Every time a moron like Juan Cole insists that the Iranians don’t want to destroy Israel, out comes something like this.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran is not after aggression against any country but our response to any aggression will be decisive,” Lieutenant Commander of the IRGC Ground Force for Operations General Seyed Morteza Miriyan said on Wednesday.
“In case of a military attack by the Zionists, our dreams about annihilation of Israel will come true and the trend of the annihilation of the regime will be speeded up.”
Ah, they will point out, this guy isn’t the one in charge of the IRGC. So he’s just talking trash.
But wait, there’s more, and remember, this is FARS, the official news agency of the Mad Mullahs:
In relevant remarks last month, Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari said an enemy invasion of Iran is possible, but such a war would put an end to the life of the Zionist regime of Israel.
“Owing to the (high) speed (of the growth and development) of the Islamic Revolution, this cancerous tumor, Israel, is challenging us to war, but it is not clear when this war would take place,” Jafari said in Tehran in September.
“War may break out, but if Zionists start something, that will be the point of their annihilation and the endpoint of their story,” he added.
Right. But it’s just regime change they’re looking for. “Annihilation” is simply symbolic language for “a change in government”.
Uh-huh. But just in case you think it’s a one-off, there’s also this:
Hojjat al-Eslam Ali Shirazi, the representative of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to the Islamic Republic’s Qods Force, said this week that Iran needed just “24 hours and an excuse” to destroy Israel.
In his first public interview in a year, reported in the Persian-language Jahan News, which is close to the regime, Shirazi said if Israel attacked Iran, the Islamic Republic would be able to turn the conflict into a war of attrition that would lead to Israel’s destruction.
Oh, now, it’s just spin, they’ll say. He doesn’t really mean that Iran is going to destroy Israel.
“If such a war does happen, it would not be a long war, and it would benefit the entire Islamic umma [the global community of Muslims]. We have expertise in fighting wars of attrition and Israel cannot fight a war of attrition,” Shirazi said, referring to Iran’s eight-year war of attrition against Iraq.
Well, that’s not bad, the Juan Coles will say. They’re not really talking about annihilation. Just attrition. Uh-huh.
“Well, when Israel finds itself in danger of extinction, it flails around, and so it’s easy for it to do foolish things and will start a war just to sting Iran.”
Couple this with the news that Iran has fired on its own civilian airliners and tested missiles on sites built to look like Haifa and Tel Aviv, and you can draw a pretty clear picture: Iran wants to end Israel. Not the Israeli government. Israel.
Like Netanyahu has said repeatedly: When your enemy says he is going to destroy you, believe him.
Foreign policy will not come up at tonight’s Presidential debate. That’s the next one. We’ll be awaiting what The One has to say. But I doubt we’ll believe him.