly for political resistance, in the Israeli jails, some of who have been kept more than 20 years in the Israeli Gulags. No Zionist on earth can claim with certainty more atrocities, pains and deprivation than what has befallen the lot of the Palestinians by the deliberate racist policies of annihilation. That is why the cry of the peace and anti-imperialist movements around the world has been: "Occupation is a Crime, from Iraq to Palestine!" And every nation and government on earth, with a few exceptions, recognizes that the Israeli occupation of the Arab territories is the height of violation of national sovereignty and /the fundamental cause of the rise of resistance forces/ in Palestine and Lebanon.
Mr. Taheri and his masters in Tel Aviv and Washington must be reminded that objective realities are not the product of sheer fantasy and bigoted propaganda. A formidable, equalitarian and truly popular movement such as Hezbollah and Hamas cannot be created and sustained merely by some financial and arms assistance of another country like Iran, if the objective needs for such a resistance is not felt by the laboring and the lower middle classes of those countries. The deceptive, 24-7 attempts of the Zionist talking heads and propagandists on CNN, Fox, CNBC, MSNBC, BBC and their affiliates are to deny the real need of the Palestinians, Lebanese, and Syrians for resisting U.S.-Israeli aggressions.
Resistance to Occupation
The history of the conflicts and the rise of periodic resistance of the peoples of the Middle East to the interferences and invasions by the French, British, and now U.S. imperialism did not start three weeks ago or in 1982, the birth date of the politico-guerrilla army of Hezbollah. The emergence of such a movement, be it in Iraq or Palestine, goes as far back as the fall of the Ottoman Empire when the British invaded Iraq and occupied Palestine. It must be noted that after 82 years from the date of those British invasions, it is extremely painful for the oppressed nations to see that the agreements between the warring parties are worked out in the boardrooms of the White House and Downing Street. In his distorted and warped imagination, following in the footsteps of the U.S. and Israeli military-corporate planners, but pathetically three long weeks late, Mr. Amir Taheri intends to justify, if not glorify, the bombardment of the civilian and residential buildings, the roads, ports and infrastructure by blaming Hezbollah and the governments of Syria and the Islamic Republic of Iran. Does he know that at the outset of WWII, Hitler and his government, very much like today's U.S. and Olmert regimes, claimed that its vast and powerful army was fighting the terrorists and their supporters as it mowed down the civilians in the cities, towns and villages of Europe?
People: The Source of Change in History
As a true follower of Reza Pahlavi, the son of the deposed Shah of Iran, and a sworn traitor, Mr. Taheri is a well-paid professional in his trade of not only fabrication, but also in serving the cause of Israeli's violation of the territorial integrity of its neighbors. It is probable that the well-informed Iranian-Americans with a conscience still remember that Mr. Taheri not more than three months ago sounded off the Zionist and neo-conservative's hate propaganda, claiming that the Iranian Majlis (the Parliament) had passed a law requiring Iranian Jews to wear yellow insignia as their sign of Jewish identification. The true character of the monarchist becomes more transparent when even after a number of reputable sources, including the Jewish representative of the Iranian Jewish minority in the Majlis, uncovered the hoax and refuted the outright lie, Mr. Taheri and his Israeli cohorts in the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Canada still continued to defend his shameless fabrication. While Jewish academics with integrity promptly disassociated themselves from the fallacious story, many Zionist media outlets refused to print retractions of the false propaganda. Truth is irrelevant to the attackers of the Iranian nation.
Once again, we must point out that if it was so simple to create a movement by handing out money and arms to a disenchanted group, then why after decades the Zionist, the U.S. neo-conservatives and our own Iranian monarchist groups, the far right and the extreme left, have not been able to mobilize a viable movement or an army to fight on their side?
