You might want to trim some of the hate speech used here, hoder.
- By: Kaveh on July 12, 2003

babak your message is to long to read. doostar, i havent any friendship with traitor to my country so dont call me "my friend". ok, i dont have time to waste for you, just one thing, supporting the israel is supporting the democracy. i'm happy that i rarely can find anti-israeli people in my university or in my family, friends and everywhere i know. so you can enjoy your life in usa and be anti-israel until you die. and to make you happy, i really enjoy when i saw isareli soldier kill arabs (that's why i like israel)
- By: Sina on July 11, 2003

The attitude of iranian people toward Israel has nothing to do with the current regime, it has much longer history. Just ask your olders about the Football match between Iran and Israel in Tehran in early 70's and the reaction of people to it. I have to insist that being critical to Israel does not mean being anti-semite or anti-jew. I lived in a city in Iran which is famous of being very religious and at the same time was the center of christians, jews minorities in iran, who lived peacefully together.
- By: siavash on July 11, 2003

In one respect,slaves were divided into two groups:Plantation slaves and house slaves.Plantation slaves would do the hardest work outside in the fields exposed to the elements and much hardships.But house slaves were usually luckier as they would serve the master around the house;their lives were easier and many of them would do anything ,including betraying fellow blacks,reporting and spying on them ,etc,so that they could remain around the house.Most often "Uncle Toms" could be found among these house slaves.If Master James slapped an Uncle Tom and even his wife and children really hard in the face and insulted them in worst ways,the Uncle Tom's response would be something like,"Thank you Master James,Sorry Master James,I thank you very much"!!!Then the Uncle Tom may get even more slaps and more insults and yet he would comment before leaving the room,"Is there anything else I can do now Master James sir?"!!!!So Uncle Tom is someone who has been oppresed and exploited very much and suffers from a terrible "inferiority complex" and in time Uncle Tom really believes that he and his race are indeed inferior and Master's race is really superior and that must have been God's will and design.If a mistake is done by a fellow black,Uncle Tom would raise hell and hardly ever forgive the fellow black person.But if a mistake hundred times worse is commited by someone from the Master Race,Uncle Tom would treat it with smiles and even admiration and find 1000 reasons to decrease the intensity of the mistake and forgive it.In time an Uncle Tom in fact starts hating his own race(he would had started hating himself long before this!) and people and do anything to satisfy the master,the infallable race,to look like the master people,to look nothing like his own people(Michael Jackson?!),do all kinds of "khosh-raghsi va khosh-khedmati" to acheive these!An Uncle Tom would hold viewpoints of his own people that sometimes would be worse than the ones hold by the masters,and he would refer to his own people with the same terminology that is used by the master against them.The same phenomenon is seen among sections of the Southern people all over as a symptom of enslavement,"tahghir",oppresion,violence,poverty,and hopelessness specially when a people are subjected to these over a long period of time.Shah was a good example of an Uncle Tom,so are people like Rafsanjani although for an untrained eye they may look different on the surface.Colonialists always pick their dictators(to rule over Southern countries) from these people who are in fact Uncle Toms;that is a must requirement for choosing any of these dictators by the colonialists.Much more to be said on these but I guess,"agar dar khaneh kas ast,hamin yek harf bas ast".
- By: babak on July 11, 2003

Yes,I agree Mr Doostdar that indeed an evolution is in order for anyone who suffers from racism,specially the cheapest ones who most often suffer from lack of reason so much that they always have to include some "mother,khahar" pieces in their comments,desparately hoping to make up for their terrible lack of intelligence. Oh,and I laughed so much by the "camel jockey" comment by this Sina dude.This is a racist term usually used by the most ignorant and racist Whites(the Master Race to some people!) against the near and middle Eastern people.There are other such terms such as "Sand Nigger"!Now,suppose this Sina dude is indeed an Iranian.So he himself would be subjected to such racist terms.Yet he uses such terms against his own countrymen,moslems,or people from the same region!This in turn ,takes us to the notion of an "Uncle Tom",which is a term coming from the times of the Slavery in America and it still is used as it is applicable to certain types.I'll explain more next.
- By: babak on July 11, 2003

Very interesting argument: Israeli-Persian common interest. Never thought of it.
- By: Gideon Strauss on July 11, 2003

Sina my dear: Two problems with your comment - First, accusing me of double-posting under different names (check out my blog - linked to my name - to see that I don't have any reason to use a fake name), and second, accusing me of being a camel jockey because I said Iranians support the Palestinian cause. I wish the U.S. would give you a visa so you could come over and see how many non-Arabs here support the Palestinians (many of whom have never even seen a camel). And you know, I'm going to write about this at some point, but I think human beings will evolve into a new species (neosapiens maybe) the day they as a collective stop seeing everything in binary. I sincerely pray for your evolution my friend.
- By: Alireza Doostdar on July 11, 2003

