This one made me laugh out loud.
Knesset Member Menachem Eliezer Moses, chairman of the United Torah Judaism faction, wished success on Wednesday to the two camps battling in Iran following Friday’s disputed presidential elections.
“What I have to say about everything happening in Iran, about the two sides which are fighting and hawking, is that none of them likes us, and I wish both sides success,” Moses told the Knesset during an urgent meeting on the recent developments in the Islamic republic.
Years ago, I was in Katz’s, and an older Jewish man behind the deli counter was slicing corned beef and talking to a much younger coworker. He was griping about someone who had done him wrong, and finally said, “He should get cancer and die!” The younger man was horrified. “You shouldn’t say things like that!” The older man thought about that a minute and said, “So, he should just have a heart attack.”
I laughed at that, too, because I grew up with old Jews talking to each other that way. That’s what the quote above reminds me of. Mind you, this is not an endorsment of Moses’ political views. Except for the ones on Iran. We’re on the same page there:
“The fact that (Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad was reelected for Iran’s presidency is something I may even be happy about,” he said.
Moses explained that “we would rather have an open enemy of Israel who we know and are familiar with his stances and with how to deal with him, than a hidden enemy of Israel in the image of (Mir Hossein) Mousavi the reformist, who we don’t know yet and who hides behind a so-called pretense of progress, but we know he is no better than the first one, Ahmadinejad, in regards to Israel.”
There’s some kind of power struggle going on in Iran right now. Freedom for the Iranian people will not be the outcome of that struggle. But like Moses, I wish both sides success—because the longer they fight each other, the less time they have to devote to Israel and the U.S.
When Iraq and Iran were at war with each other during the 1980’s, the
Israeli government official statement was mazel tov to both sides!
When old Saddam invaded Iran in 1980 Henry Kissinger’s comment was “It’s a shame they can’t both lose.” They pretty much did both lose.
This is a different case, however. Mousavi would have been another lapdog for the Fuehrer, er supreme guide. The demos have gone far beyond that by now. If they have not already, I think the protesters are on the verge of realizing that it is the whole Islamic Republic they are fighting against, and their victory means the death of Khomeinism. It is certain that the victory of Khomeinism will mean death for many of them. That’s how the Supreme Guide Khomeini and his toadies have handled opposition in the past, killing them by the thousands. That’s what Khamenei did to the students ten years ago, under that “reformer” who never seemed to deliver any reforms, Khatami (who has come out for Gorilla Boy I hear).
We should wish the protesters success. There is the chance (not any certainy here) that they will come up with something better than the genocidal, terrorist, revolutionary government of the Islamic Republic. Given the nature of the Islamic Republic, they could hardly make things worse.
“Fighting and hawking”? Wow. They found time in the middle of fighting to go fly hawks? Or could that be some form of lo-tech weapon, getting raptors to fight for one’s side?
Seriously, “hawking” is probably a mistranslation of nitzim, a biblical word that means “quarreling” (see Exodus 2:13).
Perhaps the translator meant to say “squawking.”