With the September 17 deadline approaching for the US Congress to decide whether to approve the Iran nuclear agreement, it is useful to examine six key facts.
In July, after almost two years on nearly continuous negotiations, the EU3+3 and Iran reached an agreement as to how best to deal with Iran’s nuclear program and international concerns that Iran was pursuing a nuclear weapon. Since that agreement, politicians and pundits, particularly in Israel and the U.S., have bisected and trisected the terms in an effort to make a case either for or against the agreement. In the debate over the merits, facts have been a scarce commodity. As the U.S. Congress approaches the September 17 deadline to either approve or disapprove the agreement, it would be useful to examine the realities surrounding Iran and its nuclear program.
1. Iran is not ruled by a bunch of mad mullahs
Following the 1979 revolution that overthrew Shah Reza Pahlavi’s oppressive regime, Iran established an Islamic republic in which Islamic principles play an important role. The constitution vests ultimate power in the Supreme Leader, who is indirectly elected for life through the Assembly of Experts. In practice, the Supreme Leader tends to remain above the “hurley burley” of day-to-day politics. Although he is the ultimate decision maker in national security affairs, he rarely overturns decisions of the Supreme National Security Council. In many ways, the Iranian governmental structure is similar to that of the United States with separation of powers and checks and balances, thus making it difficult to understand the decision-making process.
2. In general, minorities are not persecuted or oppressed
Shia Islam of the “Twelver” variety (the three branches of Shia Islam are Twelver; Zaidi, or “Fiver”; and Ismaili, or “Sevener”) makes up the overwhelming faith of Iranians. Christians, Jews, Sunni Muslims, and Zoroastrians are recognized and are guaranteed representation in Parliament. Adherents to the Baha’i faith, which was actually founded in Iran, are considered heretics and are persecuted. While there remain limits on jobs that can be held, most adherents to the recognized faiths, particularly Jews, are comfortably ensconced in the middle class.
3. The Islamic Republic is probably the most secular Muslim country in the Middle East
Iran’s large, young, western-oriented population tends to push the envelope of governmental restrictions on personal behavior. Despite being officially banned, alcoholic beverages are readily available. Friends have said to me “under the Shah we used to pray at home and go out to drink; now we drink at home and go out to pray.” Current President Hassan Rouhani has taken steps to reduce interference in the daily lives if citizen, instructing the morality police to “lighten up.”
4. Women play an important role in the highly educated, young workforce
One of important reforms of the revolution was to extend education to the rural areas and, by separating the sexes, to encourage fathers to allow their daughters to attend school. While it’s true that a glass ceiling remains, women now make up 60 percent of the college students and 60 percent of the workforce.
5. Iranian policy does not call for the destruction of Israel
Since the 1990s, Iranian policy, with respect to the Israel/Palestine situation, declares that Iran would abide by the will of the Palestinian people and their leaders as reflected in an open referendum. The statement, often repeated by Israeli and Western media, that Iran wants to “wipe Israel off the face of the earth” is a politically motivated mistranslation of a comment by Ayatollah Khomeini that Israel’s policies would result in the disappearance of the Jewish State from the pages of history. Given that Israel’s policies over the past two decades have resulted in a situation where non-Jews will soon outnumber Jews, Khomeini may have been prescient.
6. If Iran lives up to its commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), what the U.S. Congress does is irrelevant
The JCPOA, signed by the EU3+3 and Iran in Vienna on July 14, 2015, envisions a peaceful Iranian nuclear program, stringent restrictions on any path to a nuclear weapon, and removal of nuclear-related sanctions. On July 20 the UN Security Council unanimously endorsed the JCPOA. With the lone exception of Israel, every other nation has expressed support for the JCPOA. As Hooman Majd pointed out in a recent New York Times op-ed, “The deal isn’t about the United States anymore. If Iran abides by it (even as America rejects it) the rest of the world will too, and the United States will have killed not the deal but its own credibility, the tremendous goodwill it has in Iran, and even its own economic interests. And Iran, the Iranians know, will abide by the treaty, make do in a world without America, and will re-elect, in 2017, the president who brought them the promise of a better life.” This train has left the station.
Very disappointing attempt to convey how “moderate” Iran is. Chants of “death to America” and “Death to Israel” are all in fun. The ayatollah laid it out in his recent book “Palestine”. It reads like “Mein Kampf”. The leadership, “moderate” as they are, will cheat and lie and this “deal” is fertile ground. There’s no second chance in condoning nuclear weapons for Iran.
The truest words in Judaism………
“To communicate anything with a Goy about our relations would be equal to the killing of all Jews, for if the Goyim knew what we teach about them, they would kill us openly.
Found in both the Torah and the Talmud on Jewish Virtual Library site.
The Zionist cult and its Rothschild/Bilderberg masters are going to choke on what they hate and fear most……..THE TRUTH.