Even the enemies of the Palestinians and the Lebanese admit that Hezbollah has deep roots among the masses and as Mao Tse Tung said in describing the revolutionary movement in China, it is like a school of fish swimming in the ocean of the people. Even the imperialist "experts" have recently realized that, with the exception of an insignificant minority, the popular masses of Lebanon whole-heartedly are active participants in the struggle against the Zionist occupiers who are much more brutal than the Mongol invaders of Iran led by Genghis Khan in 1221. Here we have the Bush Administration with over $100 million in its possession, served by some pro-imperialist Iranian supporters and their sleazy radio and TV programs directed at Iranian youth inside and outside the country, have not been able to mislead a sizeable minority to support their policy of domination and their dictates on the issue of Iran's nuclear energy program.
Emperor
Just like the emperors of by gone eras, George W. Bush and his rubber-stamp legislative assembly has a master-servant mindset in which the oppressed nations exist solely to play in their games of war and peace.
It is interesting to know that as long as the masters in the White House had not openly articulated their desire for peace, the Israeli generals and their obedient troops, as in a chess game, continued their blood-letting of the men, women and children of Lebanon and Palestine. But as soon as Condoleeza Rice received the message of her master in the White House that world public opinion is boiling over and the wrath and anger of the Arab masses in the streets might soon place its stamp on the U.S.-owned corporations abroad, on Sunday night, July 30^th , with a diminished stature and trembling voice, Rice announced a call for a cease-fire. The blood-thirsty Zionist generals pretended to follow suit, but they couldn't even keep their 48-hour so-called suspension of ariel bombardments against the Lebanese. Since such is the nature of the relation between the proxy state and its imperialist benefactors, they naturally perceive that similar relations may govern the ties between independent movements and nations of Iran, Syria, Lebanon and Palestine. In the last three weeks, the U.S. and British governments have repeatedly but insincerely suggested that Iran and Syria could 'rein' in the defensive struggle of Hezbollah and bring pressure upon it to disarm as the necessary and primary condition for a cease-fire. What a naïve and in fact insincere notion on the part of Washington and Tel Aviv that Iran or Syria have a veto power over the struggles of the Lebanese or Palestinian people. Even if they have an influence on those movements, would they be ready to act against their own long-term interests by weakening the anti-imperialist movements in the Middle East?
Agenda: Regime Change
The ultimate objective of the Zionist state and its Iranian lackeys like Taheri is to intensify the contradictions between the U.S. and Iran so much so that the probability of igniting the flame of war between the two countries turns into a certainty; or at least, by giving a security guarantee and the return of the Golan Heights, they could convince Syria to disassociate itself from Iran and give up on its assistance to the struggle of the Palestinian people. Only in the last three weeks that Hezbollah has shown its true strength and popularity among the Lebanese population, the U.S. numerously has suggested that it may try to "cleave" Syria from Iran." In response to such an expression of evil intent, the Syrian ambassador to the U.S., Imad Moustapha, in an interview with Tim Russert (MSNBC) on July 30 stated that it is merely amusing. He said with amazement, "What sort of solution is this? We believe the core issue is the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory, of Syrian territory, and of Lebanese territory. The history of the Middle East did not start two weeks ago." In his reflection over Syria's economic cooperation and security alliance with Iran, Moustapha asserted that "We are allies to Iran because Iran is supporting our causes."
To some Iranians living abroad and fascinated by so-called modernity and the concept of bourgeois liberalism, Iran's support for the peoples of Palestine, Lebanon and Syria is motivated by Tehran's ruling class "agenda". This undocumented and cynical view of the cooperation between the countries and movements in question is supposed to explain the unproven exploitative nature of the relation that accordingly, is solely motivated by self-interests, whose ultimate goal is mutual exploitation. This distorted outlook sounds more like bourgeois marriages among wealthy individuals. On the other hand, the cost of this alliance, in terms of international trade, diplomacy and capital investment are much dearer than what Syrian, Palestinian and Lebanese can offer in exchange. Measured in terms of short-terms interests, the Islamic Republic can obtain far more economic and trade concessions from Europe and even the U.S., should it choose to alter its policy of support of the liberation movements.
Apparently, it seems that the drive for "regime change" has blind-sided the individuals who occasionally pretend to support the struggles of the working class and the oppressed masses of Iran.
ardeshiromm@optonline.net
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source: CASMII
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