Iranian director Asghar Farhadi receiving the Best Foreign Film Oscar for his film A Separation.
(Photo: Joel Ryan/AP)
Last night, the Iranian film A Separation took the Best Foreign Film Oscar. This AP article, picked up by the Washington Post, about Israeli reactions to the film reveals the sheer amount of propaganda Israelis must be subject to regarding their perception of Iran. It's clear they are ignorant of what Iran is actually like...those interviewed are all shocked that the country is full of cars, home appliances, and real live human beings!
Here are the best quotes:
Yair Raveh, film critic for Israel’s leading entertainment magazine, Pnai Plus, said, "Ultimately you don’t think about nuclear bombs or dictators threatening world peace. You see them driving cars and going to movies and they look exactly like us."
Rina Brick, 70, said, "Our image of how Iran works is less democratic than we see here. The judge, the police, everyone behaves as if they are in a Western country."
Rivka Cohen, 78, who left Iran at age 15, was "surprised by the way people lived in their houses...Everyone had a fridge and a washing machine."
Meanwhile, some movie-goers weren't even as enlightened as those above. Moshe Amirav, a political science professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, said he "didn’t stop thinking about the bomb the whole time" he was watching A Separation. "I said, what a contrast that we see this Iranian film with such admiration, and then when we leave we think about how they want to kill us," Amirav said.
And that guy is a professor. Of political science. At a real university.
Here in the U.S., a new Zogby poll reveals that "78% [of Americans] believe Iran is actively pursuing nuclear weapons production" and that "68% say it is likely Iran would attack another nation if it produces nuclear weapons and has the ability to deliver them." Zogby also reports, "When asked what the US should do if it believes Iran has nuclear weapons, 37% support aerial attacks and another 7% would prefer both an invasion of Iran and aerial attacks. Increased economic and political sanctions are backed by 33%, while 10% would want no changes in current US policy toward Iran," while "79% are concerned that attacks on Iran could lead to higher fuel prices."
Meanwhile, here's writer/director Asghar Farhadi's acceptance speech after winning the "Best Foreign Film" Oscar last night:
"At this time, many Iranians all over the world are watching us and I imagine them to be very happy. They are happy not just because of an important award or a film or filmmaker, but because at the time when talk of war, intimidation and aggression is exchanged between politicians, the name of their country - Iran - is spoken here through her glorious culture. A rich and ancient culture that has been hidden under the heavy dust of politics. I proudly offer this award to the people of my country. A people who respect all cultures and civilizations and despise hostility and resentment."
Clash of civilizations, indeed.
At some point, I really have to consider my suspicion that a significant portion of the population of Israel is certifiably insane. I’d like to think not, but when I read comments like this or see films like Defamation, I can’t help but think that there is an awful lot of mental illness afoot in that land.
If that Zogby poll is right, a lot of the U.S. population is also insane:
“a lot of the U.S. population is also insane”
Some of us have long suspected that.
I think you’re both right. Here’s the thing, polls are polls. Perceptions are difficult to change, but the media is responsible for molding a lot of them.
In both instances, think about it. If the Israeli media were to tell the truth (and haaretz has journalists who often do just that), would majority perceptions change? Same thing in the US. Would majority perceptions change? In the US, yes. There are a lot of fundies, but they are a minority. There are the Americans who believe Israel is the biblical Israel and the Americans who drank the “most moral army and only democracy in the Middle East, an oasis of peace” kool aid. The latter are the majority. The media could change their opinion in a day.
As a guy from the street,I guarantee any support of Israel expressed is a mile wide but an inch deep,and the event of the day that changed everything,and which is suppressed in certain circles,is the impetus for the American peoples disconnect from reality,and that’s why any revealing stuff about that day or other disasters is suppressed or ignored by the MSM,as the truth would cut that mile wide inch deep support off at the soles of the foot.
Andrew Adler anyone?
“If that Zogby poll is right, a lot of the U.S. population is also insane…”
No surprise there. We elected Dubya twice, didn’t we?
