Body Parts

Israel, the Radical Islamists States Of the Middle East, and the Nature of Their War Against Israel

American MSM insist on describing, and implicitly interpreting with a pro-Palestinian bias, the military conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza as an exchange of rockets that produce civilian casualties, meaning noncombatant casualties. This is clearly an effort to limit the ground in which Hamas' continual military assault on Israel can be described as  provocative and unethical. This interpretation is false. Hamas with the support of other radical Islamists, such as Iran and the Hezbollah, are engaged in a war of extinction of the Jewish state and extermination of its Jewish population. All segments of Palestinian society are engaged in this war. The Hamas military is not separate from the Gazan population, but integrated and dispersed throughout it. "Civilians", including "children" are collaborators, supporters, and participants in the Hamas "military's" assault on Israel. Think for a moment of the videos of young boys participating in attacks, parades, mobs we have seen in many videos of military ferment in the Gaza. The war between Israel and radical Islam is total war between a free democratic state and a totalitarian culture state. In a total war, the distinction between combatant and non-combatant is morally suspect and the line between them blurred and often erased. Any purported distinction reflects only the political ideological bias of the person who makes it.

Miscalculations About Iran's Nuclear Weapon Program

Every analysis I have read about Iran's nuclear weapon program is based, I believe, on a mistaken assumption. We can best view this mistake by referring to analyses of a related issue, which is whether Israel is likely unilaterally and by itself to attack Iran's nuclear weapons production sites in an effort to destroy or set back the program. Analysts correctly state that that Israel's perspective on the issue is "existential"; that is, that for Israel, Israel's national existence, as well as existence of a significant portion of the world's Jews, who live in Israel, is at stake. Iran has consistently said it wishes to destroy the Jewish state and Jews along with it. Iran has stated this goal in credible terms.

When analysts turn to American-led efforts to compel Iran by sanctions to abandon its nuclear weapon's program, analysts explain Iran's program in practical - not existential - terms. They think Iran could abandon its program in order, e.g., to maintain certain international relations the sanctions curtail. The analysts do not speak of Iran as perceiving its nuclear weapons program as an existential issue for the Iranian state. That is a mistake. The Iranian state is the political manifestation of a religious regime in perpetual political and social revolution. By "revolution", I mean that the Muslim state sponsors continual change and alternation, in the name of a radical religious ideology, of the historical, social, political, and religious relations of its citizens and of Iranian relations with other states. That religious revolution is the essence of the state. It is also the source of existential enmity between Iran and its Muslim neighbors, Western democracies, and Israel.

Without the ongoing revolution, the Iranian state would transform into a static, administrative state, exposed to political reformism (evidence of which we saw in the recent Iranian reform uprising). For the Iranian state, the purpose of possession of a nuclear weapon is protect the existence of the revolution and the state that sponsors it. Possessing a nuclear arsenal would successfully deter other nations from attacking Iran, leaving the state free to perpetuate its revolution.

Iran and Israel have equal stakes in their horrific struggle. For both, the issue is existential. They are in a death struggle. This death struggle can only be ended by the complete destruction of Iran's nuclear weapons program and the transformation of the Iranian state. It would not end should Iran destroy Israel, for the revolution would be extended against other Muslim states and against democratic societies outself the Middle East, including the US.  Military action must be taken, as soon as possible against the Iranian weapons sites.

Right on Cue: The Iranian, Syrian, Lenanese, Turkish, Hezbollah, Palestinian Anti-Israel Alliance

Announced by Hezbollah head, Nasrallah, on the occasion of the Iranian president's visit to Lebanon. Told you so. War drums beat.

Iranian Bully Backs Down--Won't Send Aid Ship To Flotilla 2

Iran has indicated that it will not send a ship with "humanitarian" aid to join Free Gaza Humanitarian Aid flotilla 2, after Israel send a letter to the UN that it would consider an Iranian ship in the flotilla as a declaration of war. Once again, courage, standing firm, and military strength are the way to defeat totalitarian bullies. Obama should take note, but of course he won't. He can't learn from history, only from ideology.

