I avoid shaming people on social media, as I don't want to contribute to making this space even more toxic. But I think there is a need to address this phenomenon of Western leftists who ignore and even shame voices from inside Iran and other countries suffering the blight of Iran's militias wishing for foreign intervention to free themselves of these oppressive forces.
Their support for foreign intervention is a result of the failure of all other means to topple these regimes or uproot these militias: protesting, voting against them or negotiating with them. Support for foreign intervention is a sign of desperation and the insistence of the Iranian regime and its militias to impose itself by force on the populations of these countries.
After the 12 Day War, Iranians inside the country mostly united in their rage against foreign intervention. Then they came out to protest peacefully against the regime and were slaughtered in the thousands. Over 50,000 Iranians have been arrested, subjected to horrific torture, including widespread use of rape, and some have already been executed after sham trials.
Anyone who hasn't experienced these horrors, who hasn't struggled for freedom knowing she/he may be killed at any moment, is privileged and lucky. From this position of privilege, they are not entitled to criticize Iranians, Iraqis, Lebanese, Syrians, Yemenis, who are welcoming foreign intervention against this vile regime.
Moreso, leftists/liberals who consider themselves to be humanists, should take the desires of locals and their suffering into account when determining their position regarding war on the Iranian regime.
There are legitimate reasons to oppose the war, and it is not guaranteed to bring down the Iranian regime, but looking at everything through a U.S.-centric lens is anti-humanist and anti-liberal. Is slaughtering your own people legal? Is it legal to establish sectarian militias that besieged and starved towns in Syria, ethnically cleansed swaths of Syria and Iraq, or slaughtered unarmed protesters in Iraq? Is it legal to execute mass-casualty attacks against civilians across the world and assassinate peaceful dissidents, as the IRGC has done?
💥It is revelatory, and deeply tragic, that even as Hamas boasts that it executed these six hostages, @OHCHR_Palestine, without mentioning Hamas, tepidly regrets they "were found dead." WTF happened to you, @UN?
Reupping @juliaioffe's brilliant and moving 2021 profile. "When the Kremlin tried to kill Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, his wife launched an epic battle to save his life—and became the face of the resistance to Vladimir Putin." https://t.co/z60IrdqR8T
Thread: I want to share a few w pieces I have written on the #Houthis since the beginning of the war. My arguments were not always popular. But the events unfolding in the RedSea confirm what I and many #Yemen-is have been warning the international community about since 2014.
יפה שדובר צה"ל דאג להזמין כ30 כתבים (ישראלים ובינלאומיים) למנהרה הענקית של חמאס ליד מעבר ארז, רק שוב שכחו כתב אחד מאתר לא מאוד פופולרי עם מעל 60 מיליון כניסות בחודש. מי אני שאתווכח
What to do about disinformation by @EliotHiggins “When inundated with conflicting narratives, cognitive dissonance becomes a daily struggle leading to news fatigue, apathy and, in some cases, a complete disengagement from current affairs.”
https://t.co/rKJ5vROon6
⛑️💥#Breaking: Netanyahu announces that the Red Cross will visit Israeli hostages not released under the terms of the imminent deal and will supply them medication.
A timely visit, FM @elicoh1 will depart tomorrow, together with representatives of the families of the hostages in Gaza for a diplomatic visit to Geneva, where they will meet with:
* @ICRC & @ICRCPresident
* @DrTedros, head of @WHO
* Ambassadors in Geneva
I don't want revenge in Gaza. I don't feel any satisfaction upon hearing that civilians are killed there now. I'm as sad as one can be over their deaths. But I know that when Hamas came into my community on that morning, it knew EXACTLY what would happen in Gaza the next day.
Two important things are true about the new law:
1) Israeli democratic decline has been happening for a long time, and is about much more than just the courts
2) The war over the courts is critical to the bigger struggle, and the new law doesn't end it https://t.co/obSTH4fAqu
💥It is an avalanche. @MoodysInvSvc announces it will release a report advising against investments in Israel. @MorganStanley relists Israel's economic outlook as "undesirable." @Citi highlights risks associated with Netanyahu's legislative putsch. https://t.co/tCKdk6FeK7