The Jerusalem Post

It’s all about Iran

- • By RUTH WASSERMAN LANDE The writer, a former MK and an expert in Arab affairs, is a fellow at the Misgav Institute for National Security & Zionist Strategy, in Jerusalem.

For over four decades, the leaders of the Islamic Revolution in Iran have been planning the world’s “redemption” by the Islamic Shia. This is the almost unimaginab­le reality that must be known and acted upon in order to stop it.

Currently, the supreme leader is old and ill, while his less-spoken-of son Al-Kshad Al-Shaabi, continues his path with even greater cruelty and fervor.

Tehran has created a magnificen­t set of proxies, through which it works to implement its dark vision. These include “inferior” soldiers in the form of Palestinia­ns in Gaza, Judea and Samaria and Lebanon- Sunni Arabs. The Palestinia­ns and/or their national aspiration­s are of little interest to the Mullahs. The reason for training and financing the Islamic Jihad, the Hamas and similar extremist movements, is the promotion of regional chaos, which simplifies taking over as much territory, influence and resources as possible by Iran.

The Iranian regime acts quietly, patiently and methodical­ly in regions reigned by instabilit­y and chaos. A point in case is Jabal Druze in Syria. The area has been populated by Syrian Druze for many years. There was a silent understand­ing between Assad’s regime and the Druze that they would not interfere with his actions and he would not harm them. And so it was, for years. In recent years, however, Shi’ite locals forcefully take over some of the land and properties in that area, spurring intense struggles between local Shi’ites, directed by Iran, and the local Syrian Druze population.

The US removal of Saddam Hussein, the notorious leader of Iraq in the 1990s, created a vacuum into which Iran quickly entered and took control of the Iraqi oil reserves, gaining hundreds of millions of dollars per

day. In recent years, when the antiShi’ite extremist ISIS emerged, the internatio­nal arena affectivel­y created a coalition which literally eliminated it, leaving Iran to once more return to being the undisputed force in the region. In doing so, it unwittingl­y allowed the Islamic Republic to also continue its production of uranium for the purposes of promoting its nuclear project.

Iran also created a different “line” of proxies, namely the Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and the Shi’ite militias in Iraq and Syria. These Shi’ite proxies are seen as considerab­ly more worthy in Iran’s perception, given their loyalty to the Islamic Revolution and its ideology.

In order to create competent Iranian militias, imbued with Shi’ite ideology, resources and soldiers are needed. Iran works to obtain the resources via its revenues from oil sales alongside massive drug smuggling operations throughout the region.

Producing the manpower needed for the militias has been forwarded by a mechanism so insane that it is hard to believe that it is actually real: encouragin­g Shi’ite girls in various countries in the region to enter into “marriages of pleasure” - a term coined in the Muslim world that grants religious permission to enter into “temporary” marriages, in which it is permissibl­e to have conjugal relations, and after a short time to break up the covenant of “marriage”. Indeed, Iran had incorporat­ed the subject into the school curriculum for those girls. The children born within the framework of those “marriages of convenienc­e” are then taken by the regime and undergo religious indoctrina­tion to become exactly those afore-mentioned Shiite militias.

The Palestinia­n-Israeli conflict is but a convenient excuse for harnessing Arab-Muslim attention, given that the hatred of Israel and the “Zionists” is relatively undisputed in most public circles in the Muslim world. In this manner and by provoking the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7th, Iran has thus far succeeded in keeping Saudi Arabia away from normalizin­g relations with Israel and/or from creating an effective Sunni-Western coalition that will harm its grandiose, imperialis­tic aspiration­s. In the meantime, it continues its efforts to promote its military nuclear program, while the US is busy with its internal affairs in an election year and Israel is preoccupie­d with returning its hostages held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza, and protecting its Southern, Eastern and Northern borders from Iranian-backed extreme Palestinia­n and other terror organizati­ons.

Jordan, whose regime is weak, trembles under the Iranian weight on its soil. This is the fruit of years’-long efforts by Iran, systematic and quiet, as it always is, to gain influence within the Hashemite Kingdom. As I have emphasized more than once in my speeches, briefings and writings, this is an urgent situation, with a very low profile on internatio­nal media and global public opinion, yet is most concerning to all stability-seeking Sunni countries in the region, as well as the West and of course, to the State of Israe, given the very long border which Israel shares with Jordan. The horrific scenario which Tehran is striving for is that the Jordanian government will no longer be able to stop the millions of Palestinia­ns living there from forcefully entering the State of Israel.

The optimal strategic answer to all of the above is the creation of an effective Saudi-led alliance of Sunni countries, which Israel and the Western countries will join, in order to make sure that the Iranian threat is curbed.

 ?? (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/West Asia News Agency/Reuters) ?? IRAN’S SUPREME Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: The Iranian regime acts quietly, patiently, and methodical­ly in regions reigned by instabilit­y and chaos, the writer notes.
(Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/West Asia News Agency/Reuters) IRAN’S SUPREME Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: The Iranian regime acts quietly, patiently, and methodical­ly in regions reigned by instabilit­y and chaos, the writer notes.

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