Uniting against Iran - The Jewish Standard

The diplomatic dance with Iran may have changed direction this week as Russia lashed out at the Islamic regime for “fruitless and irresponsible rhetoric,” according to The Jerusalem Post.

We’re happy to hear Russia changing its tune toward Iran, which it has thus far aided in building a nuclear reactor while only mildly questioning Iran’s nuclear aspirations with the rest of the Western world.

The United States earlier this month adopted a series of sanctions against Iran, while the European Union and Canada followed suit this week. We applaud this seemingly renewed international will to pressure the Iranian government to forsake its nuclear ambitions. As Israeli analyst Ranaan Gissin told this paper earlier this year, the Iranian regime will change its behavior only if it feels the noose tightening.

Events on the ground in Iran may also soon head down a new path. Earlier this week the opposition’s leadership warned that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s regime may suffer the same fate as the shah, deposed in the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Iran analyst Lisa Daftari, a former Paramus resident who is also a contributor to Fox News, told The Jewish Standard that the Iranian opposition has been quiet in the face of minimal gains and harsh crackdowns. She warned against taking the opposition’s threat to heart.

“The opposition is not moving closer to overthrowing this regime, however, any talk of or threats of military attack on Iran will only help create unity and ultimately internal peace in an Iran that has been quite turbulent for over a year,” she said.

A military attack would not eliminate the regime, but it would eliminate the Iranian people as our ally against the regime, she said.

Rep. Scott Garrett (R-5) told the Standard this week that the United States failed last year to properly voice its moral support for the Iranian opposition. Daftari made a similar comment, adding that the West has not “made an issue of gross human rights violations. They have yet to impose sanctions that are actually crippling. The people of Iran are completely disenchanted with their government. Journalists are in prison. Unemployment is at an unbelievable high. Poverty is the norm. A military attack would be seen as a strike against the people and not against the regime.”

We want to be perfectly clear: We support the people of Iran in their struggle for a better life in Iran. We long for the days when Iran will once again be a trustworthy ally of the United States and Israel. And we would much rather see the Iranian people overthrow their oppressive government than see a military strike against them.

We hope that these latest sanctions and what may be a new boldness in the opposition represent the beginning of the end of the Iranian regime.

J.L.

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