David Burchell in the Australian has written an excellent expose here on the deafening silence from the left regarding the Iranian student protesters.

Burchell’s article begins “It is surely one of the great paradoxes of this age that while many of our cleverest minds have fallen headlong in love with peoples whose causes are more or less entirely alien to us, we can find no stirring in our hearts for peoples whose greatest hope is to become . . . well, more like us.

“Thus we artlessly dispatched our hearts on a sentimental journey to Gaza designed for our benefit by the canny Islamists in Ankara and their bloodstained allies in Gaza; people who, in any other context, would treat our Western soft-heartedness and woolly-mindedness with undisguised contempt.”

“And yet our hearts have no space whatever for the thousands of young Iranian students who, on Saturday, defied the threats of their government, the beatings of the extra-legal militias, and the pusillanimity of their erstwhile leaders, merely to ask for the right to have their votes treated with dignity, rather than being fabricated out of some dodgy Russian software in Iran’s Ministry of the Interior.”

… Burchell calls it a “paradox”.  Instead it is very revealing of a state of moral bankruptcy that is dangerous for our Western traditions.

After much manoevering, it looks promising that sanctions against Iran will be agreed upon by the United Nations Security Council.  The Jerusalem Post follows the story, including the laudable refusal by the U.S. to be taken in by the last minute Iranian diversionary tactic with Turkey and Brazil. 

While it is dubious how much real effect the proposed sanctions will have, at least the resolution appears to have the support of the  major powers in the Security Council, and will leave open the opportunity for some countries to be more proactive against the Iran Revolutionary Guards.  After  more than 14 months from the Obama administration, this move, as reported in the Australian,  will hopefully not prove to be toothless. 

Meanwhile, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard has been flexing its muscles in its recent war games highlighting its potential ability to close the Strait of Hormuz.

The Interior Ministry announced that 1600 housing units will be established in Ramat Shlomo, a North Eastern Haredi suburb of Jerusalem between Ramot and French Hill, bordering Shuafat.  Even though Israel has made clear that the 10 month moratorium on building did not include Jerusalem, the announcement and its timing brought criticism from U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden, who is currently in the Middle East trying to energize the indirect talks planned between Israel and the Palestinian authority. 

While some political figures in Israel agreed that the timing of the announcement was regrettable, PM Netanyahu denied prior knowledge of the announcement,  and the building had been 3 years in the planning, and would take another 2 years for actuality.   Ramat Shlomo, established since 1995, is named after the reknowned Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach whose first major published work, Meorei Esh, interestingly was the first  written on the subject of using electricity on Shabbat.   Here is a map pointing out Ramat Shlomo’s location. 

Debka File has a different perspective, suggesting that the timing of the announcement was related to an Israeli disagreement and disappointment with the U.S. stance on Iran, in particular related to sanctions, footdragging on thwarting Iran’s move towards nuclear capability, and a potential Israeli military response.   

Timing

Thousands of Iranian students and others turned out on the streets of Teheran on Monday to protest against the government, as described here. (photo from AP file).  Ironically, December 7 is a traditional day for rallies marking the killing of three students during a 1953 anti-US protest.

The protests are occuring on the backdrop of increased pressure for sanctions on Iran.  The sanctions are strongly supported by Dr. Emanuele Ottolenghi  who spoke in Australia earlier this year.  However Ottolenghi also argues for a 2 track approach of both sanctions and support for Iranian opposition. As Ottolenghi points out in this excellent article,   

“If internal change can create a new, benign and regionally responsible Iran, how can the West ensure that Tehran’s “velvet revolution” clock ticks faster than its nuclear clock? While the West is continuing to engage the regime to solve the nuclear standoff, it should also talk over the ayatollahs’ heads and address the population.So far, however, this has not been the case. For European governments the promotion of human rights inside Iran was never an attractive proposition. Europe feared antagonising China and Russia, its partners in the P5+1 (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany). Loathing the regime-change rhetoric of the Bush administration, the EU believed that Tehran could be persuaded to be nice if only it could be assured that the West would not seek to subvert it. The Americans now appear to agree.

