Iran: Are you paying attention?

This essay was originally posted on Sunday, October 21, 2012. This is a re-write.


There is an evil axis operating in the Middle East. It kills at will. Thousands die. Thousands more become homeless. Hundreds of thousands fear for their lives. Entire cities become rubble.

It is a vision of the future for the West, written in Syrian blood by an evil axis—and no one cares.

Of course that’s not true. Many care. Many follow Middle East news. They see injustice. They see brutality. They are not insensitive.  They understand lawlessness when they see it.

That’s why they identify Israel as lawless: she builds apartments in her capital city.

Lawless Jews build in Israel. An evil axis kills in Syria.

The West declares that Israel’s building is the major obstacle to Regional peace. Jews who build are challenged. An evil axis that kills is not.  An evil  plunges Syria into fiery hell; and to confront this, the West steps up to its moral high ground and accuses Israel of disturbing the peace.

Thank G-d for the West: how could there be peace without its voice?

There is no peace. There will be no peace—not when evil kills at will.

If you are not paying attention, the news stories you read next year could be about war, not peace. If the West continues to focus on Israel-as-evil, the real evil will continue to kill in Syria. It will not stop there.

There can be no peace when evil kills at will.

How many have been murdered and tortured in Syria during the last 19 months—tens of thousands. How many children have been tortured and killed? Does anyone know?

Does anyone care?

Israel-as-evil must be stopped. Have you heard? She builds apartments in her capital city!

Most agree that a nuclear Iran is a threat. But they seem also to agree that Israel is the greater threat. She seems a greater threat because the West believes that Iran only threatens Israel; but Israel threatens the world. How? The world—through the United Nations--dedicates itself to humanitarianism and world peace. They want a new world order.  So does the Catholic Church. So do Muslims

Are you paying attention?

Catholics, Muslims and the UN may not fully agree on how that new world order should look, but they all agree on this: Israel is their greatest threat. Haven’t you heard? Israel does not want peace. She is also the opposite of the humanitarian nation; indeed, she is apartheid itself. She is repulsive. She is, in other words, the embodiment of evil.  She has been condemned at the UN more often than all others nation in the world, combined. Such is the fate of an evil nation.

The world wants its peace. It obsesses over Israel. But Israel is irrelevant:  there will never be peace when evil kills at will.

Are you paying attention? Iran has been supporting Hizbullah in Lebanon and Bashar Assad in Syria. There are reports that elite Iranian troops protect Syrian President Assad—and participate in fighting against Syrian anti-government rebels. Syria under Assad is important to Iran because Iran needs Syria in order to transfer weapons westward to Hizbullah. Look at a map. If Hizbullah in Lebanon is an Iranian surrogate, you’ll see how a complaint Syria helps Iran.

Syrian opposition forces have complained that Hizbullah fires rockets at them from Lebanon. They have been quoted as complaining that these rockets are supposed to be used against Israel. But they are now been used against them. 

The rockets came from Iran.

Iran creates an evil axis with Hizbullah in Lebanon and Assad in Syria. Right now, the integrity of that evil axis is threatened by rebel forces fighting to overthrow Assad. That fighting is not just local politics; it is the bloody hand of  evil trying to survive a serious challenge from rebellious (Syrian) opposition against the pro-Iranian Assad. If Iran is to fulfil its dream of Regional domination, it needs partners. It needs a compliant Syria, a committed Hizbullah—and a willing Iraq. Iran meddles in all three. Look again at a map. View Iran, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq as a single entity under singular –Iranian-- influence.  Should Iran build such an axis, It could become a nuclear power with  fearsome influence and a vast geography, potentially as powerful in its Region as Russia once was in the North with its Iron Curtain ‘allies’.

There will be no peace with such an axis. It kills, unchallenged.

Events in Syria suggest that Iran will do anything to preserve its influence. Preserving that influence might be as important to Iran as its drive for nuclear weapons. With nuclear weapons and a powerful axis, Iran could threaten more than just Israel. If you’re not Muslim, she could threaten you.

There will be no peace. This evil kills at will.

Forget Israel. Your focus should be Iran.

Why aren’t you paying attention?