With the much belated signing of the Iran nuclear deal and the anticipated prospects of its ratifications and implementations, western foreign policies spearheaded by the U.S. are undergoing a fundamental paradigm shift. As a result, its ramifications for the balance of power in the region will reverberate for decades to come. This is true for policies geared toward Southwest Asia where Iran-an ancient nation that for most its history ruled over the region currently comprised of thirty five countries–is centrally located. Exhaustive diplomatic negotiations and conflict resolution brinkmanship especially with our adversaries, before a superpower like the U.S. preemptively resorts to military provocations as it did in Iraq and Afghanistan, have now become the expected modus operandi. The dilemma of one group’s freedom fighters labeled as terrorists by another group continues unresolved; however, a multijurisdictional approach to integrating international laws, logic, rationale, facts, human rights, equality, etc., while achieving justice should bring about an equitable resolution to any conflict.
This unprecedented development of historic proportions has generated knee jerk reactions and much trepidation among conservative camps, war mongers and corporate and Israel lobbyists in the U.S. as well as in Israel, Saudi Arabia, and ISIS. There is even percolating resentment against the nuclear deal among Iran’s entrenched ultraconservative organs which have benefited immensely from exploiting sanctions-driven black market profiteering for years while they have repressed political dissent and justice under the disguise of confronting western capitalist imperialism headed by the “Great Satan.’ The sheer fact that the majority of the world’s governments, NGOs and inhabitants have in principle supported the nuclear deal is immaterial to those few opposing it as they are pouring tens of billions of dollars to sabotage the deal while hastily forming odd bedfellow alliances such as the one just announced between Israel and Saudi Arabia. After all, the religious or ideological radical right, be it Christian, Muslim, Jewish or otherwise, all walk along the same ultraconservative path of collusions and coercions to grab power and wealth through greed and by any means necessary.
Israel, which has received unequivocal support from the U.S. and its Arab and European allies since its inception nearly seventy years ago, has sensed the said U.S. policy shift and thus feels gravely vulnerable. With the U.S. now ranking number one worldwide in oil, gas and coal productions, the geo-strategic significance of the oil rich sheikdoms such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain and even historic Iran, is all dwindling. The Islamic Republic regime in Iran still remains repressive domestically with blatant violations of human, civil, and minority rights, due process and democratic reforms, and its wasteful practices of human, natural and financial resources. Its support of radical Shiite proxies in the region is also part of its cynical policies. That said, every single government, not only in the region but also those present from outside the region, has orchestrated insurgencies and mercenaries to help their own ulterior motives. In that context, Iran’s [mis-]conducts are dwarfed compared to much more radical forces such as the Taliban, Al-Qaeda and above all the so called ISIS/DAESH and their Sunni ideological and financial backers in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain. Gravely concerned for Iran’s emerging regional influence, and as odd bedfellows as they may seem on the surface, Israel and the Arab governments cited above, especially Saudi Arabia, have formed military and intelligence coalitions to battle the influence of the emerging more moderate Iran.
Anchored on its historical heritage and with continuous governments several millennia in the making, Iran has not attacked any neighbors for the past 250 years. In fact, Iran has been subjected to numerous attacks the latest of which was the eight year catastrophic war imposed by Iraq and supported by U.S.-Western powers. Iran can re-exert its regional stature when it fully abides by the terms of the nuclear deal and become a much more constructive nation through its domestic and international policies. This is predicated on its concerted efforts to ensure its sovereignty and security derived from the sovereigns, based on the rule of law and due process, civil society and socio-economic and political reforms, transparency and accountability,. And as much as any religion will periodically undergo reformations, reformation of its Shiite doctrine has been progressing in Iran for quite some time. A Sunni based reformation derived from the Wahhabi-Salafi-Shafei version of Saudi Arabia’s sharia laws, is close to impossible since Sunnism by its definition must exclusively abide with the pillars of the life and practices of Prophet Mohammad that included over 50 holy wars and juris Islamic prudence 1,400 years ago. Megalomaniacal self-righteousness and acting as if each country in the region including Israel or the U.S. are a super moral authority and arbiter have further exacerbated the impasse.