“The Jewish people as a whole will become its own Messiah. It will attain world domination by the dissolution of other races, by the abolition of frontiers, the annihilation of monarchy and by
the establishment of a world republic in which the Jews will everywhere exercise the privilege of citizenship.
In this New World Order, the children of Israel will furnish all the leaders without encountering opposition. The Governments of the different peoples forming the world republic will fall without
difficulty into the hands of the Jews. It will then be possible for the Jewish rulers to abolish private property and everywhere to make use of the resources of the state.
Thus will the promise of the Talmud be fulfilled, in which it is said that when the Messianic time is come, the Jews will have all the property of the whole world in their hands.”
–Baruch Levy, Letter to Karl Marx (written – 1879), printed in La Revue de Paris, p. 574, June 1, 1928
“Our race is the Master Race. We Jews are divine gods on this planet. We are as different from the inferior races as they are from insects. In fact, compared to our race, other races are
beasts and animals, cattle at best. Other races are considered as human excrement. Our destiny is to rule over the inferior races. Our earthly kingdom will be ruled by our leader with a rod of iron. The masses will lick our feet and serve us as our slaves.” –
–Speech byIsraeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to the Knesset, –Reported by Amnon Kapeliouk, a Jewish-Israeli journalist in New Statesman Magazine, June 25, 1982 by Amnon
Kapeliouk. (Kapeliouk was a highly respected Israeli journalist. New Statesman is the British equivalent of Foreign Affairs Magazine).
Ovadia Yosef, late Chief Rabbi of Israel and “spiritual” leader/advisor to various Israeli Prime Ministers, including Netanyahu (2001 & repeated in 2010, both “sermons” are on YouTube):
“Goyim were born only to serve us. Without that, they have no place in the world – only to serve the People of Israel.“
I almost puked when I read the part about the Bahais. “Bahais are considered heretics and are persecuted, but other religions are allowed.” So Iran is liberal. What disgusting whitewashing. Hundreds of Bahais were executed by the Islamic Republic and over 100 Bahai leaders are still in prison for the simple crime of being Bahais. The 300,000 Iranian Bahais are denied government jobs, their children are excluded from the Iranian university system, their marriages aren’t recognized, and their cemeteries and holy places are routinely desecrated while the government regularly uses official media to incite hatred of them. What a liberal place.
And on the subject of Iranian tolerance, the number of the much vaulted “Iranian Jews” has dropped to less than 9,000, less than 1/2 of a percent of the population. Meanwhile, over 250,000 Iranian Jews live in Israel. There’s obviously a reason why.
And third, Iran is not a democracy. It is ruled by the Council of Guardians, several unelected Mullahs. The president and all elected leaders are subservient to them.
Did this guy get paid to write this drivel?
Tens of thousands of Muslims and Christians were slaughtered by the Jewish regime over the last 80 years and millions made refugees. No other Middle Eastern country, except the rich Gulf allies of Israel can match Israel’s barbarity and war crimes……………..
Jews Blow Up and Kill Palestinian Boy By Force-Feeding Him Gasoline
http://nodisinfo.com/rabid-zionist-jews-burnt-palestinian-youth-alive/
This decorative beast is the JEWISH state’s “Justice” Minister………
https://theuglytruth.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/img_34037169524460.jpeg
“Concentrate” and “exterminate”: Israel parliament deputy speaker’s Gaza
genocide plan
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/concentrate-and-exterminate-israel-parliament-deputy-speakers-gaza-genocide-plan
Leading Rabbi Encourages IDF Soldiers to Use Palestinian Human Shields
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/leading-rabbi-encourages-idf-soldiers-to-use-palestinian-human-shields-1.320311
UN: Palestinian Children Tortured, Used as Human Shields by Israel
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.530993
Israeli soldiers who used Palestinian boy, 9, as a human shield avoid jail
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/nov/21/israeli-soldiers-human-shield-avoid-jail
IDF T-Shirts Boast of Killing Babies, Pregnant Women, Sodomizing Hamas Leaders
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2009/03/20/idf-t-shirts-boast-of-killing-babies-pregnant-women-sodomizing-hamas-leaders/
Take No Prisoners – The Fatal Shooting of Palestinians by Israeli Security Forces
during “Arrest Operations”
http://www.btselem.org/download/200505_take_no_prisoners_eng.pdf
Human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories
http://www.globalresearch.ca/un-report-on-palestine-military-occupation-apartheid-torture-israeli-violations-are-deliberate-organised-and-institutionalised/5372212
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/nov/21/israeli-soldiers-human-shield-avoid-jail
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2009/03/20/idf-t-shirts-boast-of-killing-babies-pregnant-women-sodomizing-hamas-leaders/
http://www.btselem.org/download/200505_take_no_prisoners_eng.pdf
Sorry, I don’t read trash propaganda. And the fact that you’re defending Iran’s oppression of Baha’is by saying ‘Israel is worse’ makes me question your intelligence. And the funny thing is, I don’t recall ever mentioning Israel in my post.