“We elected Dubya twice, didn’t we?”
I saw him become President twice, but I didn’t see him get elected even once.
I discussed that point somewhere else to annoy local trolls. A conclusion seems to be that in every society most people have conventional opinions. A typical professor of political science may have a hand in molding those opinions. But in every society there is always a minority that strays from the majoritarian convention.
The problems of group dynamics exists also in various social animals. Both solidarity and individualism have survival value. Let me share a little “zoo-sociological theory”. Penguins are favorite examples in American politics. Adele penguins are liberals, playful, joy to watch, and what is quite important, some engage in homosexual pairings, which allows to dispute some conservative claims about “natural law”. Emperor penguins are conservative. Dignified. Monogamous! Every year they march from the frigid ocean to a somewhat sheltered valley between glaciers to lay eggs. Then the males make a stand, with eggs on their paws, while females go away for a month to eat. Antarctic wind howls, and males huddle together, in amazing feat of social solidarity. If you stray, you die. But those who do not stray, survive by slowly changing who stays outside, facing the wind. Duty, solidarity, sharing.
But the movie also shows that contrary to common wisdom and sound logic, some penguins schlep around. This is dangerous. Their insulation is a marvel of evolution, so they can spend some energy on solitary walks, but they need to budget the stored energy for a month in those conditions. The most profligate individuals freeze to death. What can be evolutionary benefit of such individualism? Perhaps penguins acquire some collective knowledge about their environment. The annual treks go “always” to the same spot, but this is landscape of ice, so it is changing. When the change of the route is necessary, probably the majority is baffled, but some individuals have ideas where to go. A flock with no curiosity gene would die out.
The American Neo-cons are seemingly way,way beyond them. No one is shooting bottle-rockets at them, so they have absolutely nothing to fear.
I don’t know of a adequate description of their frame of mind? “Super-Predators”, “Crocodiles”? No, I don’t think so, as the Likud appear much more successful than Nile crocodiles. Stay away from the water!
Hej!
This does remind one of Gandhi’s quip when asked “What do you think of Western civilization,” and he answered “I think it would be a good idea.” Farhadi’s speech was as steeped in dignity as his movie.
Even if this had been a so-so movie, it would have been valuable to show Iranians in their everyday lives, hopefully leading people to second-guess the wisdom of attacking and causing misery and death to people who resemble us (what an astonishing concept!). But the movie was absolutely brilliant as well. It really puts almost all American movies to shame.
The Zogby poll numbers are frightening though not surprising. How easy it is to manipulate people with fear-mongering – no evidence or common sense required. Those who refuse to go along with the prevailing sentiment are smeared as soft, or dangerously naive, or terrorist sympathizers. It is so easy to do.
“And that guy is a professor. Of political science. At a real university.”
Well, sort of. The entirety of modern Hebrew culture is part and parcel of the Zionist project, and at Hebe U that means cranking out the needed ideas. See Gabriel Piterberg’s The Returns of Zionism for starters. The late Israel Shahak was ostracized while on the faculty there.
The country is in the spell of a redundant ideology and that covers the universities as well.
There are not so many independent thinkers in Israel- everything is subordinate to the army. Even the liberal arts.
Elik Elhanan on the militarist cancer that is at the heart of Israeli society
link to youtube.com
start at 15.00
they look exactly like us
no shit. two arms, two legs, jeans and shirt.
am I the only one who is really bothered by the notion that people are ‘acceptable’ to the degree that they are “western” or can speak English? What I love about Iran is that Iran is NOT western. If I wanted to see wall-to-wall fast fooderies I could drive to any of a thousand cities in the US; I want to appreciate other cultures for themselves, not for the degree to which they mirror hollywood.
It would be a crime amounting to the destruction of the Buddhas to force Iran — or any non-western country/culture/people — into a western mold.
two arms, to legs, jeans, shirt and hijabs.
no shit but plenty of brain-carrier.
Did you know that many Muslim women “have their scarves done” for important parties, events, etc.
