The reason why the Iranian regime’s role in financing anti-Semitic terrorist troops in Gaza still receives so little attention – and the reason why Iranian embassies in Europe should now be closed.
It was predictable that the anti-Semitic terrorist regime in Iran would sooner or later pressure its allies in the Gaza Strip to launch new attacks against Israel, whose destruction “supreme spiritual leader” Ali Khamenei regularly calls for and predicts. The current confrontation follows meetings between Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and Ali Khamenei, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and the recently appointed head of Iran’s National Security Council, Ali Akbar Ahmadian, in Tehran in June . Also present was Saleh al-Arouri, deputy head of the Hamas Politburo, who had already threatened Israel with an all-out war at the end of August. Al-Arouri is considered responsible by Israeli security circles for the expansion of Hamas’ military infrastructure in Lebanon, supported by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, where Israel also threatens to open a second front in the current situation.
None of this is a secret
The role that the Iranian regime played in the massive construction and financing of anti-Semitic terrorist forces in Gaza is still not receiving enough attention. This is notable because Iranian support for Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which is now targeting Israel again with terrorist attacks and other attacks, is no secret. It has been repeatedly openly trumpeted by Islamic militia spokesmen: Ramez Al-Halabi of Islamic Jihad said on Iraqi television in 2021: “I am proud to say that the rockets we are firing at Tel Aviv bear an Iranian signature […] Those who use these weapons have been trained by our brothers in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.” In December 2020, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah boasted that the anti-tank weapons used to kill Israeli soldiers in recent clashes were under Iranian supervision. taken to Gaza.
A few days before the last escalation in 2022, an “expert conference” on “liberation” took place in Tehran in preparation for the so-called Quds Day, on which since 1979, at the behest of Ayatollah Khomeini, demonstrations have been held around the world . for the destruction of Israel at the end of the fasting month of Ramadan in Jerusalem.” There was Khaled Qaddoumi, Hamas representative in Iran, who said in 2021: “The Islamic Republic of Iran helped a lot, on the one hand, in terms of transferring knowledge and experience, and on the other hand, with the transport of the rockets.” And the current head of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, said in June 2019 about the rockets that could also hit Tel Aviv: “Without Iran’s support for the resistance in Palestine, we would not have achieved these capabilities. […] Iran supported us with weapons, equipment and expertise.”
It is a simple fact that without Tehran’s continued support, the massive attacks by Hamas and Islamic Jihad against the Israeli civilian population would not be possible with the intensity that the people of Israel have had to endure again since Saturday. It is estimated that Islamic Jihad receives around $70 million a year from Iran and Hamas receives up to $150 million. In recent years, according to Israeli media reports, Khamenei offered Hamas up to $30 million a month in exchange for Tehran receiving information about Israeli missile sites from the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood.
Iranian embassies closed
All of this means that anyone doing business with the Ayatollah’s regime in Iran is financing terrorism against Israel. Therefore, it is not enough for European governments to condemn attacks on Israel by its Iranian allies. Without consistent action against Iranian financing of this terror, such statements remain inconsequential rhetoric. If anyone wanted to seriously support Israel against the terror of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, business with the Iranian sponsors of anti-Israel terror would have to be completely prohibited. Iranian embassies in Europe, from which terrorist attacks are repeatedly planned, would have to be closed. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard and the entire Lebanese Hezbollah, which threatens Israel with an arsenal of missiles even more dangerous than that of its Iranian allies in Gaza, finally belong to all European terrorist lists.
In any case, unless the influence of the anti-Semitic regime in Iran is reduced, efforts to promote detente in the region are doomed to permanent failure. Consistent action not only against terrorist militias on Israel’s borders, but especially against their supporters and financiers in Iran, would be in the interests of all people in the Near and Middle East who are as interested in peaceful coexistence as they are in free societies.
Stephan Grigat, is professor of theories and criticism of antisemitism at the Catholic University of North Rhine-Westphalia and head of the Center for Studies on Antisemitism and Racism (CARS) in Aachen.
»Iranian embassies in Europe, from which terrorist attacks are repeatedly planned, should be closed. «