Today Americans for Peace Now released an interview with former Mossad exec Yossi Alpher where Alpher showed great respect for the Iranian revolution, comparing it to the Russian revolution, and saying that neoconservatives failed to understand its permanency and support. The interview was reminiscent of a piece on this site the other day, by Mohammad of Vancouver, an Iranian-Canadian. Mohammad had this response to Alpher:
I admire realism and a tough stare at a difficult object, even if it is initiated by someone with a different strategic outlook than mine. The essence of the interview are the points I brought up. That the Iranian revolution is not well-understood in the west or in Israel. Regime change without an overwhelming majority of Iranians initiating it it will never work with Iran, and even if it does, it won't change anything but a few top-level figureheads.
The most important thing to consider is that the revolution was launched to stop globalization and now is taking advantage of what it had successfully slowed down in Iran. The creation of a global Islamic nation is a perfect example of Hegelian dialectics, in which two opposing poles interact to create a new phenomenon. Israel and Iran can now go out for a beer and celebrate their creation.
The Iranian revolution and the rise of Islamism were aided by Israel's reluctance to finalize peace with Arafat and follow through with the Oslo. Israel killed Arab nationalism in three stages. First with the 1967 war, second by separating the Arab front by signing peace deals with Jordan and Egypt, and third by weakening Arafat, possibly murdering him, and replacing him with a useless smiling quisling called Abbas. Israel's game of weakening the PLO in favour of Hamas in the mid 90's will be remembered as the most destructive strategy not only for Arab nationalism but for the longevity of the "Jewish state". It only, and only, benefited Islamism and its core center, Iran.
Creative destruction sounds interesting on paper, but if it is not followed by creative construction, it may expand and damage those who initiated it. Thank god America is having a clean break from Likud-inspired Clean Break and neoconservatism. However, in Israel, the establishment is moving back to the hands of those who initiated the policies of derailing negotiations with the PLO and strengthening Hamas.
The Iranian revolution and the rise of Islamism were aided by Israel's reluctance to finalize peace with Arafat….
What does this mean? The Iranian revolution occurred in 1980, you are talking about this that happened 20 years later.
Thanks Mohammad. Where is Arab Nationalism still most prevalent, and do you see a possible resurgence in the future?
Thank god America is having a clean break from Likud-inspired Clean Break and neoconservatism.
Don't be so sure:
"To whose agenda is President Obama being hitched? Writing in the English language version of the Swiss newspaper, Zeit-Fragen, Stephen J. Sniegoski reports that leading figures of the neocon conspiracy–Richard Perle, Max Boot, David Brooks, and Mona Charen–are ecstatic over Obama’s appointments. They don’t see any difference between Obama and Bush/Cheney.
Not only are Obama’s appointments moving him into an expanded war in Afghanistan, but the powerful Israel Lobby is pushing Obama toward a war with Iran.
The unreality in which he US government operates is beyond belief. A bankrupt government that cannot pay its bills without printing money is rushing headlong into wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran. According to the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Analysis, the cost to the US taxpayers of sending a single soldier to fight in Afghanistan or Iraq is $775,000 per year!
The world has never seen such total mindlessness. Napoleon’s and Hitler’s march into Russia were rational acts compared to the mindless idiocy of the United States government.
Obama’s war in Afghanistan is the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. After seven years of conflict, there is still no defined mission or endgame scenario for US forces in Afghanistan. When asked about the mission, a US military official told NBC News, “Frankly, we don’t have one.” NBC reports: “they’re working on it.”
Speaking to House Democrats on February 5, President Obama admitted that the US government does not know what its mission is in Afghanistan and that to avoid “mission creep without clear parameters,” the US “needs a clear mission.”
How would you like to be sent to a war, the point of which no one knows, including the commander-in-chief who sent you to kill or be killed? How, fellow taxpayers, do you like paying the enormous cost of sending soldiers on an undefined mission while the economy collapses?"
Ship of Fools
syvanen, the notion of Iranian revolution is still alive in the Islamists in Iran. After 30 years of the initiation of this revolution we still see signs of the movement. Why else would they keep the Islamic Revolutionary Court alive after all these years?
Israel's misguided actions (whether directly hitting the Palestinians and Arabs) or indirectly through neoconservative hakws in washington has not only strenghthened this Islamist movement in Iran some despite being infidels even want to use it to expand Iran's influence in the region.
"The creation of a global Islamic nation is a perfect example of Hegelian dialectics, in which two opposing poles interact to create a new phenomenon."
Hegel was a visionary and a genius, and his theories were allegedly the source of much anti-semitism–in other words, a means to decoding certain unpleasant truths about organized Jewry and its self-inflicted plight.
I will explain the differences and the dynamics between Iranian Islamic state and the Iranian Islamic Revolution in my tomorrow's post.
Israel's game of weakening the PLO in favour of Hamas in the mid 90's will be remembered as the most destructive strategy not only for Arab nationalism but for the longevity of the "Jewish state". It only, and only, benefited Islamism and its core center, Iran.
Well, let's not forget that Iran had to DEFEND itself against Arab Nationalism! Don't forget the Pseudo-Nasser, a.k.a. Saddam Hussein.
Also remember that Arafat was first to turn his back on Tehran!
Iran self-defended. Islam was the weapon, so be it! Just as Israel self-defends, under the auspicious of Holocaust …
But now Iran itself is faced with the dilemma faced by Americans as well: it doesn't know how to get rid of its own fundamentalists!