I long for the day when Target carries a line of hijabs, chadors, beautiful African clothing, sarongs, etc.
Nima, amazing summary. The reasoning of these critics is reminiscent of the Jim Corw South, trapped by bigoted views.
Meanwhile, I loved how our very own USA Today politicized the situation with its award-winning headline, “Iran: Oscar Win Is Victory Over Israel.” The biased article included several helpful paragraphs pushing more tension between the two countries, a convenient neocon non-sequitur that minimizes the beautiful speech given by the director, and bangs the war drums for the chickenhawks.
Although the USA Today politicization of the award is also ridiculous, it’s worth noting that Iran itself bizarrely politicized the award:
link to haaretz.com
Yes it’s a shame. It reminds me of the claims Israel lays to all the Nobel Prizes won by Jewish individuals.
Here in the U.S., a new Zogby poll reveals that “78% [of Americans] believe Iran is actively pursuing nuclear weapons production” and that “68% say it is likely Iran would attack another nation if it produces nuclear weapons and has the ability to deliver them.” Zogby also reports, “When asked what the US should do if it believes Iran has nuclear weapons, 37% support aerial attacks and another 7% would prefer both an invasion of Iran and aerial attacks. Increased economic and political sanctions are backed by 33%, while 10% would want no changes in current US policy toward Iran,” while “79% are concerned that attacks on Iran could lead to higher fuel prices.”
What can you expect when US MSM host, moderators of debates, etc have allowed guest to repeat complete lies about Iran’s nuclear program. Often calling it a nuclear weapons program. These same host allow guest to repeat the debunked claim that “Iran wants to wipe Israel off the map” This was debunked by Professor Cole and others several years ago. The host of these programs never ever challenge these unsubstantiated claims. Never. Now I did hear Iranian expert Flynt Leverett challenge Charlie Rose when Rose repeated the “wipe off the map” lie. On top of thes MSM host allowing these claims to be repeated…some of the host like NPR’s Terri Gross has endlessly repeated this clap trap herself.
No need to wonder why the American public believes this bull…The warmongers have been setting this go get Iran stage for a solid 9 years. Started soon after the invasion of Iraq….they started hammering away and our MSM learned zero from their pathetic and criminal failings to challenge the false WMD claims in the run up to the invasion of Iraq
Heard a figure that the Globe committee is 94% male. We can also bet they have their leanings And you can bet in the past it was even worse.
Of course, American Zionists no better. At the party I attended to watch the Oscars, one guy was rooting for the Israeli entry desite never seeing it (or “The Separation”). When “The Separation” won, he quipped that the movie was about “separating uranium.” I quipped back that the Israelis had already won that award.
Stone…cold…silence…
Nice one. Kind of a shame you had to go there, but at least you went there in style. ;)
Oh geez…That’s not surprising though.
What is surprising is that the academy awarded an oscar to an Iranian movie over an Israeli one given present conditions. That is… odd. I can’t even keep track of how many times that Israel is mentioned in a show or a movie. Even going back years. Like it’s everything. I was watching a re-run of NCIS and they mentioned somebody with an Israeli ‘accent’ which I’m really not sure exists in real life. Just some producer’s will or something. An anomaly compared to all the other places on the planet and the disproportion of population. My wife thinks I’m nuts. Maybe I am…
Zing…sometimes the truth makes those with a conscience go silent. Zing indeed
what is amazing about zionists is their belief about themselves that they represent the pinnacle of “western” culture, and that it is their mission to drag the backward Arab and Iranian world, kicking and screaming, into civilization.
I was trying to figure this out the other day — how can it be that Jews in Israel are unaware that most of Tanakh has to do with a (relatively short) period before Babylonian exile; exile, and ‘return’ from exile, under the auspices of Cyrus and the Persian empire.
But the zionists who are running the We Hate Iran and You Should Too show are, primarily, Benjamin Netanyahu and Ephraim Sneh — Bibi’s parents are Lithuanian, they spent the war years in New York, where papa was a major zionist leader. Sneh was born in Warsaw, then Russian Poland, his father was a strident communist.
