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Iran's Real Leaders Remain Paranoid Over the West, Obsessed with Destroying Israel
(New York Times) Eran Lerman - The real Iran, the revolutionary Islamic Republic led by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and controlled by the hard core of the Revolutionary Guards, is a totalitarian state not much impressed by the outward trapping of a "democratic" election. The real Iranian regime is almost paranoid in its assumption of innate hostility by the West; and at the same time, almost obsessed with destroying Israel. Perhaps it is how they validate a revolution that has failed the Iranian people in every other respect and how they make the people forget the bitter memory of defeat in the war with Iraq. They have made an immense investment in long-range missiles (and now even ICBMs), which makes absolutely no sense if all they would deliver are conventional explosives. And they have made an equally immense effort to arm, train and finance several terror organizations: Hizbullah, now in effective possession of Lebanon; Hamas, in possession of Gaza, which they have been arming for years; and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Col. (res.) Dr. Eran Lerman is a former deputy national security adviser for foreign policy at Israel's National Security Council.