08-Mar-19: Ahed Tamimi plans to visit Iran: Reflections from an Iranian

The writer, a young Iranian who lives in Iran, chooses to be called Neda (obviously not her actual name). This is the first time we have published one of her articles. She offers this brief statement of her position:

“I believe a person who wants to see the truth need not be ideologically bound by the thinking of the left or the right. One has to reach for the shades of grey between propaganda and the preset good-guy-vs-bad-guy dichotomy.”

* * *

From my country in Iran, I have observed the regime’s disinformation campaign with playout in social media sphere. Co-opting of progressive causes and the weaving in of subtle forms of regime talking-points into the narrative.

The target audience, as I’ve noticed, are young Western progressives with tendency to see everything through an ideological lens, don’t see how they are standing with oppressive regimes like Islamic Republic in their #FightThePower against "evils of western imperialism". 

A prime example of this is CodePink and their fervent love for Anti American regimes. They have outdone themselves in their recent trip. 

Let’s look back.

For the past forty years, the Islamic Republic of Iran has thrived on co-opting political causes and hiding behind the cover of standing up for oppressed people of the world, the Palestinian cause being the main one that resonates with people in every part of the world.

When I read in a recent news report [“Ahed Tamimi family trying to visit Iran”, Tehran Times, September 16, 2018] that Ahed Tamimi’s father says he is seeking permission from the Israeli authorities to secure her trip to Iran, it reminded me of a discussion among pro-Islamic Republic pundits about whether Ahed, if she made such a visit, would choose to wear a hijab or not.

She has never been photographed wearing one till now.

The main theme of their discussion was whether Ahed Tamimi, by not conforming to Islamic ideals, is impeding the cause of Palestine independence, becoming a tool of US media for her “white” looks.

There was lots of push-back to this line of thought with a few Palestinian Americans commenting that “she is an independent young woman” and “Palestinians don’t want an Islamic Republic version of Sharia”. One Palestinian American of Christian background criticized a so-called pundit for painting all Palestinians with a Muslim brush. Most Iranians think all Palestinians are Muslim.

Figure 1 Ahed Tamimi is released from prison July 2018 [Image Source]

Personally, I like Ahed’s non-conformist look. 

But when I heard that she is intent on visiting my country, I began wondering whether she will she don Hijab for whatever propaganda ceremony they have planned for her.

Figure 2 EC's Federica Mogherini placed this image from
her 2016 Iran visit on her website [Image Source]

It can be said that when female politicians like Federica Mogherini – the woman who is currently the European Commission’s senior official in charge of foreign policy - come to Iran, they wear Hijab.

But Ahed Tamimi is not a politician. I understand that her cause is the Palestinian resistance and that she sees the Islamic Republic as a means to an end.

However, there are signs that not everyone in the Iranian establishment is in support of her, as these tweets below show:

Figure 3 What Iranian Military Vlog says 

Figure 4 What Iranian Military Vlog says

Figure 5 What Iranian Military Vlog says

Figure 6 What Iranian Military Vlog says 

Figure 7 What Iranian Military Vlog says 

Figure 8 What Iranian Military Vlog says 

Being an Iranian myself, I have to deal with the enforced wearing of the Hijab, with the violent morality police and with the constant harassment of the Basijis (“a large and omnipresent paramilitary organization with multifaceted roles, and which acts as the eyes and ears of the Islamic regime”).

Starting in December 2017, there has been an ongoing and widespread campaign of protesting forced Hijab wearing across my country. Vida Movahed, photographed publicly shedding her Hijab [photo], was arrested.

No one has heard from her ever since.

Figure 9 Vida Moyahed  [Image Source] 

Repressing the protests with arrests, the morality police have been repeatedly caught on camera beating women for not adhering to proper Hijab. This too is struggle, though not as much covered by western media.

I personally contacted several young journalists on the left to cover the story. They all brushed it off as the machinations of US/pro-Israel media.

