We begin with this report: Iranian President’s warning: ‘The economy will collapse’ :
A report by Iran International reveals a sharp conflict at the top of the regime between President Masoud Pezakhian and the commander of the Revolutionary Guards.
According to the report, Pezeshkian criticized the IRGC and warned that without a ceasefire, Iran’s economy could collapse within three to four weeks.
Tensions reportedly developed between Pezeshkian and IRGC commander Ahmad Vahidi over the conduct of the war and its severe impact on the domestic economy.
Tensions reportedly developed between Pezeshkian and IRGC commander Ahmad Vahidi over the conduct of the war and its severe impact on the domestic economy.
Sources cited by the outlet said the president criticized the escalation pursued by the IRGC, particularly attacks against neighboring countries, which are causing serious economic consequences.
Beyond the economic issue, Pezeshkian also called for executive powers to be returned to the civilian government. According to the report, his request was rejected by Vahidi, who in turn accused the government of failing to implement structural reforms even before the current conflict began.
Sounds like good news, right? NOT!
To this author, President Trump; the “Venezuela Model” analogy regarding Iran lacks any validity whatsoever.
Here’s why:
Venezeula, under the Maduro regime and dictatorship, were common criminals and murderers seeking riches from illicit drug trafficking to the United States resulting in the loss of hundreds of thousand of American lives.
As this author understands, the Maduro regime intent was financial lucre by criminal means, NOT territorial conquest or racist religious-oriented extremist genocide. Yes, the Maduro regime persecuted and murdered their political opposition.
Yes, the Maduro dictatorship was “an authoritarian government, characterized by electoral fraud, human rights abuses, corruption, censorship and severe economic hardship. The United Nations (UN) and Human Rights Watch have alleged that under Maduro’s administration, thousands of people died in extrajudicial killings and seven million Venezuelans fled the country due to economic collapse.” .
But, Iran is a totally different story.
In a D’var Torah on this past week’s Torah portion, Parshat Tzav, this author cited a commentary from Rabbi Herschel Reichman in his Sefer, “Living the Chassidic Legacy, Lessons Based on Shem Mishmuel.”
Many times, Jewish commentators on Torah are known by the titles of the S’forim that they author. In this case, the author known as the Shem Mishmuel is Rabbi Shmuel Bornstein, z”l (Of Blessed Memory) who was Rabbi of a town in Poland located west of Warsaw, near the turn of the twentieth century.
Rabbi Reichman cites a commentary, in the name of the Shem Mismuel, which this author cites to explain why the Mullahs and the IRGC of Iran cannot, in anyway, be compared, or dealt with as President Trump is dealing with Venezuela after Maduro:
The Pirkei d’Rabbi Eliezer draws a strange comparison…. The cup of Shabbos Kiddush is a good wine, but Amalek’s cup is filled with spoiled wine. What is the connection between these two cups?
Shabbos is an inwardly facing day, the day of the holiness inside the Jew. What is Amalek? Amalek is our enemy, and not just in a physical sense. It attacks the Jew on every level of Jewry’s existence. Amalek attacks us from the lowest to the highest level, on the levels of nefesh, ruach, and neshama. Amalek has deep power, attacking the Jew even on his deepest, holiest level.
Hashem always creates balance. “Zeh l’umas zeh asa Ha’K’Elokim” [Rabbi Reichman citing Kohelet 7:14]. Every good force in the world is counterbalanced by an equally powerful evil force. Jews have an Aaron HaKohen level, an inner level of private sanctity, endless in depth. Amalek has the same level in evil, one that is infinitely deep. Amalek is not fighting the Jew because it has some external problem with us, It doesn’t fight us because of land, like the seven Cana’anite nations… Amalek came to fight the Jews in the desert: B’nei Yisrael were not even headed towards the land of Amalek. The Amalekim had no alliance with even one of the seven nations.
Amalek is a fundamental enemy of the soul of the Jews. It resents the holiness of the Jew. It wants to deny and destroy it. This is the Hitler/Nazi [Y’Machsh’mam] ideology, which says that the Jew is the enemy of humanity. The Jew expresses kindness, which is weakness in Amalek’s eyes, because Amalek believes it [presumably weakness] only promotes defeat.
The hatred of Amalek for the Jews is very deep. It has nothing to do with anything external. It is internal, fundamental hatred and antagonism. In a certain way, Amalek is the opposite of Shabbos. If Shabbos is the Jewish day of internal, deep and profound Kedusha, Amalek has internally profound wickedness, contamination, and defilement. Shabbos is the day of the Kedusha of the holy soul of the Jews. Amalek represents the soul of… defilement. It is the opposite of Shabbos…
Bearing in mind Rabbi Reichman’s commentary on the relationship between the internal Kedusha of Shabbos for the Jews and the deep internal, spiritual wickedness of Amalek’s hatred for the Jews, it should be noted that each of the three major wars initiated against Israel by Arab forces, whether by Arab, Islamic nations or by the barbaric Islamic Gazan terrorist animals, against the nation of Israel all formally began on Shabbos.
One would readily recall that both The Yom Kippur War of 1973 (5733) and The War of 7 October (Simchat Torah, or Sh’mini Atzeret as it is for Jews outside of Israel) formally began early on Shabbos morning in 2023 (5783)
But it is not commonly known that the beginning of the 1948 Arab attack on modern-day, then nascent state of Israel began on 15 May, 1948 (5 Iyyar 5708) Shabbos Parshat Emor.
So Iran, under the control of the Islamic Extremist Mullahs, i.e. the one-legged, allegedly gay Ayatollah, and the IRGC military, are not only criminals who indiscriminately persecute, rape and murder the Iranian people, but they epitomize the deep spiritual hatred of the Jews and lust for our eradication, while seeking Islamic conquest of the nations of the world and death to all infidels, i.e. all other religions and secularizations.
They are known to be liars in matters of diplomacy and negotiations. They are skilled in delaying tactics diplomatically, they play for time in any negotiations in the hopes of frustrating and breaking their opponents at the bargaining table as they (the IRGC) are being decimated on the battlefield.
In short Mr. President, there is no talking or negotiating with any of them — from top to bottom. The Islamic Caliphate in Iran must be eradicated, leaving the Iranian people, such as Iranian Prince Reza Pahlavi and his group or others from among the Iranian people, to take back and facilitate Iran’s freedom and governance.