Why are Iranians so concerned about Israel?
My reckoning is that this whole anti-Zionist/anti-Israeli rhetoric we are seeing is a new form of anti-Semitism and nothing more

June 28, 2007
iranian.com

There is so much talk about Zionists and Zionism in the Iranian blog-sphere nowadays. Even doing a Google search on Iranian.com itself (the website, not the whole Internet) gives 265 results for "Zionist" and just 280 results for Islamist (Iranians write about Zionists almost equal to what they write about Islamists). What??? Why are Iranians so much concerned about Zionism and the Zionists?

I am no supporter of Zionism but from what I have seen those Iranians who shout so much against the Zionists are not people who are appalled by the activities of the Israeli government against the Palestinians, but somehow paranoid that Israelis (Zionists, Jews, whatever) are plotting against Iran!

I was also until very recently a target of this Zion-paranoia (the Iranian regime has actually created a new version of anti-Semitism that has caught on even among the anti-IRI Iranians, and it is called anti-Zionism) who called me a Jewish/Israeli agent/plotter. They stopped (I hope) when I stated clearly that I was Azeri/Turk, and then I was called different names (Torke Khar says anything?).

The bizarre thing is that there is no evidence whatsoever about Israelis plotting against Iran. There has never been any serious anti-Iranian action taken by Israel, and it was the Iranian Islamic government that was, and is, fundamentally and ideologically against Israel, and its existence, doing so much to destabilise Israel and the region. This is a whole different issue though.

Imagine having a huge and powerful country with a large population and a lot of resources having you (Israel in this case) within its range of fire-power, developing sophisticated nuclear technology, openly expressing its desire to wipe you off the map! What would you say? Can we blame Israel for being scared to hell? Of course any Israeli should be fearful, and I am sure they are, whether they are normal citizens or high-ranking politicians.

But what is so unclear is why so many Iranians are now turning anti-Israeli and blaming so much on the Zionists, Israelis, Jews etc. I would agree on blaming America for those American actions, or even intentions, that it has taken or threatens to take, but what about Israel? Why are Iranians so concerned about Israel? Israel is a small country and receives too much attention from Iranians.

My reckoning is that this whole anti-Zionist/anti-Israeli rhetoric we are seeing is a new form of anti-Semitism and nothing more. We just need to stop blaming others. Iranians have done this for too long, and they are continuing to do so. Obviously all the problems Iranians (especially Persians) have had are either because of the invading Arabs, or possibly Turks, the British exploiters up until about 60-70 years ago, or more recently America and the Jews.

Just only if Persians/Iranians were alone in this universe! Just imagine! The world would have been such a beautiful place. The whole government budget would be given to research about genetics to find out who is more Aryan and who is not, and who is linguistically Aryan and who was, and everybody would be so happy and joyful under the leadership of some Shahanshah Aryamehr, whether Mohammad, whether Reza, or maybe even some Darius or Cyrus. Comment