And if you actually did research instead of sqwak and moan, you’d realize that the most commonly accepted death toll of the ENTIRE Israel/Palestinian conflict is less than 15,000, including deaths on both sides and fights between Palestinian factions. Not only that, both the population of the West Bank/Gaza Strip and that of the Arabs in Israel have grown exponentially since 1964. So no, there is no genocide and Israel is not ‘slaughtering tens of thousands.’
I don’t post for the benefit of Jewish hasbara shills. I post to disprove the lies spewing from the disease of Judaism and its minions like “Tommyboy”.
The Jewish diseases of the Rothschild/Bilderberg cartel of limitless greed and megalomania and Zionism are destroying our GENTILE world. Jews are 14 million out of more than SEVEN BILLION. Yet, these creatures have the delusion that they are some sort of “chosen” superior race. They don’t comprehend that their delusion and sociopathy make the sub-human animals.
https://truthaholics.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/sharon1.jpg
https://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php?topic=35866.0
https://www.facebook.com/World.Anonymous.Legion/photos/a.154094641449230.1073741841.129819337210094/273072622884764/?type=1&theater
http://www.countercurrents.org/isaraelterrorism.jpg
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/aug/18/wikipedia-editing-zionist-groups
http://www.thenation.com/article/israel-cranks-pr-machine/
http://www.sott.net/signs/hasbara.pdf
If you think that anyone actually reads you’re ridiculous hate-filled rants, then you’re even stupider than I thought. And you seem to have the intelligence of a rock, so that’s pretty hard to believe.
Hasbara, many people read my posts. On HuffPo, I have over 23,000 likes. So, you and your ZioFascist co-workers are the losers.
The truest words in Judaism………
“To communicate anything with a Goy about our relations would be equal to the killing of all Jews, for if the Goyim knew what we teach about them, they would kill us openly.
Found in both the Torah and the Talmud on Jewish Virtual Library site.
The Zionist cult and its Rothschild/Bilderberg masters are going to choke on what they hate and fear most……..THE TRUTH.
Jews Blow Up and Kill Palestinian Boy By Force-Feeding Him Gasoline
http://nodisinfo.com/rabid-zionist-jews-burnt-palestinian-youth-alive/
This decorative beast is the JEWISH state’s “Justice” Minister………
https://theuglytruth.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/img_34037169524460.jpeg
“Concentrate” and “exterminate”: Israel parliament deputy speaker’s Gaza
genocide plan
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/concentrate-and-exterminate-israel-parliament-deputy-speakers-gaza-genocide-plan
Leading Rabbi Encourages IDF Soldiers to Use Palestinian Human Shields
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/leading-rabbi-encourages-idf-soldiers-to-use-palestinian-human-shields-1.320311
UN: Palestinian Children Tortured, Used as Human Shields by Israel
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.530993
Israeli soldiers who used Palestinian boy, 9, as a human shield avoid jail
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/nov/21/israeli-soldiers-human-shield-avoid-jail
IDF T-Shirts Boast of Killing Babies, Pregnant Women, Sodomizing Hamas Leaders
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2009/03/20/idf-t-shirts-boast-of-killing-babies-pregnant-women-sodomizing-hamas-leaders/
Take No Prisoners – The Fatal Shooting of Palestinians by Israeli Security Forces during “Arrest Operations”
http://www.btselem.org/download/200505_take_no_prisoners_eng.pdf
Human rights situation in Palestine and other Jewish occupied Arab territories
http://www.globalresearch.ca/un-report-on-palestine-military-occupation-apartheid-torture-israeli-violations-are-deliberate-organised-and-institutionalised/5372212
One thing they release all prisoner
Two not a dollar until they satisfy the deal
But then again us politicians are prostitutes
And democrats and repubs alike love money
So any deal is better for another Jimmy Carter
Type legacy for Obama
Let Iran have weapons this way the saudi will have diarrhea .The Saudi helped todestroy Iraq and Syria
so now its time for them to go
As I see the Saudis getting their assets kicked
In Yemen by a ragtag army I see Iran marching into
Mecca to free the Arabs
Were you aware that you sound like Pam Geller, the Jewish hate-monger?
Did I /
I thought more like Arafat
The billionaire gay lesdet
Somehow the Zionists never managed to show any evidence that Arafat was anything but a good leader.
I don’t worry Israel will take care of themselves
If God is with them theydont need America or the EU
But in the past God allowed nations to attack Israel into bondage for their own ways
Iran and Israel should become friends with Syria
And destroy Arabia
A bit delusional, aren’t you?
https://scontent-atl1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xtf1/v/t1.0-9/11880320_1477140385943786_7109805579771712884_n.jpg?oh=217ce3907a8d7774de2a9076ee1c46f5&oe=568035E8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p65xKqdVe8s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRClRoKGRdU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ma4zgSXpFgE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RY83mAr5uA
https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/2011/04/24/crimes-against-christianity/
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2014/may-web-only/price-tag-israeli-extremists-target-christians.html
Non-intervention.com