But when you drill down to their psychological drivers (strictly armchair version, but it seems to make sense), the point where Bibi and Ephraim both went off the rails and became anti-Iran fanatics — psychopaths, in my layman’s view — is when Yoni Netanyahu was killed in Entebbe. That was in 1976, and really had nothing to do with Iran, but reading Sneh’s and Bibi’s writing shortly after the raid, in which Yoni became mythologized, somehow, Entebbe became conflated with Iran. Bibi declared himself a ‘terror expert’ and wrote a book about fighting terror, which he has recommended to numerous US House congressional committees. Comparing Bibi’s anti-terror writings with, for example, Wesley Clarke’s revelations about how the Bush White House was going to Iraq, and seven more countries in five years — the list of countries is right out of Bibi’s ravings. Netanyahu is truly running the US ME foreign policy show and has been since at least 1979.
Bibi has no knowledge of Iran as a culture whatsoever.
Linking “Iran” with Entebbe/terror — all one concept– is a matter of temporality: Bibi was studying terror and writing his book, working out his grief over Yoni’s death, just as the Iranian revolution erupted. Iran had been a stabilizing force in Israeli life; its ‘loss’ to Israelis can be conceptualized, in Bibi, as knocking the last remaining pin out from under his frail sense of how the world should work.
Avigail Abarbanel’s assessment here
is especially significant inasmuch as papa Netanyahu was never in the holocaust, as such — he lived in Israel from 1920 thru college, then
There’s probably a name for this psychological phenomenon wherein people who were relatively safe when others were suffering become ‘more catholic than the pope’ — they have to compensate for the fact that their courage was never tested.
Bibi associates the hijackings of the 1970s — including Entebbe– with terror, and ‘terror’ carries with it all the psychic pain of his brother’s death — and of papa Netanyahu’s adoration of the dead older brother, causing greater psychic pain for Bibi — have all been rolled into a mindset. His psychosis is contagious and has been spread among the Israeli and diaspora Jewish people. It’s an extraordinary phenomenon — the man is truly dangerous.
ramble ramble ramble.
“what is amazing about zionists is their belief about themselves that they represent the pinnacle of “western” culture, and that it is their mission to drag the backward Arab and Iranian world, kicking and screaming, into civilization.”(Teta)
Teta, I can’t speak for the Iranians but I’m curious where you got the part about the Zionists’ vocation or belief about bringing the Arabs into civilization. From where I’m standing, it’s been the opposite all along including Zonist talk about bombing some of them back to the Stone Age and with the more benevolent Zionists wanting to set them back only 20 years.
There was a short period back in 1919 when the top Arab had concluded with the top Zionist for the Zionists to help the Arabs in the catching-up by introducing them to European technology in exchange for giving them all of Palestine but this plan fizzed out before it took off. From that point on, the Zionists have been working at keeping the Arabs down.
As to what the Arabs are themselves doing about where they’re headed, the Arab Spring wave wasn’t very much anything other than a leap back towards to where they were 92 years ago.
“Iran: Oscar Win Is Victory Over Israel.”
good god, the paranoia is palpable. any event or commentary which can’t be interpreted as unequivocal praise of or support for israel, or isn’t a verbal or literal assault on israel’s ‘enemies’, constitutes a ‘victory over israel’.
Let’s dispense with the puerile one-upmanship. Israelis make good films. Iranians also make good films.
Who are you addressing, mayhem?
Marc is citing the USA today article. That was the headline.
He’s come to pull a newclench on the thread, Cliff. Obviously he doesn’t want us talking about the real topic here.
thanks for the defense, cliff. apparently in this case i jumped to conclusions. it seems both sides are willing to use this ‘competition’ for political purposes.
“68% say it is likely Iran would attack another nation if it produces nuclear weapons and has the ability to deliver them”
Do those 68% actually use their brains? Zombie nation?
As this film is nor likely to be shown anywhere but in the major US cities and as it is an absolute must-see, let me recommend P2P downloading (depending on yr scruples).
