The New York Times today has a story with a scary headline: “Iran’s Supreme Leader Says Israel Won’t Exist in 25 Years.” The first sentence repeats the idea that Iran’s leaders don’t want “Israel” to be around much longer.
Iran’s supreme leader predicted Wednesday that Israel would not exist in 25 years, . . .
This sounds alarming unless you’re familiar with the way the mainstream press has twisted Iranian leaders’ statements in the past. So patience is required because in the third paragraph Ayatollah Khamenei makes clear that he means not “Israel” but the “Zionist regime.”
“After nuclear negotiations, the Zionist regime said that they will not be worried about Iran in the next 25 years,” Ayatollah Khamenei wrote. “I am telling you, first, you will not be around in 25 years’ time, and God willing, there will be no Zionist regime in 25 years. Second, during this period, the spirit of fighting, heroism and jihad will keep you worried every moment.”
The name “Israel” never appears in any quote in this story. Just “the Zionist regime.” I would make the same distinction, actually; I want “Iran” to be around for much more than 25 years but I want the ayatollahs’ “theocratic regime” to be ended as soon as possible by a democratic movement among its population.
And many of us here at Mondo also want the “Zionist regime” in Israel to be gone a lot sooner than 25 years — and replaced by a democratic state or states that respect human rights.
As to Mondo’s wishes, amen.
Timeline for Dissolution of Zionist Regime
2015 – Iran nuclear accord
2016 – anti-Zionist movement pressures political candidates on special relationship, thereby influencing November election
2017 – New President feels pressure from anti-Z’ers
2018 – BDS seriously impacts Israeli economy
2019 – exodus of Jewish-Israelis accelerates
2020 – Israeli government agrees to no pre-conditions peace conference with Palestinians
2021 – Dissolution of Zionist regime
Yup and yup. Both Israel and Iran should exist as secular and democratic states of and for all of their citizens, immigrants, expats and refugees, equally. Neither state should exist – or has a right to exist – as a religion-supremacist (or any other type of supremacist ) state.
Thank you, James North, for keeping a keen eye on, “the paper of record”. I can only wonder how many times, before internet news and commentary sites, I had been misled by its sloppy and/or dishonest writing.
what an utterly stupid piece of word play. Iran has never -since the first day Khomeini took power- ever recognized the existence of Israel. if the level of ignorance or fanaticism required to believe this load of crap is indicative of the far-left then it is easy to see why so many historians see europe (and its progressive left-wing poodles in the west) in complete decline.
next you can devote a whole thread to why when Iran screams “america is the great satan” and “death to America” they don’t really mean anything by it. author must truly believe (as only a true-beliver can) he’s so much more clever then anybody else . Very much like the idiots who claimedAnd then had the temerity to complain bitterly when the language shifted to encompass the more descriptive, “Jew-hater’.
Sure the Mullahs don’t mean Israel any harm, because there is no Israel to them. Just that damn Zionist entity. brilliant. count on the left to defend Iran the way the left blindly idolized Stalin and ignored all forms of truth and common sense in favor of ideology. People and movements don’t really change very much. Just ebb and flow like the tides.