For the last three days while the mainstream news media in the U.S. and Europe have largely ignored the massive protests throughout dozens of cities in Iran against the repressive radical Islamic regime in Iran, many of us journalists and activists of Iranian background outside of the country have been closely monitoring video footage posted by our compatriots on social media sites. While foolish pundits and apologists for the Iran regime living in the U.S. as well as former Obama administration officials claim the protests are motivated by economic problems, they have failed to see the bigger picture in the Iranian civil unrest. No doubt the poor economic situation is an aspect for the civil unrest in Iran, but more importantly the vast populations of the country are tired of the repressive nature of the Iranian regime and want regime change. Their own chants during these latest protests speak volumes about their motivations and the failure of the Iranian regime to indoctrinate them with hate for Israel and America.
The protestors in nearly every single Iranian city have been marching and shouting their own slogans; “Death to Khamenei!”, “Death to the dictator!”, “Death to the thief!”, “Death to IRGC!”, “Not Gaza, Not Lebanon, We Will Give Our Lives to Iran!”. Other protestors called on the Iranian regime to leave the armed conflict in Syria and to focus on domestic problems when shouting slogans such as: “Leave Syria, think of us!” and for the Iranian supreme leader to “take notice of us and step down from power”. Posters of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei were also burned or torn down by protestors throughout countless cities in Iran as a clear sign that he is their true enemy and not Israel or America.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSHt3_gwFI4&feature=share
(Protestors in Iran burning the supreme leader’s poster).
After 39 years of spewing anti-Israel slogans to nearly two generations of their population through the educational system, through media outlets, in public events and even through vile Holocaust denial cartoon competitions in Iran, the protests in the country during the past few days have turned on the ayatollahs who have been feeding the Iranian public this message of hate. No doubt there may be many who believe the disturbing anti-Semitic and anti-Israel messages of the Iranian regime. But it seems as if the younger generation of Iranians who make up majority of the protestors, have rejected the message of hate for the ayatollahs. The protestors have had it with the oppressive nature of the regime that prohibits their free speech, their freedom to express themselves and a chance for having better lives. They are fed up with the ayatollahs spending billions of dollars of the nation’s oil revenues in funding terrorist groups like Hezbollah and Hamas or spending their treasure to prop up the failed regime of Assad in Syria. These protestors are fed up with being ruled by an evil dictatorship headed by Khamenei who has repeatedly failed to address their grievances but instead use Israel and America as a scapegoat for the regime’s failures to improve people’s lives. Well it seems as if the majority of Iranians are now speaking loud and clear that their real enemies are Khamenei, the terrorist group Hezbollah, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, the Basiji militia forces and the other radical Islamic clerics that have made their lives utterly unbearable in Iran.
Despite the constant bombardment and media manipulation of messages against Israel and America, the ayatollahs and their cohorts have failed miserably in directing the people of Iran and the youth of Iran against both nations. Instead the people of Iran’s anger and hatred has reached a boiling point and now been correctly directed towards the ayatollahs and their demonic regime that have made their lives a living hell for nearly four decades. What gives one hope is that the new generation of Iranians protesting in the streets today is perhaps a tolerant people who only seek better lives for themselves and not the annihilation of any other people.
(Student protestors at the University of Tehran on December 30, 2017 protesting the Iranian regime).
The Iranian ayatollahs’ greatest fear has been the people of Iran one day rising up against them and the regime that has done everything from executing, imprisoning and torturing voices of opposition in the country to censoring all freedom of expression in Iran. In my humble opinion the Ayatollahs’ nightmares are now slowly becoming a reality because the people of Iran protesting in the streets during the last three days have told the world through actions that their true oppressors are those heading the Iranian regime and not Israel nor America. Time will tell how long the protests will continue and if they are fruitful in ultimately removing this evil Islamic regime. What we do know is that this regime has lost whatever limited credibility it had with the majority of Iran’s population and its days of retaining power in Iran are rapidly coming to an end.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrTVE1kwrzc&feature=share
(Video footage of protestors in Iran tearing down the Supreme Leader’s poster).
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.