I just returned home from my second trip to Israel. As an Iranian-born Christian, I visited my spiritual homeland to assure Israelis that the majority of the Iranian people stand with Israel, and that we have a common enemy in the Islamic Republic regime.
This was my message through media interviews and private meetings, from the Golan to the Gaza border.
Unlike my first trip 18 months ago, I wanted to witness the devastation and to express my solidarity with the Israeli people after the brutal and inhuman Hamas massacre of Oct. 7.
Because of my unique background – coming to faith as a Christian in Iran, being arrested, sentenced to death for “apostasy,” and imprisoned for nine months – I found that Israelis living through the trauma of the massacre, the war that’s still ongoing, and threats from Hezbollah and the Iranian Islamic regime felt that I could relate to them uniquely.
Unfortunately, I relate to Israelis’ suffering quite well. I witnessed many of my cell mates tortured and executed, including my best friend. The Islamic regime tortured and murdered my husband.
I wept as I experienced the trauma of the Israelis whom I met, experiencing PTSD of my own.
Throughout my visit, I shared why the Iranian Islamic regime cannot be trusted, why it must be overthrown.
Many asked about the recent election of a “reformist” president, and asked if this is a hopeful sign for change.
'Reform' in Iran
My answer was blunt but honest: The ayatollahs cannot be trusted; the new president was “selected” by the supreme leader as a fig leaf to pretend to Iranians and the world that change can come.
I also shared the reality that only a fraction of Iran’s citizens actually voted, demonstrating that they knew the supreme leader would select whoever he wanted, and they would not participate in a fraudulent election, giving credibility to the regime.
As sobering as this was to Israelis who remember the massive Islamic regime assault on April 13 involving hundreds of cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, and drones, Israelis were disappointed but not surprised.
Israelis know that Hamas, the Houthis, and Hezbollah are all proxies of the Islamic regime, receiving funding, training, intelligence, and weapons to implement their global jihad.
What’s needed is not to appease the regime but to cut off the head of the terrorist octopus whose tentacles are trying to strangle the world. Only through that, and a complete destruction of Hamas and Hezbollah and the ideology they represent, can we see Israel and the world safe from this evil global threat.
EVEN THOUGH I cried throughout my visit in Israel, and I cried when I left, on the day I left I read something that upset me even more.
In an article in The Jerusalem Post (“Cooperating with Iran’s new president far outweighs the risks,” July 14), I read how an Israeli historian, Alon Ben-Meir, advocated that “the US should convey its willingness to work with the new [Iranian] president, assuring him that any measure of moderation he takes will be fully and correspondingly reciprocated.”
Before I understood who wrote it, I assumed that it was written by a puppet of the Islamic regime. I was shocked to see that it was a Jewish historian.
Ben-Meir wrote, “The victory of reformist Masoud Pezeshkian... should not have surprised many observers... Pezeshkian is well known for his progressive ideas on domestic and foreign relations. He knows that he rose to power at a pivotal time in his country’s domestic and foreign state of affairs.”
Especially as someone who represents himself as an expert, Ben-Meir could not be more wrong. Pezeshkian’s “selection” will change nothing, not the domestic repression of tens of millions of Iranians, and not the spreading of its terrorist tentacles around the world. Iran will continue to threaten Israel and endanger the world.
It boggles the mind that after Oct. 7, someone like Ben-Meir would recommend what amounts to appeasing the Islamic regime rather than doing anything possible to choke it out of existence in every way possible.
I learned on my trip about the “concept” that many Israelis had: allowing Hamas to be funded and armed, but never expecting that it would actually try to follow through with its genocidal threats.
Ben-Meir acknowledged, “It is true that essentially, the role of any Iranian president is to carry out Ayatollah Khamenei’s orders.... The fact that Pezeshkian was tightly vetted by the Guardian Council and still allowed to run, despite his reformist stances, suggests that Khamenei will give him more room to maneuver....”
This is nonsense. Pezeshkian is a puppet for the regime. Israel and the West must shed its “concept” about Iran. The ayatollahs cannot be trusted.
Ben-Meir foolishly wrote, “Pezeshkian’s election will signal that Iran is more amenable to mending its relations with the West, preventing another collision course with the US and Israel, reducing regional tension, and opening the door for a constructive dialogue, which would ultimately serve Iran’s economic and political interests.”
Writing as if he were an adviser to Pezeshkian, Ben-Meir fantasized that “Pezeshkian should signal that Iran is ready to resume its indirect negotiations with the US over its nuclear program.”
The regime can never be trusted not to pursue nuclear weapons or to use them.
In one of his first acts as the newly “selected” president, he openly declared support for Hezbollah and Hamas. Why would anyone expect Pezeshkian to “lean heavily on Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s leader, to lower the tension with Israel by substantially reducing the trading of cross-border fire to prevent an all-out war, which Iran wants to avoid by any means it can.” This is foolishness.
And if through its terrorist proxies in Yemen who control access to the Red Sea and other global shipping, why would Pezeshkian, as Ben-Meir suggested, “demand that the Houthis... desist from firing missiles and drones that disrupt commercial shipping in the Red Sea”? Ben-Meir acknowledged that “Iran is the leading supplier of such weapons.” Israelis who were awoken early Friday by an Iranian drone striking Tel Aviv know the truth.
Most foolish and dangerous, Ben-Meir said that “Biden should instruct his negotiating team to show some flexibility [over Iran’s nuclear program].”
THE ONLY reason Pezeshkian might bring any reforms is to alleviate pressure on the regime, domestically and internationally. The regime would do so strategically, just to protect itself. It surely has no interest in the well-being of the Iranian people.
The ayatollahs believe that threatening Israel through their proxies also keeps them stronger. But the Iranian people know better. They stand against the regime and with Israel.
Rather than appeasing the ayatollahs, the West should to everything possible to facilitate the speedy demise of the Islamic regime, increase sanctions, and free Iranians from the shackles of Islamist terror and oppression.
Having lived in Iran for more than three decades, nine months of which in an Iranian prison, I know the evil of the regime firsthand. Israel cannot let voices like Ben-Meir’s lead it into danger.
It’s not a coincidence that the day I left Israel was also the 30th anniversary of the Iranian terrorist attack on the AMIA Jewish community center in Argentina, killing 85 and wounding 300. AMIA was not an Israeli soft target but a center of Jewish life.
The Islamic regime is the head of an evil octopus and must be cut off, not fed and nurtured in the way that Hamas was allowed to build up its ability to threaten Israel.
The writer is an Iranian American who immigrated to the US after being sentenced to death in Iran for the crime of converting to Christianity. She is the author of two books, the latest, A Love Journey with God.
www.MarzisJourney.com