A Series of Israeli Insults to Iran

“There are only a handful of cases in which a country has demonstrated such remarkable capability to strike so accurately inside another country with which it is at war,” said Bruce Riddell, a former CIA official with experience working with Israel, regarding the recent assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh on the outskirts of Tehran. In an official statement from the Iranian regime, Kamal Kharrazi, head of the Strategic Council for Foreign Relations in Iran, claimed that Iran “will respond in the right time and place” to the killing of Fakhrizadeh. The truth is that the assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the unique new way in which it was carried out, and at the time chosen for its execution, is a major insult to the mullah regime, joining a long list of insults directed at Iran by Israel. In one year alone, the mullah regime sustained hundreds of painful Israeli strikes in Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq, and even in Iran itself. This goes without even mentioning the deadly American strikes that destroyed strategic Iranian assets, and the notable assassination of Qasem Soleimani just several months ago. In the wake of these undeniable insults, the Iranian regime will do anything it can to restore its lost prestige, both at home and abroad. It will have to respond. But it is afraid to do so while unraveling greater Israeli anger. The truth remains that the only two powers capable of confronting the Iranian regime are the United States and Israel. And both powers have made it unequivocally clear that they will not allow Tehran to possess a nuclear weapon — neither today nor tomorrow. So why does the Iranian regime refuse to come to terms with this reality and insists, instead, on starving half of its population, impoverishing it, and sending hundreds of its children to die in useless wars in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Palestine? Every month, unemployment and poverty bring out hundreds of thousands of Iranians to the streets, where they chant “death to the dictator.” Many of them are arrested; others are tortured and killed. Approximately twenty-five million Iranians live below the poverty line. The hungry cannot endure their hunger for long. The oppressed cannot remain silent about their oppression. Demonstrations, protests, and sit-ins will continue to unfold in Iran. A large portion of the Iranian public blames the current regime for its miserable living conditions. The mullahs brag about their nuclear program, but the ultimate cost is borne by the average citizen. The Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, as well as other senior leaders of his regime, often boast that they have a presence in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Palestine. But unlike the external enemies they claim to fight, their biggest enemy is at home, growing from within. Will Khamenei finally stop using the same old boring trope of dignity, sovereignty, jihad, and the erasure of Israel and finally accept the fact that his people are living under a brutal reality? – Ibrahim Al-Zubaidi (translated by Asaf Zilberfarb)