Anti-Israel Enthusiasm for Breaking Israeli-Egyptian Blockade of Gaza Appears To Be Waning

DEBKAfile explains that, quietly, Syria, Lebanon, and Cyprus appear to have backed away from support for a second "free Gaza" flotilla. Why? Credit is being given to the US and EU for not supporting a second flotilla; but I think the credit goes to Israel. Netanyahu refused to end the blockage, only easing it a bit for a few supplies. He was prepared to ignite wider conflict in stopping the second flotilla. He stared Israel's enemies. Faced with theprobable reality of real conflict if the second flotilla attempts to run the blockade, the major principles concerned have backed off. Watch Iran, which send a warship to join the flotilla. My guess is that the Iranian ship will quietly retreat under a typical Ahmadinejad broadcast of anti-semitic, anti-Zionist vitriol. Standing up to terrorism enablers works.

Update. June 24, 2010. Iran has said it would not let its humanitarian aid ship join flotilla 2, after Israel said it would consider an Iranian ship in the flotilla as a declaration of war.

Crushing A Rebellion? Arresting Leaders Helps, Too.

It appears that one of Iran's insider-opposition leaders, Mousavi, has been arrested--placed under house arrest. Is exile coming. My guess--Rafsanjani is too power to arrest, so Khamenei is going after the weaker opposition. Al-Sistani, Shi'ite supreme leader of Iraq has apparently condemned the Iranian regime. Maybe Mousavi will be forced into Iraqi exile?

Exposed, Obama Pulls Up His Iranian Pants

Our President has really been a pathetic fool, after all. He had solicited Khamenei's support and diplomatic cooperation in a secret letter before the election.* So Khamenei had Barack Hussein Obama by the shorts when the protests began over the election; and in last Friday's prayer speech gave his boy a real bitch slapping. Why wouldn't it have occurred to BHO to wait until after the election to write to the Supreme Leader? PS. Now, after all this, he has withdrawn the invitation to Iranian diplomats to attend US diplomatic weenie roasts on the fourth of July.

*A secret letter before a propitious event was not a mistake, but a modus operandi of our President. Use Google to get other instances of such a tactic as a candidate and as President.

Blood in Iran's Streets, Dead Bodies in Tehran's Squares: This is How Revolution is Crushed

Tweets report bloody suppression of demonstrators in Tehran today near Parliament. (Here also.) Journalists report significantly diminished numbers of protestors in public demonstrations. I think we are witnessing the end of this first stage of protest, that linked to the apparently fraudulent election results. If there is to be another stage, the opposition must find courageous leaders, organize itself, and find more effective weapons. More importantly, they need to find a new goal. And they seem on the verge of doing so--regime change at the top and securing greater freedom. After the fires die down, Khamenei might grant some limited reforms to make a slightly freer society. Such increased freedom would satisfy the opposition for a while, but it would also give the anti-regime parties time and political scope to plot bigger assaults on the Islamic theocracy.  As democracy gains its footing in neighboring Iraq, the opposition might also find themselves doing their plotting in self-imposed exile in Iraq. I suspect this episode of protest will be seen as similar to the abortive 1905 revolution in Russa. (So remember that the real Russian revolution was over a dozen years later; history is both slow and, when it hits, rapid.)

June 24, 2009. Updated.

Iran: Is Rafsanjani Trying To Eliminate The Constitutional Position of Khameni?

Is Iraq's Shi'ite leader, al-Sistani, who believes that Islam can exist within democracy, wth religious toleration of all Islamic sects, and with ethnic diversity, involved with Rafsanjani? Threatswatch:RapidRecon's Steve Schippert believes so. If true, regime change in Iran might be at hand.

Would this be possible, if Khameni and his supporters resist, without blood in the streets?

View This Iranian Opposition Ad: It's Clear Obama Made A Mistake Not Supporting The Reformers

The Iranian reformers are pushing Iran to change in the ways that Obama argued in his Cairo speech that Islam must change. Obama's refusal provide strong support betrays his Cairo message and destroys an opportunity to advance moderation in Islamic religion and modernization of Muslim political authoritarianism. Obama chose the wrong side. His foreign policy strategy for the Middle East chooses the wrong side. View the ad, here. (H/T Instapundit.) I applaud pundits who figured this out before I did.