@ ED:
Hegel was a visionary and a genius, and his theories were allegedly the source of much anti-semitism–in other words, a means to decoding certain unpleasant truths about organized Jewry and its self-inflicted plight.
Replaced by "organized" Germanism?!! (which is now turning into these revisionist pop cultural self-inflicted plight romanticized in things like "The Reader" or the "Downfall" on the 'realist' side and countless "Hegelianly romanticised aesthetics" of superheros? (put aside the resurgence of the 'Action Hero' in Hollywood, Obama's bases of success is the latest exemplary!)
Naj, the point of anti-semitism has been encapsulated by Mamet's premise\thesis:
"The world hates the Jews."(And always will.)
The counter thesis has been alluded to by Ed: "certain unpleasant truths about organized Jewry and its self-inflicted plight."
And why do you suggest that The Reader and Downfall are less that realist in their respective POVs and depictions?
I can't make any sense of the rest of what you say.
Please elaborate.
Mohammad, thank you for your post regarding the nature of Iran's synthetic nature compared to the other nations in the Middle East–reminds me a bit of Turkey; as well thanks to the commenters who have so far pointed out more aspects to chew on towards a deeper understanding of the entity characters in play.
Hegel was a visionary and a genius, and his theories were allegedly the source of much anti-semitism–in other words, a means to decoding certain unpleasant truths about organized Jewry and its self-inflicted plight.
Hegel was also an early promoter of Jewish emancipation and assimilation. Under his influence the fraternaties in Heidelberg admitted the first Jewish students.
The most important Heglian concept that contradicts your application today is the irreversibility of historical processes.
I am assuming you have his critique of the Jewish religion as an earlier development, Jewish obsolescence, in mind? He surely was a man of his time.
Strictly all that would be needed in the Heglian framework would be that Judaism would question its initial revelations. What do you make of Jewish Haskalah in the larger period?
And couldn't the questioning or reinterpretation of religious meaning be equally demanded on the Christian side after a multitude of dreamed up or diligently calculated and prophesied Armageddons? Ends of the world that so far didn't happen.
For Hegel philosophy serves the essentially same ends as theology: the subject of religion as of philosophy is the eternal truth in its objectivity.
@LeaNder
Yes, you have a good grasp of essential Hegel. Others since Hegal
have taken his philosophy and method farther by referencing historical events
that transpired since he was alive.
from haaretz, the eternal truth of the jews as revealed by jews:
"A few weeks ago, a senior Greek Orthodox clergyman in Israel attended a meeting at a government office in Jerusalem's Givat Shaul quarter. When he returned to his car, an elderly man wearing a skullcap came and knocked on the window. When the clergyman let the window down, the passerby spat in his face.
The clergyman prefered not to lodge a complaint with the police and told an acquaintance that he was used to being spat at by Jews. Many Jerusalem clergy have been subjected to abuse of this kind. For the most part, they ignore it but sometimes they cannot.
On Sunday, a fracas developed when a yeshiva student spat at the cross being carried by the Armenian Archbishop during a procession near the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City. The archbishop's 17th-century cross was broken during the brawl and he slapped the yeshiva student."
jews often use hellfire missiles as a substitute for spit. conserves their precious essence.
Well, the Hegelian dialectic is at issue here. So let’s quickly examine it within the framework of the 20th Century. The Stalinists and Jewish Bolsheviks formulated Soviet Communism in the early 1900’s and murdered millions of Christians and dissidents in gulags, death camps, and state-engineered famines throughout Communism’s early history. This contributed to (and was likely the primary factor) in the rise of an opposing force, Nazism, which went on to mirror the Communists and murder millions in death camps itself, most of them Jews.
Those two opposing forces (the Nazis and the Communists), starting in the post WWII era and accelerating in the post-Communist era, have united, and are headquartered in America and form the backbone of the two-party regime, which is waging a nearly world wide war against Muslims, partially on behalf of organized Jewry, and partially on behalf of maintaining and feeding the imperial Leviathan. It employs both Nazi and Communist tactics, strategy, and propaganda to accomplish this, and is supported in its efforts by millions of modern day useful idiots in both Europe and America who cling to the corrupt status quo.
Again, within the Hegelian framework, the rise of “Islamofascism” can be viewed as a dialectical response to the commu-fascist Imperial Leviathan’s war against Islam.
Also, note the prominent role that organized Jewry has played in all of these conflicts. Certain Christian Zionists and liberal Judeophiles like to view organized Jewry as a leavening agent; the proper way to view Zionism is as a yeast infection.
I’m sure a certain passive-aggressive reader/participant here knows a thing or two about those.
Ed, I have no doubt that you have had several yeast infections.
Thanks Ed. Much appreciated. Do you mind terribly expanding a bit on the historical role of the Catholic Church in all this or is it too much to ask?
I imagine many of 'useful idiots' are hostages of the State (employed, directly or indirectly) and as such have no other option than to toe the party line.
Rise of 'Islamofascism' has had much more practical use than the 'dialectical response'.
Aim was to align the rest of the 'Old Europe' with US-UK-Israel.Very few shouted 'Death to Danmark' or Lichtenstein until certain Bilderberg attendee of Semitic origin published funny-looking cartoons in an obscure Scandinavian newspaper…