When the Ayatollah Khamenei fervently chants, “Death to America,” to a roaring crowd, what is his intent?
Oh. You thought he actually meant he wished death to America?
Well, you’re right. But he only SAID it to a domestic POLITICAL audience.
So that’s okay then. Right?
Benjamin Netanyahu, on the other hand, said, “There will be no Palestinian State on my watch,” to a domestic POLITICAL audience.
Which is totally not okay.
Got it?
Actually, no. I’m very confused.
Especially, since it seems to me that what Khamenei said is much, much worse than what Bibi said. Bibi did not wish death to the Arabs, for instance. Not to a domestic political audience and not to anyone at all.
But forget about that for a moment.
For years, the pro-Israel crowd has waved the proof of Iran’s desire to wipe out both Israel and the U.S. to the world, taking great pains to translate speeches such as the one Khameinei delivered over the weekend in which the crowd wished for the death of America and Khameinei loudly and proudly agreed.
Of course, no one ever listens to us when we tell them that the Iranians (and by extension, Muslim terrorists, including the late Yasser Arafat), say one thing in English for Western consumption, and another thing in Persian or Arabic for the folks at home, or among themselves.
When we say these things, our sources are discredited. We’re told, for instance, that Palestinian Media Watch, an NGO that translates Palestinian and Arab media into English, has a name that gives away its agenda, by making it sound as if the PA and Arabs were little children not to be trusted, who needed to be watched over carefully by Big Brother. We’re told that just because we see MEMRI, the Middle East Media Research Institute, as an aboveboard source for what terrorists say in their own tongue to their own people, doesn’t mean they see it that way.
Just another org with an agenda, they respond. Clearly an org that doesn’t want peace, since they focus on translating all the speeches and TV talk shows that serve to work against peaceful negotiations between the West and Iran, Israel and the Arabs.
So now, by some miracle, the truth of what the Ayatollah Khamenei said to his people has made it into the mainstream media. And the reaction?
Truth As Lie
A twisted answer that is the truth served up as a lie.
The White House tells us that these words, “Death to America,” were meant for a domestic political audience. Meaning, it’s just politics. Meaningless politics. No one should read anything into these words. It’s just to placate the Iranian people, the Ayatollah’s constituency.
But no. That’s not what it means. What it means is exactly what it is, a powerful figure on the verge of getting everything he wants, which is:
DEATH TO AMERICA.
Of course Khamenei says that internally. Of course he says that to his domestic political audience. Because it’s what they want and because it’s what HE, the Ayatollah Khamenei wants.
And they really don’t care if the Americans know.
At any rate, here is the White House, whitewashing those words clean for our consumption or clean enough at any rate: “the Ayatollah said that for a domestic audience.”
That’s why he said it in PERSIAN.
Yes. That’s what he did. He did say that to a domestic political audience.
Did any of us not know that? Does this somehow serve to excuse the words themselves or at least their intent?
Don’t Worry, Be Happy
And yet, darned if the Obama neophytes won’t accept that official White House description as a reason not to worry about Iran and the bomb. Because Obama has got it all under control.
(((((Our hero)))))
Yes, say the rest of us. Those of us who can still employ our critical thinking skills. Of course, the Ayatollah meant those words for domestic consumption. He thought that as per usual, the mainstream media would collude to hide the English meaning of his words so that the regular American Joe on the street would never become aware of them. Khameini thought that only his own people would hear him say those words, which is why he showed no fear in speaking to them from the heart.
And in his heart is the wish that America would DIE from sea to shining sea.
Alternatively, maybe he just doesn’t care who knows the truth, who knows what he thinks and wants. In the end, it all boils down to the same thing.
Death to America.
That is the great hope of the Ayatollah, and the reason he is struggling with all his might for his country to develop nuclear weapons, which he will then use on his enemies: Israel, the Little Satan, and America.
The BIG Satan.
