Seriously…what’s the deal with Iran?
It seems that all anyone can talk about today when speaking about the Middle East is Iran…nuclear proliferation, plans to annihilate Israel, Iran and Syria, Syria and Iran, etc. Apparently, the threat posed by Iran is imminent. And it all sounds very scary. But what exactly is going on? Why should we be scared?
While there is no doubt that the Iranian government has been guilty of some atrocious human rights violations, if we follow US foreign policy precedent this should not be grounds for complete refusal of cooperation with a country. What about Egypt, Israel, and China? Both have horrendous human rights records, yet all three receive either exorbitant amounts of aid from or deal regularly with the United States.
As far as nuclear proliferation goes, there is actually no real evidence that Iran is building anything. Simple enough. And while Israel denies having nuclear weapons, it is common knowledge that they do exist. And the ultimate question, which still boggles my mind: why is it ok for some countries to have nuclear weapons, but not ok for others?
Iran is a country that hasn’t initiated a war in years. The main commonality between Syria and Iran is mutual condemnation of Israel as a state denying Palestinians of fundamental rights. What it comes down to is that the Western focus on Iran as a threat is a convenient detractor from the real issue at hand, which resides in Palestine. In his visit to Washington a couple of weeks ago, Shimon Peres made the statement that talks can be made with the Palestinians if the United States works to neutralize the threat of Iran.
But the way I see it, this is completely and totally illogical foreign policy. It makes sense for Israel to routinely demonize Iran. The potential threat of an Iranian nuclear arsenal takes away from Israel’s monopoly on such weapons in the Middle East. Iranian support for Hezbollah and Hamas clearly threatens Israel. But in reality, all of this is detracting from the core of the conflict: Palestine. The reason Israel is vehemently disliked in the region is because of Palestine. Any warfare directed at Israel is probably in opposition to the situation in Palestine. Neutralizing Iran does not negate the fact that what’s going on in Palestine is not ok and never will be. Therefore, it is really in all parties’ best interest to address this issue instead of Iran. Go to the root of the problem. Anything else will just be cosmetic.