A tip – if the subtitles are not shown on yr media player, download the CCCP codec pack (it’s not Russian, it’s just a joke) – if there is concern about CCCP, check it out on wiki.
This film should be required viewing for every politician and pundit to bring home the “human-ness” and “ordinary-ness” of Iranians who would be the victims of Israeli and/or American bombs.
How about the ‘ordinary-ness’ of the Iranian Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance that had banned the director Farhadi from making the film? He recanted with the right words for the authorities – in the meantime other Iranian filmmakers and dissidents languish in prisons. Fridges and washing machines mean very little to those struggling under a totalitarian regime.
Palestinians in the West Bank , Hebron, EJ and Gaza would agree.
No real sympathy here for the plight of ordinary Iranians; just the usual gloating.
there is no doubt in our minds that your sympathy for the plight of ordinary Iranians is certainly heartfelt Mayhem.
So does yr post mean that they should be bombed?
Israel would not want to bomb civilians – that would only damage their cause. Israel has no quarrel with the Iranian people, just the dimwits that run the show.
It does bomb civlians and so long as the US vetos UN resolutions against Israel, their cause is protected.
After all, Mordecai Gur(Israeli politician and the 10th Chief of Staff of the IDF) told Ze’ev Shiff (Israeli journalist and military correspondent for Ha’aretz) that:
The Israeli army has always struck civilian populations, purposely and consciously. The army has never distinguished civilian from military targets, but has purposely attacked civilian targets.
Bullshit. Israel HAS wanted to bomb civilians, and it’s done just that. To claim anything else is, in essense, shoah denial (and it’s the government itself that uses that terminology to describe what they’re doing.)
What I thought was especially interesting about The Footnote was how it portrayed life in a security state. Every public space was guarded, bodyguards, watchmen, guard dogs, etc. – no one simply walks through a door. The first scene when the father tears off his wrist band and then has to submit to a humiliating interrogation by a young security officer was brilliant.
Justice Please: brains are needed for more efficient hunting and gathering, forming effective social hierarchies as well as for more effective sexual competition. Evaluation of news stories from media is a very recent challenge. I also read that before the advent of states, permanent state of low-grade warfare between hunting bands or agricultural villages was actually ecologically beneficial, maintaining buffer zones of unexploited territory that could shift over time when the core zones were depleted.
As the contemporary “hunting-gathering” tasks include buying gasoline, somehow the majority prefers to avoid the war, we see 44% of war supporters and 77% of those that may believe that a war could be useful.
A British columnist paraphrased a song which is famous in those parts “We don’t want to fight but by Jingo if we do. We’ve got the ships, we’ve got the men, we’ve got the money too. ” She wrote: “We’ve got the ships, we’ve got the men, but by Jingo, we do not have money”.
and now it’s revealed through the Anonymous/WikiLeaks release of the Stratfor emails that israeli commandos and Kurd agents already destroyed any potential Iranian nuclear weaponization sites back in the Fall of 2011 – so the lies being spewed now about this great threat to israel and the manipulation by them for war with Iran using US blood and treasure is exposed as all the more heinous and wicked
Israelis are flocking to see Separation. I’m going to see it today. I am already aware of the great cinema industry Iran has. It just goes to show that Iranians and Israelis are ultimately quite similar. It’s a shame the Iranian citizens are being held hostage by its oppressive regime.
Congratulations for the Iranians on receiving the Oscar, although “Footnote” is also a movie I’d recommend anyone to see. Footnote was the Israeli entry into the Oscars. :)
link to trailers.apple.com
It’s a bigger shame that Jews and Palestinians are being held hostage to Zionism.
Why is it a ‘bigger shame’ that Jews and Palestinians are being held hostage by Zionism Shingo?
