Iranian hate rhetoric - bluster or strategy?

Yesterday, the Iranian parliament speaker spoke:

The Iranian parliament speaker said on Tuesday the war against Israel has only just begun and there is nowhere in Israel safe from Hezbollah attacks.

“The war has just begun, today is the day of resistance, today is the day of liberation of Palestine and there will be no safe spot in the occupied territories (Israel) anymore from Hezbollah attacks,” Gholam-Ali Hadad-Adel said at a anti-Israeli gathering in the Palestine Square in downtown Tehran.

“The day has come when everybody returns home, the day when Palestinians return home, return to the land of their origins and its is also the day when the Israelis have to return to the countries where they originally came from,” the speaker added.

Thousands of Iranians attended the state-organized gathering and declared their readiness to be dispatched to Lebanon to fight against Israel.

“We call on the United States and the West to cut their support for the Zionist regime, otherwise there would never ever be peace and reconciliation with over 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide,” the speaker said.

Hadad-Adel, who is head of the Abadgaran (Development) party which currently dominates parliament and of which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a leading member, once again declared Iran’s full solidarity with Lebanon and the Lebanese militia group Hezbollah.

“There will be no help which we would not render to Lebanon and the resistance (Hezbollah),” the speaker said.

He compared Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah with the late leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and said that ”the Ayatollah’s blood was running in Nasrallah’s veins.”

“Inshallah (so God wills), we will soon hold our thankfulness prayers in Qods (Jerusalem),” Hadad-Adel said.

Iran has ratcheted up its non-stop Israel bashing in the past week, with many daily speeches inciting the Muslim world to war, even during speeches about other topics. What interests me about this speech is that it could be interpreted two ways.

So far, even though everyone knows that Iran calls the shots for Hizbollah, Iran has publicly made it appear that they only support Hizbollah but are not the ones making the decisions. Otherwise, Iran would be admitting that they declared war on Israel, something they are not prepared to do.

But this speech can be interpreted as more than just support, rather as a description of Iranian plans for how Hizbollah should act. This comes very close to admitting that Hizbollah is an Iranian proxy.

The speaker added another twist of rabid, slobbering hate, from a different article:

"The Americans should know that as long as this filthy tumor lies in the body of the Islamic world, Muslims will not stop hating America," Hadad-Adel told thousands of regime supporters. "Either stop this support or do not expect any peace with the Islamic world."

This is almost comical, as he pathetically tries to convince the West that Israel is the only reason radical Muslims hate them. He also puts in a hint of the old "Arab street" (now "Muslim street") argument that has been used for decades as a blunt instrument to get Western powers to bend to Muslim will. (Not to mention he vastly exaggerates the number of Muslims in the world as a means of scaring the West.)

Because he knows that there is no shortage of Western dhimmis who are eager to believe his arguments and to submit to second-class status under an worldwide Islamic 'ummah.