Ali Khamenei isn’t very happy with Jared Kushner.
In mid-August, Israel and the United Arab Emirates agreed to establish full diplomatic relations after extensive efforts by the Trump administration. Trusted and liked by both the Emiratis and the Israelis, Kushner guided the negotiations. It’s a victory for peace and prosperity. But not everyone is happy. Reacting to the deal on Tuesday, Iran’s supreme leader unleashed his fury and always bubbling anti-Semitism. Iran’s state news IRNA outlet and the Lebanese Hezbollah’s Al Manar offered slightly different descriptions of his comments.
IRNA reports Khamenei asserting that “the nation of Palestine is under various, severe pressures. Then, the UAE cooperates with the Israelis and the filthy U.S. agents — such as the Zionist in Trump’s family — against the interests of the world of Islam and commits the greatest atrocity against it.” But according to Al Manar, the geriatric leader of the Islamic Revolution suggested that “While the Palestinian people are under severe pressure from all sides, the UAE is working with the Israelis and evil American elements like this Jew in the Trump family, against the interests of the Islamic world, and is dealing cruelly with the Islamic world.”
What should we take from this rant?
For a start, Khamenei is reminding us of his unashamed anti-Semitism. Whether Khamenei referred to Kushner as “evil American elements like this Jew,” or ” filthy U.S. agents — such as the Zionist in Trump’s family,” his anti-Semitism isn’t exactly veiled. On the contrary, Khamenei’s language fits with the form and substance of Nazi narratives. Take Khamenei’s presentation of Jews as inherently “evil” or “filthy” people. In his autobiography, Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler referred to Jews as “a ferment of decomposition,” and warned that “If the Jews were the only people in the world, they would be wallowing in filth and mire.” With his reference to “elements” or “agents,” Khamenei also plays to the anti-Semitic notion of Jews as fifth column infiltrators. This longstanding trope is perhaps best encapsulated by the early 20th-century Russian provokatsiya document, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which was falsely presented as a Jewish conspiracy for world domination. Remember this next time someone tells you that the Israelis are overreacting to Iran’s nuclear program.
It’s also worth pointing out Khamenei’s absurdly hypocritical lamentation for Palestinian suffering.
Since 2011, the Islamic Republic of Iran has played an instrumental role in the massacre of hundreds of thousands of Syrian Muslim civilians. Just like the Palestinians, the majority of these Muslims were Sunnis. Iran’s contribution to their annihilation has included rocket attacks, starvation campaigns, torture, and random massacres. But this disdain for Muslim interests is just the tip of the iceberg in Iranian foreign policy. Take Khamenei’s intimidation campaigns In Baghdad and Beirut. In those capitals, Iran is the instrumental force behind political movements that work to subjugate representative democracy to sectarian cronyism.
In short, Khamenei has reminded us that he is an evil leader. One who hates Jews and, for all his claims of moral leadership over Islamic peoples, provides Muslims with misery and mayhem at home and abroad.