I have a good idea for people who pity for palestinian, donate your mother to them, this is what an arab really need and also help islam growing in the region. and to doostar's second identity babak, i must say that knowing one or more phrase in persian, dont make you an iranian, your are still that camel jockey. most of iranian support the entente of Iran-USA-Israel.
- By: Sina on July 11, 2003

Hossein agha I think Mr Doostdar put it really well.The reason for the widespread support for the Palestinian cause has to do with first,humanitarian reasons and plain justice and humanity,second,it has to do with common sense(today British Whities eat up Palestinians,next it could be us),third,religious motivations in combination with the above. And Iranians are not the only people who sympathize with the Palestinian cause;many many on all continents do;human conscience is fortunately still quite alive. Frankly Hossein agha, I am very disappointed to see your opinion that a state like Israel should be our best fruiend as opposed to "anti-Persian Arabs!!(Did you mean anti-Iranian?!).I respect your opinion but strongly disagree with you.If you really understand the nature of Israel,I can not see how you hold such radical opinion.What you say is exactly what the British and colonialists wanted to hear for a long time;it's really sweet for them to hear such opinions from us as such opinion works like a double-edge sword for them. First,it shows we're finally defeated in defending this part of truth and justice as well and just go along with the grave injustice and savagery that they want us to accept.Second;what better for them than yet more divisions among the people of the region:"anti-Persian Arabs"! A lot to be said on this "keh dar in mojmal nagonjad". Regards
- By: babak on July 11, 2003

hoder, i always thought you are with mullahs, now i know to ham az khodemooni.damet ghizh :) i am completely agree with you
- By: Sohrab on July 11, 2003

Thanks, "Hossein." I could not have made my point more clearly if I tried. I'm going to skip over the genuinely debatable points in Alireza's comment, and simply reiterate - if Hossein believes there's an issue for some folks in working with Winds of Change.NET, an Israel taboo can't be a factor because no-one on the blog is Israeli. So what is it?
- By: Joe Katzman on July 11, 2003

The basis of Iran's official antagonism towards Israel (not Jews, but Israel and Zionism) is more than a clerical whim in my opinion. It is widespread sympathy among the Iranian people for the cause of the Palestinian people, first as human beings, and second as fellow Muslims who have been tragically oppressed for the past half century. I agree that talking about Israel should not be a taboo. That is ridiculous. But I don't think the majority of Iranians share your belief that the Israelis are better friends for us than the "Arabs". The question of the Iranian people's feelings for the Palestinian people, in my opinion, is not one of Iran's geo-strategic interests, but one of sympathy for human suffering, regardless of race.
- By: Alireza Doostdar on July 10, 2003

Isreal is a threat for all of the mid-east, for all of the world, not only for Iran. Future will show this more. Zionists will never sit in their place but they occupy all of the earth, all of the news networks, all of the world resources. If you don't believe, plz live a bit more to see future!
- By: Hossein on July 10, 2003

Thanks for the pointer, Hossein. What I wrote about wasn't so much breaking the taboo of Israel, though that would be nice. Cyrus the Great is still considered a great hero by the Jews for restoring the State of Israel and letting Jews emigrate back there from exile in Babylon (no intifada back then in response). The mullahs themselves were happy enough to trade with Israel in order to save Iran in the Iran-Iraq war. And a "Triple I" entente of Israel-Iran-India offers interesting future possibilities for Iran to play a large independent global role. The problem we discussed wasn't Israel, though - it was willingness to link to and be seen working with an openly Jewish blogger who does "Shabbat Shalom" posts. I'm a Canadian, born and raised, so "Israel" can't be an issue - but "Jew" might be, especially if the 2 are seen as the same thing. Which they might be, if the regime was tracking your web site closely and wanted an excuse to lay charges. Then again, if they want an excuse to imprison you in Iran it's very easy - they'll just make one up without going through all that work. Or send a "plainclothes militia" (read: vigilante death squad), like they did for those students after their press conference. The stakes are high for Iran and the region. Nuclear bombs are no joke - they aren't just a prestige symbol, and they won't be treated like one. If we want change from within before a major clash with the USA, we're all going to have to work together and build bridges. Ain't no time to hate. Barely time to wait. Got some things to talk about, here beside the rising tide.
- By: Joe Katzman on July 10, 2003