Quote:
Originally Posted by ThePrince
In no way, shape, or form does not supporting the regime mean that Iranians support Israel and their oppression of Palestinians, or would support Israel and the US carrying out that regime change.
Iranians are against the west continuing to influence politics within Iran, and would not be happy to see a war or invasion from the US or Israel, even if it means the toppling of the government. That means dead Iranians at the hands of the west, which is untenable for the people.
Iranians don’t forget the meddling that the US has done in Iran, whether that be the coup to replace a democratically elected leader back with the Shah, who was friendly with the US, or the US feeding weapons to Iraq during the Iran/Iraq war, and turning a complete blind eye when Saddam used chemical weapons against the Iranians.
Put very simply, I don’t know a single Iranian who would be happy with Israel or the US doing anything domestically in Iran.
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Yet it is a fact that there are factions in Iran that support Israel and alignment with the West.
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2...sts-and-israel
Whether it is a majority or not, I don't know, but is significant at least. Keep in mind that Iran was at one time friendly with Israel. They were the second muslim majority country to recognize Israel and saw them as an important regional partner both being non-Arab countries that bordered aggressive neigbours. That ended when the religious fundamentalist took over and pushed the literal interpretation of the Quran. The thing is, young Iranians are increasingly becomeing more secular these days and are dropping their faith at alarming rates.
You also see support in Iran's diaspora community, where people don't have to worry about disappearing (as much) if they speak their mind.
https://unherd.com/2023/12/meet-the-...orting-israel/
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...ran-rcna151311
https://thecholent.substack.com/p/we...ent-behind-you
It's not too hard to find pictures like this all over social media.
Obviously these things are nuanced and no country or ethnic group is going to have a monolithic opinion on complex matters like this. I just think a lot of people would be surprised to find out that a lot of Iranians do support Israel.