In hacked Telegram messages (see below - it was a huge scandal in Farsi social media), Hossein Derakhshan, an infamous propagandist of the Islamic Republic, smeared a Georgian chess player as Jewish/Zionist for refusing to attend a game in Iran where she would have to wear the Hijab.

These screenshots above are from Hossein Derakhshan’s Telegram group.

What he is saying to his minions is how do we know that Nazi Pakizeh is Jewish?

Solmaz: She’s been to Israel 3 times.
Derakshan: How are you sure?
Solmaz: I saw it in her Instagram and guessed she is Jewish.
Derakhshan: Search her name in Hebrew. 

There are important voices emerging from today’s Iran. But for anyone wanting to understand what they mean, it’s important to be open to the idea that some progressive-sounding voices, and even anti-regime-voices, may actually be the opposite of what they appear to be.

Diaspora commentator circles on Iran (especially in the US – see this 2012 Weekly Standard piece on Mousavian from Reul Marc Gerecht) have been overcome with regime apologists masquerading as self-appointed Iran whisperers for Western audiences.

I hope this piece help with understanding the Islamic Republic.

15-Feb-15: Iran's Hamas games

Rezaei in 2009, running for public office, reminds voters to be aware of
difference between what he says and what he feels/does [Image Source]

Just a week ago - a long time in Middle East political terms - we wrote here ["08-Feb-15: Iran says Hamas chief heading to Tehran to mend bridges, say Iranians. No he's not, say Hamas"] about the warming/cooling Iran/Hamas relationship. Hamas messaging, we noted, tends towards the incoherent at times, perhaps because its leadership lives in so many different hospitals and hotels. We listed some of the ways their relationship continued to be not-so-clear.

The Friday before that post appeared, an Iranian mouthpiece media outlet had reported that Khaled Meshaal, the Qatar-based head of the Gaza-based Hamas, was "to travel to the Iranian capital of Tehran soon". Almost instantly, the Gaza-based official Hamas spokesperson denied this because, as the report improbably put it, "Hamas's relationship with Tehran is good". 

Elder of Ziyon has just revealed over at his blog that Meshaal is, indeed, not traveling to Tehran. But note the reason. Writing under the title "Hamas leader cancels visit to Tehran after IRGC expressed its displeasure", Elder says:    

Now comes the news that Meshal has "postponed" his visit to Tehran indefinitely... Sources said that Hamas didn't want to endanger its relations with the new Saudi king who might be upset at Hamas cozying up to its enemy... 

Plus this: 

Secretary General of the Expediency [Discernment] Council Mohsen Rezaei said, "Khaled Meshaal and Hamas leaders stood and lined up two years ago, along with international terrorists in Syria, demanding the destruction of the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad, and we see them now trying to set the terms for the return of relations between Hamas and Iran, and if Iran does not have any conditions!... Hamas today is not in a position to set conditions for the return of the course of their relationship with Tehran, and Iran is not in the habit to rely on any party after they revealed their true mettle."

Elder reminds us of Iran's ongoing relationship with the other major terrorist group in Gaza, Islamic Jihad, whom it continues to provide with funding. 

It is not out of the question that Iran is grooming that terror group to take over Gaza from a weakened Hamas as part of its larger strategy to become the Muslim superpower. [Elder]

As terrorists go, Iran's Rezaei is quite a story. He's much sought-after - not because of being popular in any way but through his inclusion on Interpol's Wanted list since March 2007. Interpol wants him on charges of Aggravated Murder and Damages relating to the 1994 bombing of the Jewish AMIA community center in Buenos Aires (85 killed, 151 seriously injured). A son defected to the United States, then un-defected, and finally died in mysterious circumstances in 2011. Rezaei ran for office in the 2013 elections, which prompted the Arab newspaper Asharq Alawsat to call him "a cat’s paw of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei" and "in many ways the ultimate insider". In other words, if he is jerking Hamas around for whatever reason, that may be what Iran's top leadership wants. We will stay tuned.

