(Institute for Contemporary Affairs-Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Lt.-Col. (ret.) Michael Segall - Each year since the 1979 revolution, the Iranian regime marks international Jerusalem (Quds) Day on the last Friday of the month of Ramadan. As in previous years, the Iranian leadership called for the destruction of Israel and of "world Zionism," as demonstrating masses shouted: "Death to America" and "Death to Israel" during rallies and addresses by the leadership. For Shia Iran, the struggle against Israel and its Western allies is almost its sole common denominator with most of the Sunni Arab domain. Now, with the rise of Islamist regimes - especially in Egypt, which Iran views as having broken the taboo on peace accommodations with Israel - Iran is making enhanced use of the Palestinian issue and denial of Israel's right to exist, in order to win the hearts and minds of Muslims across the Middle East and beyond. From Iran's standpoint, the Arab Spring - or Islamic Awakening as Iran terms it - has revalidated Ayatollah Khomeini's vision, and Iran feels great confidence in the righteousness of its approach, which it sees as part of a broader historical course of divine intervention. The gathering of more than 100 non-aligned nations in Tehran this week together with the participation of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the newly elected Egyptian president - despite U.S. efforts to prevent it - further strengthens Iran's belief in the triumph of its alternative Islamic revolutionary vision of the new world order. The current leaders of Iran also associate Khomeini's vision with repeated successes in the national and regional arenas: the nuclear program that keeps advancing despite the West's and Israel's efforts to stymie it, the toppling of Saddam Hussein and the Taliban, Hizbullah's "victory" against Israel in the Second Lebanon War, the Palestinians' firm stance in the subsequent Gaza War, and the Islamic Awakening, which Iran appropriates to itself. It is believed that, like the fulfillment of Khomeini's prophecies about the collapse of the Soviet Union and the fall of Saddam, his prophecy of Israel's destruction will also be realized and the mission is in Iran's hands. The Iranian leadership's virulent anti-Israel and anti-Zionist rhetoric, much in evidence before and during Jerusalem Day on Aug. 17, in fact recycles the original slogans of Khomeini's revolution, recalibrated to the Islamic mood now prevalent in the Middle East. In this context, Iranian spokesmen claim that the Syrian crisis is not part of the Islamic Awakening but an attempt by the West to strike at one of the main strongholds of the anti-Israel and anti-U.S. struggle. The writer, an expert on strategic issues with a focus on Iran, terrorism, and the Middle East, is a senior analyst at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and the Terrogence company.
2012-08-28 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive