WarSclerotic

In an outstanding interview with the BBC’s Persian service, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had his first direct conversation with the Iranian people.If during his recent visit to the UN Netanyahu launched a counterattack against the Iranian regime’s charm offensive, in his interview with BBC Persian he took aim at the very heart of the regime.

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One of his statements was so painful that former Iranian president’s Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani’s grandchild called it “a fireball in the Islamic Republic’s camp.”Fuad Hashemi criticized BBC Persian for giving Netanyahu a forum to speak openly with the Iranian people. He argued that “Iranian officials are not allowed to speak with Israeli people through official Israeli TV” – an opportunity they deny themselves, as they don’t acknowledge the existence of the Jewish state and have been trying to destroy it by any and all means.

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Rebuking BBC Persian, the junior prince of the Rafsanjani dynasty asserts that Netanyahu’s interview has greatly hurt the regime. He warns that “paying tribute” to Netanyahu will harm Great Britain’s interests in Iran.However, the fact that the Islamic Republic’s propaganda machine, its cyber army and its legion of lobbyists and apologists could not come up with any better response than to focus on Netanyahu’s point about jeans shows just how on-the-mark the prime minister’s well-chosen words were.Here is what Netanyahu said: “I think if the Iranian people had freedom, they would wear jeans, listen to Western music, and have free elections.”

In one sentence, he addressed two of the most important issues the Iranian people have been fighting for under the oppressive Islamist dictatorship which has occupied Iran since 1979: First, the battle over lifestyle and second, the battle over democracy and human rights.

True, the prime minister would have been better off if he had chosen the example of women being forced to wear veils, but anyone with a normal IQ understands what he meant by the comment about jeans: Iranians are not free to wear what they want, drink what they want, eat what they want, or listen to whatever music they want to listen to.

They have to do as the Islamic regime and Shari’a law order them, or face punishment, anytime, anywhere.

For three long decades the Islamist dictatorship has waged war on an ancient civilization, depriving it of individual choice.

FOR THE second battle, on the other hand, Netanyahu chose an excellent example: the demand for free and fair elections. President Hassan Rouhani was not freely elected. He was handpicked, along with seven others, by the Guardian Council and the supreme leader, in a process that disqualified Rafsanjani.

Also disqualified were hundreds of people who registered, thousands who did not bother to register because they knew they would be disqualified, ten of thousands who could not register as they had been murdered by the regime over the past 34 years and the hundreds of thousands who have fled the country due to the unbearable situation there.

Netanyahu praised Iran, the Iranian people and Cyrus the Great. He told the Iranian people about the long friendship between Persians and Jews, which stretched from ancient times until 34 years ago, and he told them it was his wish to renew such a friendship. This highlights once more that both Israeli society and its political leadership long for a partnership with a democratic Iran.

Netanyahu told the Iranian people they deserve a better government, a notion that apparently US President Barack Obama doesn’t subscribe to. He explained to them clearly why Israel cannot accept a nuclear-armed Islamic Republic and how this problem can be resolved peacefully.

He made it obvious, once again, that by keeping the military pressure up Israel seeks to gather support around the globe to bring this dictatorship to its knees economically and politically.

Without a doubt, Netanyahu’s interview was a successful PR move, and again without doubt, it could have been better.

Let’s hope this is only the beginning of Israel’s targeting of Iranian public opinion. The truth is that Islamic Republic is Israel’s greatest enemy and Israel should have done more in addressing Iran’s civil society. Israel’s efforts have been focused on the fight in the Western public opinion battlefield.

While the Western front is important, Israel needs to turn its head toward the east; after all, the point of all these efforts is to establish Israel in the Holy Land, in the heart of the Middle East.

The main public opinion battlefield is thus here in Middle East – that is, if Israel does not want to be surrendered by eternal enemies forever, it needs to make friends in the region, and to make friends it needs to launch a large-scale PR campaign.

Engaging more visibly the Iranian people, the most secular and democracy-loving society in the Middle East, is a step that the Jewish democratic state can only gain from – especially in light of absent American leadership. So well done, Mr. Prime Minister. But keep it up.

Saba Farzan is a German-Iranian journalist and director of political studies at the Institute for Middle Eastern Democracy.

Saeed Ghasseminejad is a political analyst and PhD candidate in finance at City University of New York.

The British Methodist Church, with the BDS movement, is distributing a questionnaire calling for a boycott of Israel.

This is a significant step against Israel. It extends their 2010 partial boycott of “settlement” products. Now they are hitting all of Israel.

This institution, professing love, truth and justice, now pursues hate and hypocrisy, while peace talks are being conducted between Israel and the Palestinian leadership. Strange timing.

If “occupation” is the issue, why aren’t they boycotting other countries practicing occupation? Turkey displaced 400,000 Cypriots and occupies Northern Cyprus, China occupies Tibet and Morocco occupies Western Sahara. Not a peep from the Methodists. It’s only Israel they beat up on, with the Palestinians as their poster child.

These BDS supporting Methodists have no concern for Israel’s security needs in protecting its people after decades of Palestinian terror against innocent Israeli civilians. They fail to appreciate the numerous failed peace gestures of successive Israeli governments, all rejected by Palestinian leaders. In short, Israel’s position is conspicuously absent in Methodist deliberations. It lacks even-handedness, fairness and is devoid of love, truth and balanced justice.

More puzzling is members of the Methodist branch of the Christian religion siding with an entity that hates and abuses Christians.

Bethlehem, perhaps the most holy place in Christendom, that when Israel was established the Christian population was in excess of 70%, under Jordanian and Palestinian control their population has fallen to 15%.

Christians have fled both the West Bank and Gaza. They are now less than 1.7% of the total Palestinian population. If you are a Palestinian Christian, you move to Israel. Just ask the Christian population of east Jerusalem if they prefer to be Israeli or Palestinian.

METHODIST READERS need answer one question: Who do you prefer as guardians of the Christian holy places in Jerusalem? Israel, or Hamas? With hand on heart, give yourself an honest answer.

But why is the Methodist Church going out of its way to boycott Israel while ignoring massive crimes against humanity, many of which involve the slaughter of fellow Christians? Why, in their eyes, is the Jewish State of Israel more evil than all others? Quite simply, it is because the Methodist Church is founded on “replacement theology” a traditional Christian ideology of anti-Judaism that has been replaced with a modern cloak of anti-Zionism. The BDS supporters would side with the devil, as they have in the past, to remove this perceived blot on the face of Christianity. As such, they share an agenda with Islamists, such as Palestinian Hamas (who they support) whose Charter still calls to kill Jews.

What is so distasteful about the British Methodist faction is that their hierarchy has been hijacked by a radical minority that constantly places anti-Israel resolutions on its agenda which are not supported by rank-and-file priests. There is a battle going on in the British church between those who bravely support Israel, and their leaders who oppose Israel.

Local pastors, who speak up for Israel, put themselves at risk.

By upsetting their leadership they could find themselves out of a job. That could also mean homelessness as they live in property owned by the church. Such is the threat they endure in their love and support for Israel.

One such Methodist priest is David Hallam, who in 2011, said, “What I object to is money being used to fund a political campaign against the Jewish state. This is both discriminatory and a misuse of a charity’s funds. I object to the one-sided and bigoted approach.”

On 12 October 2011, he reported on anti-Semitic views expressed by people attending a Methodist meeting in West London earlier that month.

THE OFFICIAL Methodist position has always been one-sided and anti-Israel. While constantly questioning Israeli policies, it makes no statements about Palestinian anti-Semitic ideologies and incitement promoting violence and terror against Israelis and denying Israel’s right to exist. On the contrary, it actively supports this agenda, based on their theological denial of land for Jews while actively supporting land for Arabs. It constantly calls disputed territories “Palestinian land.” Their actions and theology firmly indicate that they consider all of Israel Palestinian land, in line with the agenda of the BDS Movement.

