Reza Hossein Borr 04/01/2009

The Iranian Ayatollahs who see Shiism as the embodiment of Iranian nationalism are enjoying themselves quietly in their huge and well-secured palaces in Iran while the Arabs and Israelis kill each other.  They are enjoying their success in provoking both Palestinians and Israelis in a war which is providing the grounds for the Islamic Republic to become a major player in politics of region without being accountable or without being hurt. The regime considers both, enemies of Iran and Iranian Shiism and helps both to become the victims of their own hatred and anger.

The Iranian version of Shiism is a fundamental manifestation of Iranian nationalism whose roots are to be traced in Persian Imperial Empire.  There are two kinds of nationalists in Iran: Shiism based nationalism and racial, secular nationalism which is based on Arianism.  Both of them hate Jews, Moslems and Arabs.  The secular nationalists hate the Arabs because they destroyed their empire which they consider as the greatest civilization of all times.  Cyrus, the great and Darius, the great, represent this nationalism.  They claim that Cyrus, the great, introduced the first human rights charter in the world and Darius followed the same tradition. 

Shiism based nationalism represents Safavid Dynasty and claims to have secured and preserved independence of Iran from Arabs, Islam and the Ottoman Empire by reforming Islam and creating Shiism in its present form and structure.  Both have a kind of imperialistic ambitions for Iran to form a new superpower and reclaim its old political power and prestige. Although Shiism seems to be one sect of Islam, in fact, it is a mixture of Islam and ancient Iranian culture, civilization and religion.

The Iranian nationalists never forgot the breakdown of the Persian Empire by the Arabs by which the Persians controlled a large part of the world.  In the aftermath of the Arabs victory they say they became the slaves of their own slaves in the newly emerging Moslem power. They believe that the greatest empire of all times which had created the greatest civilization before Islam was broken down and was replaced by a new Islamic empire that also destroyed the other civilised empire of the West. They believe that the Islamic system produced a culture of violence that continues to hurt the Iranian people today.

The Shiism based nationalists and Ayatollahs hate the Sunis because they destroyed the Safavid dynasty that introduced the Shiism as a form of nationalism in a time that the Sunni Ottoman Empire occupied a large part of the Western countries and Iran.  The Safavid dynasty was destroyed by the Sunni Afghans after receiving a fatwa from the great religious leaders of Hijaz, a region in the present day Saudi Arabia.  They believe that if Safavid dynasty was not destroyed, by now, a large part of the Sunni countries would have become Shia.

Those who have some real Islamic beliefs obviously hated the Jewish people in the old traditional ways of Moslems.  The ordinary people, the public who are not aware of such historical facts are aroused by old Jewish-Arab rivalries.  The excessive reactions of Israel give them a good reason to use the massacre of innocent women and children as an excuse to incite the Arabs and Moslem public.  There is another group of Iranian nationalists who rejoice the present conflict.  These are the supporters of the last Shah of Iran who was dismissed from power in 1979.  They believe that Israel had a part in the overthrow of the Shah of Iran because Iran was acquiring its old power and prestige under his leadership in the world.  Israel did not trust a powerful and strong Iran who may be somehow under the influence of Iranian leftist groups or Iranian fanatic public which naturally side with the cause of the Palestinians.

Iranian intellectuals also cannot see that the countries in the region go ahead of Iran in terms of economic growth, industrialisation, democracy, political development and social welfare.  They have been boasting for decades to be superior to Arabs, Indians, Afghans and other neighbours.  Now that India is developing very fast and the Arabs of the Persian Gulf are using their oil incomes very wisely for economic and social development, they feel extremely embarrassed.  They never thought that one day any country in the region can become more prosperous than Iran.  They somehow want some conflicts which will destroy the achievements of the last 50 years of these countries.  This is the reason that the Iranian regime is helping in the destruction of both Afghanistan and Iraq.  They want to claim that Iran is more advanced than them, has a higher level of security and stability and grows economically faster than the rest.

The conflict in Gazza, as some Iranian officials announced, is the beginning of the conflict in the region between the Arab people and their governments.  The Arab masses are looking for a unified response to Israel.  The Arab governments obviously are not capable of giving any unified response except what they have already done which is condemnation of the massacre of the Palestinians by Israeli state.  The Arab governments are not in any opposition to attack Israel.  Hamas has not coordinated its plans with the Arab leaders.  They get their instructions from the Islamic Republic of Iran in the same way that the Hezbollah of Lebanon received their instructions from Iran.  There is no doubt that Hamas is acting on behalf of the Islamic regime.  It receives its training, logistic, financial support and moral encouragement from Iran.  The Arabs have already tried several wars with the Israelis and they lost.  They cannot afford another war and Iran is too far from Israel.  Iran knows that Israel cannot militarily attack Iran and gain some substantial victory.  It is using Hamas to fire rockets into Israeli soil so that Israel reacts strongly and strikes Gazza, in which innocent people have been killed and will be killed in future.

As the innocent people get killed more in Gazza, the Arab masses demand actions from their governments and since the governments are not capable of taking any action, the gap between them and masses will grow.  People like Hassan Nasrallah exploit such gaps and call for the public to go to the streets and challenge their governments.  Although he claimed that he did not want the Arab masses to overthrow their governments but his call for confrontation with the governments was taken so seriously that the Egyptian government considered it the announcement of war against Egypt.

The Iranian regime is bombarding the Arab masses through its various Arabic channels.  It shows the long queues in Iran that the young men are registering for suicide bombing missions and urging the government to facilitate their transport to Gazza.  More than 200 members of Iranian parliament also registered voluntarily to go to war against Israel.  A large number of provoked Iranians have organised a sit-in strike in side Iranian airports to go and fight in support of Palestinians.  Ayatollah Khamenei, the Iranian supreme leader, is provoking the public to organise demonstrations in front of Arab embassies to show support for the Palestinian people.  These are all propaganda.  There is no any sign of sincere support for the Palestinians.  While the government-planned- demonstrations continue in the support of Hamas, the Iranian public are concerned more about the aftermath of Gazza war. 

A lot of buildings have been seriously damaged.  A lot of people have been killed.  The destroyed buildings require reconstruction and the only country that will divert their money into Gazza, will be Iran.  The Iranian people are already suffering from severe poverty.  More than 40 percent of Iranian people live under poverty line.  According to official statistics of the governments, 76 percent of Sunni Baluch people live under poverty line in Iran.  Poverty is rampant in Iran.  They cannot afford to finance the reconstruction of Gazza and financial support for those whose family members have been killed.  This is the most important worry among the Iranian people.

The Iranian regime wants to offer certain political models for the Arab masses to follow in their countries.  The regime wants to give ideas to the Arabs that they must press their governments for sending them to war, arranging suicide bombings, and demonstrating in the streets, day and night until the demonstrations get out of hand and somehow the government of one of the Arab countries collapses and a new radical Moslem movement replaces it.  As far as the Arab governments are concerned, they have to allow certain demonstrations against Israel but they cannot allow demonstrations against their own systems.  Since the masses want the governments to take action and the governments cannot take action, the confrontation between the masses and the governments will become inevitable.  Either it will be suppressed in which case there will be a great hatred against the government or if it succeeds, a new fundamentalist government will emerge from the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis in Gazza. 

Any conflict between the Arab masses and Arab governments would be welcomed in Iran as the regime hates both of them equally.