Iran’s Annihilationist Crusade ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Tuesday, April 01, 2025

Iran’s Annihilationist Crusade

One might think that Iran's implacable opposition to Israel's existence is based on Muslim theological beliefs. After all, Iran calls itself the Islamic Republic and its two Supreme Leaders, its two Supreme Leaders, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have styled themselves as religious authorities.

Surprisingly, the reasons for Iran's antisemitism has little to do with such high-minded considerations.

It is pure politics.

When the Ayatollah Khomeini was in exile from 1964 to 1979, he wrote a lot of essays and gave a lot of speeches that would be smuggled back to his followers in Iran. He did forbid all dealings with Israel in 1967, mostly in response to the Shah of Iran's ties with the Jewish state. This put him in the mainstream of Muslim opinion - the Arab League had similar policies since 1948.

What Khomeini did do was plot his return, and formulate his ideas of an Islamic state in Iran. However, his goals went way beyond just an Islamic state: Khomeini wanted Iran to be the leader of the entire Muslim world, and possibly more. He viewed Iran as the Bolsheviks viewed Russia - as the vanguard of a worldwide revolution.

His own language echoed his ambitions. In one of his first speeches upon returning to Iran, which recalls Marxist-style rhetoric, he said, "We shall export our revolution to the whole world. Until the cry 'There is no god but Allah' resounds over the whole world, there will be struggle." Khomeini wanted his Islamic state "to cause the corrupt roots of Zionism, capitalism and Communism to wither throughout the world. We wish, as does God almighty, to destroy the systems which are based on these three foundations."

To achieve his goals, he needed to unify the fractious Muslim world. In 1979, the easiest way to do that was to take a leadership role in the rhetorical fight against Israel and Zionism, an old gambit that every Arab leader had relied upon to maintain order in their own countries and distract the people from domestic problems. This was why one of Khomeini's first acts was to declare an annual Quds Day, an anti-Israel holiday on the last Friday of Ramadan, calling for Muslims to unite against the “usurper Israel."

Khomeini’s opposition to Israel intensified after the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty, which he condemned as a betrayal of the Palestinian cause, severing ties with Egypt to signal Iran’s leadership in the fight against Israel.

He downplayed Shiite differences with Sunnis, issuing rulings to help them coexist. Unifying the two groups was an important stage in his goal to lead the Muslim world was to become the unquestioned superpower in the Middle East.

The main obstacle for that political goal was, and remains, Israel.

Especially when the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty finalized shortly after the revolution, Khomeini wanted to stop Israeli influence in the region. Thus began the Iranian policy of creating proxy forces in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and later Yemen and Gaza, to create the "Islamic crescent" to surround and eventually strangle Israel.

Iran's war against Israel was not only through these proxy forces. Using Islamic rhetoric and hate speech, Iran adopted the Soviet playbook, spreading anti-Zionism through state-controlled media like PressTV, which platforms virulent antisemites - white supremacists and socialists alike - to globalize antisemitism while maintaining deniability.

Khomeini, and his successor, use the Shiite concepts of taqiyya (dissimulation while under threat) and maslaha (public interest) to justify lying for the perceived greater good of Muslims. In January 1979, Khomeini sent a secret message to President Carter, claiming his post-Shah Iran would not be hostile to the U.S., a lie to ensure the Iranian military wouldn’t oppose his return. Months later, he orchestrated the 1979 hostage crisis, holding 52 Americans for 444 days.

This same willingness to lie for political gain is the prism through which Iran must be viewed in its public statements claiming not to seek a nuclear weapon. It is all for show, and the IAEA as well as Israeli intelligence has shown that Iran continues to seek to build a nuclear bomb. That weapon itself is meant not only to make Iran the superpower it desires to be, but also to keep Israel under constant existential threat.

Iran's actions and policies indicate that it studied its antisemitic antecedents. Like the Soviets, Iran uses the language of revolution and struggle against its enemies. Like the progressives, Iran uses propaganda to spread antisemitism and recruit followers. Like the Nazis, Iran prioritizes its attempts to hurt the Jews even over the welfare of its own people, spending billions to build and maintain its anti-Israel proxy forces. Iran's constant references to Israel as a "cancer" recalls the Nazi characterization of Jews as parasites, and its threats to vaporize 7 million Jews outdoes even Hitler.

This hate isn't through ideology, or theology, or self-defense. It is all because because Israel is the major obstacle to Iranian hegemony in the region. Iran’s campaign fits the annihilationist-supersessionist framework: its nuclear threats, proxy wars, and Holocaust denial aim to erase Jewish existence—physically, historically, and ideologically—while envisioning a Shiite caliphate replacing Israel. Iran’s annihilationist crusade, adapting historical antisemitism with modern tools, poses an unprecedented threat to the Jewish people.

The Book of Esther describes the Persian viceroy Haman as hating Jews because he saw them as a potential obstacle in his quest for absolute power over Persia and all its provinces. The Iranian apple does not fall far from the Persian tree.

(This is a continuation on my series on antisemitism, supersessionism and annihilationism.)