The biased leaders of the Methodist Church know the BDS movement advocates the elimination of the Jewish State of Israel.

They are aware that Norman Finkelstein chastised the basic dishonesty of the BDS movement, calling them a “no-Israel cult.”

Like their BDS partners, the British Methodist Church is dishonest.

Instead of coming out publicly and saying that Israel shouldn’t exist, as they do theologically behind closed doors, they try to wrap themselves with a cloak of public opinion support for their consumer questionnaire.

They think they are being clever by implementing such tactics, but they are not talking about rights, they are talking about destroying Israel. Their claim to be agnostic about Israel is a lie, told because they know their support would dwindle if they were to openly say that according to their religious beliefs, Israel has no right to exist.

Israel demands to hear what they have to say about Israel’s legitimacy, and Israel’s rights. It is not accidental that the BDS movement, and now the Methodist Church, chokes at the mere mention of Israel’s rights.

The Methodist Church has failed to work for mutual peace and reconciliation in the Middle East. On the contrary, it has taken a strongly biased position against Israel.

The release of the Methodist Church questionnaire confirms their fatal drift into the arms of the BDS movement and, ultimately, into the radical claws of a Palestinian movement bent on eliminating Israel.

The author is the special consultant on delegitimization issues to The Strategic Dialogue Center at Netanya Academic College. He is the author of Israel Reclaiming the Narrative.

MOSCOW – International talks this week on Iran’s nuclear programme were “quite promising” and Tehran’s new proposals could produce progress toward ending the standoff between global powers and the Islamic state, Russia said on Thursday.

“I would not understate the importance of this round,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said of Iran’s talks in Geneva on Tuesday and Wednesday with Russia, the United States, China, Britain, France and Germany.

“In our view, although it was very tough, it was quite, quite promising,” Lukashevich said at a weekly briefing.

Iran’s new proposals “could move the negotiating process forward, and are evidence of the Iranian side’s intention to … resolve the issues that are of concern to the six powers,” he said. He gave no details of the proposals.

Lukashevich sounded more upbeat than Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, the Russian negotiator at the talks in Geneva, who said on Wednesday that the sides were far apart and there was no guarantee of further progress.

Russia, which built Iran’s first nuclear power plant and sells Iran weapons, has in the past been more positive than the West about Iran’s attitude toward the negotiations and less suspicious that it could be seeking nuclear weapons capability.

The United States on Wednesday described two days of nuclear negotiations with Iran as the most serious and candid to date after Western diplomats said Tehran hinted it was ready to scale back sensitive atomic activities to secure urgent sanctions relief.

In April 2012, Iran announced that it had uncovered a spy ring numbering 15 operatives working at the behest of Israel. Iranian authorities fingered the operatives as being responsible for the killings of nuclear scientists in recent years. Tehran had long suspected the Mossad as the mastermind of these operations. In announcing the arrests, Iran touted the apprehension of “Zionist spies” and the revelations regarding “Zionist” intelligence activity in a neighboring country.

The announcement, which didn’t garner much attention at the time, takes on added importance Thursday just hours after The Washington Post reported that Turkish intelligence revealed the identities of 10 Iranian spies working for Israel. According to the report, Iranian agents would meet with their Mossad handlers on Turkish soil.

This information was revealed by the newspaper’s senior foreign affairs analyst, David Ignatius, a journalist who is known to maintain extensive contacts with both the American and Israeli intelligence communities. If the report is accurate – and it is difficult to doubt the credibility of Ignatius’ sources – then we are talking about a very egregious – even unprecedented – act. In fact, this is the basest act of betrayal imaginable.

For over 50 years, Israel and Turkey were strategic allies. At the heart of this relationship were the extremely close ties between the Mossad and Military Intelligence on one hand, and the Turkish MIT and its military intelligence apparatus on the other hand. These ties were first established in 1958, and they were an integral part of the “Trident” partnership that also included Iran’s intelligence services during the reign of the Shah. It was only recently that Israeli intelligence chiefs permitted archived, previously classified material about the nature of this special relationship to be released for public consumption.