 Under the Obama administration, support for Iran’s opposition has been eroding steadily in Washington too. Europeans insist their agenda is not regime-change but behaviour change. The message to Tehran is: “As long as we are talking, we will not contemplate any other measure to achieve our goals.”

Ottolenghi writes “This is a blow to Iran’s beleaguered forces of change. Potentially, it is also a strategic blunder of tragic proportions.” 

In his brief article, ” Iran, Arsonist and Firefighter” Ottolenghi has a good perspectiveon Iranian and U.S. approaches to other conflict sites, such as Yemen.  Of the U.S. response, he writes “when an official statement reads like this: “It’s our view that there can be no long-term military solution to the conflict between the Yemeni government and the Houthi rebels,” it almost looks like it came out of the EU.  Never shall there be a military solution to a conflict! A bit like saying, “There shall be no medical solution to a disease” — let the microbes and the antibodies negotiate their way to a compromise through the good offices of the United Nations. Let them receive an envoy from the EU! But no conflict. Nope.”

George Friedman from the Stratfor Global Intelligence website has an-depth and worrying analysis of the Iran nuclear threat.

He states that there have been 2 coordinate leaks of information over the last weekend.

In the first, The New York Times published an article reporting that staff at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N. nuclear oversight group, had produced an unreleased report saying that Iran was much more advanced in its nuclear program than the IAEA had thought previously. According to the report, Iran now has all the data needed to design a nuclear weapon.   The second leak occurred in the British paper The Sunday Times, which reported that the purpose of  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s highly publicised secret visit to Moscow on Sept 7 was to provide the Russians with a list of Russian scientists and engineers working on Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

Putting the two pieces together, the presence of Russian personnel in Iran would mean that the Iranians had obtained the needed expertise from the Russians. It would also mean that the Russians were not merely a factor in whether there would be effective sanctions but also in whether and when the Iranians would obtain a nuclear weapon.

Friedman goes on to analyse what this all means from a global perspective, and concludes that the clock is ticking faster; with sanctions or military action appearing more likely than before these revelations.

To read the complete article, including analysis see here.

The story has been circulating for a while but the UK Telegraph discusses how his family name was previously Sabourjian – a Jewish name meaning cloth weaver (as shown on his passport).

The article continues that “Experts last night suggested Mr Ahmadinejad’s track record for hate-filled attacks on Jews could be an overcompensation to hide his past.  Ali Nourizadeh, of the Centre for Arab and Iranian Studies, said: “This aspect of Mr Ahmadinejad’s background explains a lot about him.  “Every family that converts into a different religion takes a new identity by condemning their old faith.

“By making anti-Israeli statements he is trying to shed any suspicions about his Jewish connections. He feels vulnerable in a radical Shia society.”

The blog Solomonia adds “So the Sabourjians changed their religion and their name under pressure to pass, and young “Mahmoud” has been overcompensating ever since. Amazing. He couldn’t just get a nose job and a little plastic surgery? .. The phenomenon of Jews denouncing other Jews and being their own worst critics (and I do mean worst) is a well known one, in history down to the present day — whether it’s those who profess to still identify with the faith, as with some members of Jewish Voice for Peace (most have long since substituted Marxism for their religion and simply live off genetics), those whose parents converted (as with Marx), or those who converted out themselves and now prove their bona fides by trashing their former co-religionists.  One thing’s for sure, this is just more proof that there’s something about those Jews — always prime movers on every side of world-historical events and movements. In fact, maybe that’s it! Ahmadinejad (nee Sabourjian) is just a ZIonist under deep cover, agitating for a war to bring about Iran’s ultimate defeat and the massive expansion of Greater Israel’s borders. Think about it, fever swampers.”

The revelation of course brings new meaning to the amusing video you may have seen a while back advertising US Birthright tours

During the height of the post-Iranian election protests, Iranian.com was an influential medium for getting out the message of the brave Iranian protesters.  Their thoughts remain very relevant, since a regime change orchestrated by the opposition remains an important hope.  

So what are they currently saying?  Iranian.com has a thoughtful article on why the Iranian regime should be prevented from “getting the bomb”.

