Mick Hartley

Before the Islamic revolution of 1979 Iran and Israel had friendly relations, as two non-Arab states in the Middle East. All this changed with the mullahs, as Israel became the Little Satan to America's Great Satan. Tehran now makes no secret of its determination to annihilate the Jewish state, and bombards its population with anti-Israel and antisemitic propaganda. Despite all that, writes Armin Navabi at Quillette, the Iranian people are coming more and more to see Israel as an ally against the regime of the mullahs, and against militant Islam:

Iranians have chanted “No to Gaza, no to Lebanon, my life for Iran” at funerals and have booed public figures for expressing anti-Israel sentiments. On 9 October, Iranian football supporters even told a regime official to “shove the Palestinian flag up your arse.”

This is not the first time that Iranians have expressed support for Israel. When the alleged head of Iran’s nuclear weapons development program, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was assassinated in 2020, possibly by the Israeli secret service, a sign reading “Thank you, Mossad” was affixed to a billboard in Tehran. A photo of the message subsequently went viral among Iranian dissidents. In the wake of 7 October, the dissidents have once again been active on social media, posting under the hashtag #IraniansStandWithIsrael and denouncing Hamas as the terrorist proxies of the Iranian regime.

And we've seen the Women, Life Freedom movement, arising from the killing of Mahsa Amini in September 2022.

The demonstrators’ demands went beyond the immediate repeal of the hijab law to encompass freedom of expression, the equality of the sexes, and an end to theocratic governance.

This indicates a societal shift, especially among the younger generation, many of whom are willing to risk being tortured or killed in their attempts to topple the regime. The values championed by these protesters resonate closely with the democratic and liberal principles prevalent among Israelis and rare elsewhere in the Middle East, principles that contrast starkly with the illiberal ideology and genocidal ambitions of the ruling mullahs.

Islamists embrace an ideology that exalts martyrdom, a perspective fundamentally at odds with many pre-Islamic Iranian cultural traditions. This contrast is particularly starkly evident when we compare Islamic festivals, such as Ashura, with festivals dating from Iran’s pre-Islamic Zoroastrian era, such as Nowruz (Persian New Year, celebrated on the first day of the northern hemisphere’s spring). Ashura is a festival of mourning, while Nowruz is a colourful and vibrant celebration of renewed life.,,,

The Islamic Republic is the strongest supporter of terrorism and theocracy in the Middle East, but the people of Iran are the strongest supporters of liberal values. The greatest problem we face in the region is to be found in Iran. But the solution to that problem is to be found there too.

You can’t defeat Hamas with tanks and missiles alone. You can only defeat them with a worldview that celebrates life. There is an entire country near Israel, full of people chanting in support of life. By strengthening their hand, we can eradicate this toxic ideology. The only viable path to lasting peace for Israel and Palestine is through an unwavering support for the Iranian people in their courageous struggle.