Izik’s comment was reasonable and congratulatory to Iranians. Yours was completely uncalled for and seems to have no other point than to deflect attention away from Iran’s well known human rights abuses (that exist irrespective of Israel’s).
it’s just kinda funny to have a person who supports a state carrying on a decades old oppression/occupation/ethnic cleansing of one people, while pushing the superpower to bomb another people, feign remorse over a population it wants to bomb all the while implying the people it wants to bomb, are all oppressed by a regime. logic and evidence suggests they are way more supportive of that regime than they are of the idea of being neoconded into oblivion by a people feigning ‘concern’ on their behalf.
that’s all.
Where to begin?
1. Israel is not only killing more people, but poses a greater threat to world peace.
2. Israel is pushing for a dsasterous war with Iran based on false pretenses.
3. Israel’s leaders have managed to convince Israelis that Iran is full of people who want to anihilate them, which is false.
Need I go on?
Yes, and then came the off the cuff attack on Iran.
@Shingo: Taking your Shingoisms one by one:
1. The casualties in Syria in the past year (8000) have exceeded the total number of casualities from the I/P conflict (Israelis and Palestinians) since the year 2000 and yet there has been barely a whimper on MW about Syria.
2. Israel does not want a war that will destabilise the Middle East even more. Israel is desperate for sanctions and talks to succeed in avoiding any further conflagration.
3. It is completely false that Israelis believe that Iran is full of people who want to annihilate them. The Iranian leaders are the ones they are worried about.
1. The casualties in Syria in the past year (8000) have exceeded the total number of casualities from the I/P conflict
Where did you get the figure of 8,000 from?
. Israel does not want a war that will destabilise the Middle East even more.
False. A destabilized ME keeps Israel’s perceived enemies divided, which Israel loves.
False.
1. The Mossad agrees with the last 2 NIE’s, that Iran is NOT producing nukes. In other words, not only is the Israeli leadership lying about Iran, but the sanctions serve no purpose.
2. Israel is launching and supporting terrorist groups as they conduct terrorist attacks inside Iran.
Clearly Israel is desperate to start a war one way or another.
Based on the brain dead comments from Israelis about the film, you are wrong.
The 8000 Syrian casualty account figure is entirely consistent with the countless reports that have come out of the country and that have been issued by the UN and human rights NGOs. Iran’s role in the suppression shouldn’t need to be pointed out.
None of this matters though because you’ll just change the subject again. The ‘off the cuff attack on Iran’ was a mild criticism of a regime deserving far worse and you couldn’t even handle that. Face it Shingo, you only care about rights when they concern your enemies…which puts you on the same level as neocons.
The 8000 Syrian casualty account figure is entirely consistent with the countless reports that have come out of the country and that have been issued by the UN and human rights NGOs.
False.
The Nation ran a headline in January that 7,384 chi;dren had been killed, citing the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef).
link to nation.com.pk
The problem is that the Nation made up the number killed by adding the “as of January 7″ date times thousand and the number 384 the UN got from somewhere.
MSNBC reported the story about those children in Syria which at least got the number right which the UNICEF’s Rima Salah used:
At least 384 children have been killed and virtually the same number have been jailed, the United Nations Children’s Fund said. UNICEF spokeswoman Marixie Mercado told Reuters the figures were based on reports by human rights organizations which it judged to be credible.
The UN’s own human rights official Navi Pillay made up a number back in December. Navi Pillay was exaggerating numbers of people killed in skirmishes in Syria. At the same time she was calling for the U.N. Security Council to refer the situation to the International Criminal Court.
December 1: Syria now in a civil war with 4,000 dead: United Nations
Syria has entered a state of civil war with more than 4,000 people dead and an increasing number of soldiers defecting from the army to fight President Bashar Assad’s regime, the U.N.’s top human rights official said Thursday.
December 13: Syria crackdown has killed 5,000 people, UN says
The death toll from Syria’s crackdown on a 9-month-old uprising has exceeded 5,000 people, the top U.N. rights official said Monday, as Syrians closed their businesses and kept children home from school as part of a general strike to pressure President Bashar Assad to end the bloodshed.
So according to Pillay, in the eleven days between Thursday the 1st December and 12th December 1,000 people (over 90 per day), died in Syria through civil war like violence. Where did that UN official get her numbers from?
On December 6 the New York Times reported on 36 dead bodys, likely killed in sectarian violence, that were found in Homs. It did not report any any killing elsewhere but added:
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition group based in London, called it “one of the deadliest days since the start of the Syrian Revolution.”
That weird “Syrian Observatory for Human Rights”, which is clearly on the side of the opposition and certainly doesn’t downplay the numbers, calls 36 dead “one of the deadliest days”. But the UN comes up with a number that represents more than 90 per day killed on each of the last 11 days.
Navi Pillay has no credibility when they make up such false numbers.
Iran’s role has not even been proven.
In other words, you are all for war on Iran, based on lies no less. Got it.
Face it Mohr, you only care about rights when they provide an excuse to go to war with peoepl with brown faces.
To use your incredibly arrogant terminology:
False.
I’ve spoken out against war with Iran many times. I’m sure it makes you feel better though to deflect attention away from your own blatant support of the despotic Syrian regime. The sentence with ‘far worse’ was clearly referring to criticism and not war, but you don’t care so why bother.
About the Syrian casualties, your rather pathetic essay can easily be dismissed by the fact that there is a total media blackout in the country and ALL casualty data is impossible to confirm and therefore prone to imprecision.
It’d be refreshing to see a regular on this site break ranks and criticize this nonsense. If you don’t defend all rights you might as well defend none.
Where? You’re new to this forum aren’t you, or are you posting under a new name having been banned.
I’m sure it makes your argument easier to make such false accusations. I would live nothing better to see the Syrian regime and every other human rights abiding regime (including Israel’s) toppled. I just don’t support foreign intervention, especially one that had the support of Al Qaeda.
But hey, if you want align yourself with Al Qaeda, who am I to stop you?
LOL, you hasbrats are great for comic relief. First you argue that the casualties have been confirmed reports, the in the same breath you dismiss reports as unreliable.
As you demonstrate by example. Do you support Israel’s occupation, illegal settlements, refusal to allow refugees to return and home demolition?
I mean, you wouldn’t want to inconsistent now would you?
shingo, MOA is a good site for syria info. the comment sections too… link to moonofalabama.org
This article is full of lies or even worst half truth’s.
Nobody in Israel thinks that Iranians are backward, have horns
or ride on camels.
We are quite aware of their great culture history and economical, political, and scientific achievements.
That still does not mean that they (the regime) are not developing weapons of
mass destruction.Discriminating women and hanging gays by the neck from cranes.
The world is not black and white only “Activists” think it is.
Ah,the old women’s rights and gay angle,the hasbarites last quiver in their arsenal of idiocy and calumny.
Isolating, oppressing,and threatening them will never ever open their culture to the goals allegedly spewed by those who use these charges,as the oppressors could give two craps for the Iranian people,or else they wouldn’t advocate nuking and bombing them , as only their own misbegotten state matters to these paranoid wackos.
@dahoit: have you tried seeing a psychiatrist?
i know a number if them.
Are you offering to recommend one Mayhem? One of many you’ve seen?
The Israeli critics seem to be attributing to their compatriots a kind of refusal to recognise the humanity and normality of the Iranians. Mind you, I’m not too surprised if a political science teacher can’t get the politics out of his brain. I too, I must admit, sometimes look at works of art through my own political or religious prism. Blush.
Still, it’s to the credit of the Oscar people that, in all the circumstances, they voted for an Iranian film. And the reactions of the Israeli critics at least seem essentially generous.
I wish I was Jewish like Mayhem. Then I could be given free reign to insult other commentators like Mayhem.
Very disturbing statistics. Attacking Iran is a very bad idea, Iranians have a right to harness nuclear power just like other peoples.
One point not entirely well done in the article:
“Rivka Cohen, 78, who left Iran at age 15…”
That means she ‘left’ in 1948, so quite probably her family was expelled from Iran for being Jewish.
We don’t like it when people use the word ‘left’ to describe the Nakba, so we shouldn’t use it to describe the counter-expulsions either.