The author states that the Iranian regime should not get its hands on a bomb, not because of Israel, not because of Europe, not because of Saudi Arabia and not because of the U.S.  It should not get its hands on a bomb because if it does, it will use it as another instrument of terror against the Iranian people. 

Mousavi, leader of the Iranian opposition movement states that the Iranian opposition shared international concerns about a nuclear-armed Iran.

A third sobering and distressing article is entitled “Is democracy a relic of the past”.   While Kevin Rudd has been swanning himself in triumph over the recent G20 meeting,  this article laments that “Liberal democracy has long since been pronounced dead by many, correctly or not. The reality in the post Soviet, post U.S. world entering BRIC (Br, In, China) and G-XX era is that there is little room for ideology or rights. Indeed if you look at the latest G-20 press release, it is a listing that has very little to do with ideology or rights issues. It stands out for its blandness, lack of creativity and any material substance for that matter. The only noticeable item is the one we did not need any G-20 show. That they will do their utmost (wink wink) to ensure global recovery is supported or continued.

The author adds that “This is good if you believe that economic well being of the masses (that essentially is about 1/2 the population of the Earth) should be the main objective. Regardless of the ‘moral’ implications of this approach, that is bad news if you are Iranian (inside Iran), Burmese (Myanmar), Iraqi and a few other countries and regions, albeit for different reasons. The world will no longer support you based on human rights or any other well defined non-economic consideration. Welcommmmmme… to the machine.” 

The article concludes “Alas, the Iranians will need to fight to the bitter end if we are to see a resemblance of normalcy in Khake Pake (Pure Earth) Iran as we don’t seem to have the Feng Shui and odds are stacked heavily against us. Do you hold hope for Democracy?” A reminder.

Professor Bernard Lewis gave a talk at the Dayan Centre earlier this year which provides an excellent overview of Iran, historically and current including the apocalyptic thoughts of its leaders.

According to defence news Iran’s sole AWACS (Airborne warning and control system) plane collided with an escort plane during a military parade designed to emphasise Iran’s military strength.  Eye witnesses reported that the flaming planes landed on the mausoleum burial site of the Islamic revolution’s founder Khomeini, a national shrine.   Can one read significance into that? 

Meanwhile allied to recent Iranian missile testing, the announcement of the previously undisclosed Iranian site for nuclear development is finally triggering some serious alarms, although Russia is urging restraint and Obama’s recent move to scrap missile defences in Europe does not inspire confidence.  The 3 D’s - dither, discussion and delay - a sad summary of the Western response to the Iranian threat.

At the UN Security Council, Obama did pass a resolution regarding Nuclear non-proliferation. Although there are some potentially positive implications, the moves put some pressure on Israel’s current position of “nuclear ambiguity”.

Can one hope that Hillary Clinton’s statements about the recent Iranian missile testing will actually mean something.

Although much of the world has moved onto the next crisis, the brave anti-Ahmadinejad protesters are keeping the flame alight. 

As this Chicago Tribune article states, 

Tens of thousands of opposition protesters swarmed the streets of Teheran and at least two other Iranian cities Friday, turning an annual rally in support of the Palestinian cause into the first major demonstration against the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in six weeks.

Ahmadinejad, whose disputed re-election three months ago triggered Iran’s worst domestic political crisis in decades, ignored the protesters, who confronted him with chants of “Liar! Liar!” minutes before he delivered a blistering condemnation of Israel at Tehran University in downtown Tehran.

The English Times online writes The Islamic Republic has seldom seen such scenes. President Ahmadinejad had to cut short an interview on state-controlled television because chants of “Ahmadi! Ahmadi! Resign! Resign!” could clearly be heard in the background.

Now aint that a shame - a pro-Palestinian rally turns into an anti-Ahmadinejad rally!  .. but no doubt the Palestinians didn’t mind their rally being hijacked for such an important cause.

And the focus has now switched to New York where Ahmadinejad’s visit will be met with much protest.

Indeed, in New York, Jewish activists are joining forces in an unprecedented alliance with nearly 50 non-Jewish groups including American Iranian protest groups against the Iranian regime. 

J-Street decided not to join in, no doubt commiserating with leftist groups still bewildered on how to approach Iran.

Now aint that a shame!