Although the concept of creating a green (Sunni) Islamic belt, that stretched across northern India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, and westbound into Turkey, was conceived by the U.S. in the 1960’s and nurtured ideologically and financially by its ally Saudi Arabia so as to prevent the Soviet Union from expanding its tentacles into the oil rich regions of the Persian Gulf, it backfired against western and American interests after the collapse of the U.S.S.R. in the early 90’s.
Moreover, the Jews are a diverse ancient Semitic people with a rich heritage and seminal contributions to humanity since antiquity. They were rooted in today’s southern Iraq for their first few millennia along with their Arab step-brethren. Their joint patriarch, Abraham, was born in Ur. The Jewish tribes later migrated into today’s territories east of the Mediterranean Sea 3,000 years ago. From there many moved voluntarily or by force to other regions of Asia, Europe, and to the U.S in the twentieth century. In fact, the Mizrahi Jews, 30,000 of whom still reside in Iran and up to 300,000 of whom reside in Israel and the U.S., are among the oldest Jewish communities;. The Jewish population of Iran at its zenith nearly 1,500 years ago was as high as a fourth of the population of the nation. The two Persian and Jewish cultures and norms of life are almost identical, although their psyches have with the passage of time, migrations and other historical predicaments, somewhat diverged.
Historically speaking, Jewish tribes and clusters remained somewhat isolated from the mainstream wherever they settled. They were subjected to a systematic degree of mistreatment and distrust as outsiders. Their sporadic soft ordeals in the so-called Arab and Islamic world, especially in the non-Arab Persia aka Iran, could never come remotely close to the harsh systematic persecutions elsewhere maximized by the Holocaust where a six million loss was inflicted against them by the central Europeans. In fact, the current population of 8.5 million in Israel is 75% Jewish, half of whom are first generation mostly European immigrants; the Palestinian Arabs constitute the balance. Upon closer examination of Israel’s Jewish demographics, one can easily discern the stratification along racial and socio economic lines. Whereas the Ashkenazi Jews of Austrio-Hungarian, Polish and Russian emigres are at the apex of power and wealth in Israel, the indigenous Sephardim and Mizrahi Jews of the immediate region, are treated as inferior, placed on the bottom of the food chain. The Ethiopian Jews are at the lowest abyss. The fact that nearly one million Palestinian Arab Muslims and Christians Israeli citizens as well as the nearly five million Palestinians living in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are under a harsh occupation seems irrelevant to mainstream Israel domestic policies. The shear fact that Israel has possessed up to 400 nuclear undeclared warheads and long range ballistic missiles in its disproportionately huge military stockpiles, ranking among the top ten worldwide, cannot be debated. And yet, Israel gives itself the inalienable moral authority to prescribe strong military actions against Iran, as it exactly did the same when it led the U.S. to futile wars of the past 20 years. Why not enforce a zero tolerance for any nuclear weapon development or possessions across the entire region?
The abused is more prone to become the abuser: it is as if the Jewish State has been inflicting a form of Holocaust on the Palestinian step-brethren for decades. Many Jewish scholars both in Israel and the U.S. are most fearful for a day when the U.S. and western unequivocal support is terminated and the Israelites are once again made vulnerable. They therefore believe now that Israel is still in the position of strength, it should justly resolve the Palestinians’ plight by facilitating the process of creating one sovereign progressive state of Palestine neighboring the secured prosperous Israel. Otherwise, if repeated efforts by the international community to help bring about peace by establishing two states of Israel and Palestine to live side by side securely and peacefully remain futile, the last inevitable solution to establish one secular united country to encompass both Israeli and Palestinian territories with a population of fifteen million where one person irrespective of race, ethnicity, religion, and creed has one vote, increasingly finds credence. In the worst possible scenarios of persecution or another Occido-centric holocaust, the nation of Iran would welcome the noble people of Jewry with wide open arms and a warm heart to live among them peacefully; yes, the Persians have rescued Jews numerously in history and will inextricably do so without any hesitation whatsoever.