This strategic alliance is manifest in the bi-annual meetings between the heads of Mossad and MIT as well as intelligence analysts and experts on both sides. This relationship was also characterized by the frequent exchanges of information about common enemies and adversaries in the region, including Iraq, Syria, and post-Islamic Iran.

Even during the most tense periods in relations between the two countries, intelligence ties remained intact, even if they did cool somewhat. While intelligence work is often interest-driven, devoid of sentiment and cruel in nature, there are still unwritten rules of conduct that govern relationships.

If it is indeed guilty of blowing the cover off of the Israeli spy network, then Turkey blatantly violated these codes. Despite the deteriorating ties triggered by the violent Mavi Marmara incident of two years ago, Israel and Turkey have never been – and are not today – enemies.

According to foreign media reports, Turkey has long been a base of operations for Mossad agents operating against Iran. Nonetheless, it was only recently reported that an Iranian-Belgian businessman who was arrested in Israel on charges of being a spy for the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force had created straw companies in Turkey to serve as a cover.

One may assume that Turkish intelligence was monitoring both Israeli and Iranian espionage activity taking place on its soil. Despite the caution and the efforts taken to maintain total secrecy even from close allies, it is possible that Turkish intelligence agencies discovered the Mossad apparatus and its ties with the Iranian network.

It was assumed that despite the bumpy road and tensions in relations, interests would trump all other considerations and smooth relations between the intelligence agencies would continue. Earlier this year, there were reports that Mossad chief Tamir Pardo met with MIT director Hakan Fidan in Ankara. According to Ignatius, Israeli officials wryly view Fidan as “Iran’s station chief in Ankara.” Though this statement was made with tongue firmly planted in cheek, it was meant to convey the sense that Fidan is perceived as very close to Iran.

If the Israeli spy network was indeed unveiled, it was done so at the order of Fidan and with the full approval of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. His obsessive animus toward Israel and his anti-Semitic tendencies are known to all.

A Washington Post report that Ankara has deliberately blew the cover of an Israeli spy ring working inside Iran in early 2012 is an attempt to discredit Turkey by foreign powers uncomfortable with its growing influence in the Middle East, Turkish officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The Washington Post allegation angered officials in Ankara, already on the defensive after a Wall Street Journal article last week suggested Washington was concerned intelligence chief Hakan Fidan had shared sensitive information with Iran.

Washington Post columnist David Ignatius said Israel apparently used to run part of its Iranian spy network out of Turkey, giving Turkish secret services the opportunity to monitor their movements. The paper quoted US officials as saying Israel believed the Turks would never turn on the Jewish state after years of cooperation.

However, it said that in early 2012 Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan disclosed to Tehran the identities of 10 Iranians who had traveled to Turkey to meet Israeli spies.

A senior official from Erdogan’s ruling AK Party said such accusations were part of a deliberate attempt to discredit Turkey and undermine its role in the region following election of Iran’s relatively moderate president Hassan Rouhani.

“Turkey is a regional power and there are power centers which are uncomfortable with this … Stories like these are part of a campaign,” the official said, asking not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the subject.

“It’s clear the aim of some is to spoil the moderate political atmosphere after Rouhani’s election … and to neutralize Turkey, which contributes to solving problems in the region and which has a relationship with Iran.”

Iran has long accused Israel of spying on it soil and of killing several Iranian nuclear scientists – the last in January 2012. Israel and the West accuse Iran of looking to build an atomic bomb. Tehran denies this.

There was no immediate comment from Israel, but Israeli ministers have accused Erdogan of adopting an anti-Israeli stance in recent years to bolster his country’s standing in the Muslim world.

Once-strong relations between Turkey and Israel hit the rocks in 2010 after Israeli commandos killed nine Turkish activists seeking to break Israel’s long-standing naval blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Relations between the two US allies have been fraught ever since, with military cooperation frozen and mutual distrust scuppering attempts to restore ties, despite efforts by US President Barack Obama to broker a reconciliation.