3-Oct-12: The Syrian carnage goes on and on, with wide agreement over who is pulling the strings

Political observers have little doubt who stands behind the
reviled al-Assad regime in the ongoing Syrian bloodbath

An update from the Lebanon Daily Star on the endless killing just north of our border with Syria.

• Three car bombs tore into the heart of Aleppo (we know it better as Haleb here in Israel). It's Syria's second city, and 50 people are said to have been killed there today as the al-Assad regime launched an offensive against rebels near Damascus. "Aleppo, with a population of 1.7 million people, has been one of the focal points of the conflict since mid-July, when the army promised the "mother of all battles" to clear the city of rebels."
• Since Thursday, the fighting has become more intense, spreading at the weekend into the centuries-old, UNESCO-listed souk in the histoc heart of the city and sparking a fire that damaged hundreds of shops.
• Rebel fighters killed at least 15 soldiers in attacks on military posts in Syria's northwest
• The bloodshed spilled across the Syrian border when several shells fired from Syria crashed and exploded in the town of Akcakale, inside Turkey. At least five civilians are killed (evidently a mother and three children plus a relative), and nine wounded. According to the New York Times, Turkey's government announced in the past hour (it's now after 11 on Wednesday night here in Israel) that "Turkey had fired artillery at targets in Syria, in retaliation for [the] Syrian mortar fire that fell in a Turkish border town and killed five Turkish civilians. It was the first instance of significant fighting across the Turkish-Syrian border since the Syrian uprising began last year, and raised the prospect of greater involvement by the NATO alliance, to which Turkey belongs."
• Syria's civil war began in March 2011 when it looked more like a series of peaceful protests for reform. So far, more than 31,000 people have been killed.

The US and other Western countries have said they blame the Iranians for stoking the flames and equipping and training the Syrian al-Assad regime's forces. This past Friday in New York City, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton said:

“Let’s be very frank here. The [Bashar al-Assad] regime’s most important lifeline is Iran... There is no longer any doubt that Tehran will do whatever it takes to protect its proxy and crony in Damascus” [more] 

Today, speaking to Iran's government-controlled news channel IranTV, Iran’s Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi rejects those claims with a sadly typical piece of jihadist logic.

"Damascus does not need other countries’ weapons to fight domestic conflicts. Syria is country that had prepared itself for fighting the Zionists and has gathered enough weapons for this task,” Vahidi said during a press conference with his Iraqi counterpart Sadoun al-Dulaimi in Baghdad on Wednesday." 

Oddly, though his statement may sound right to many people, the reality is Israel's border with Syria has been entirely - and uniquely - devoid of hostile military action for several decades. Israeli governments have never harbored any illusions about the nature of the father-and-son al-Assad regime in Damascus in all those years. But you can't argue with the results: it was and still is this country's quietest frontier. And it's highly unlikely that the nature and quantity of Syria's military preparedness is all that helpful to the task of massacring its own citizens and destroying vast tracts of Syria's ancient cities and villages.

15-Feb-11: Iran - how the local and foreign and social media see things... differently

More clashes, more protests, and now death in the streets. But don't expect the Mullahs of Iran to acknowledge that any of this is happening. Like yesterday, we have three snapshots below, all of them focused on Tehran, all of them captured at about the same moment today. The entirely different senses of what's happening are another reminder of how editors and reporters can, at will, fashion a reality that is completely disconnected from actual events while serving an ideological agenda.

First the New York Times.

Now our friends from the Iranian-state-owned PressTV who know Breaking News when they see it:

Iran's gift to the world of round-the-clock news coverage is breathless when it comes to news breaking in Bahrain and Cairo and Tunisia. But they're struck completely dumb when the subject is the tumult on the streets of their own capital, with masses getting up and standing for their long-stolen rights.

And finally a Twitter picture, one of many that are finding their way out of Iran and into the social networks today.

Iran is "the most active state sponsor of terrorism. Iran’s financial, material, and logistic support for terrorist and militant groups throughout the Middle East and Central Asia had a direct impact on international efforts to promote peace, threatened economic stability in the Persian Gulf and undermined the growth of democracy." [Source - August 2010].