1979 “IRAN AND ISLAM” BY CHAIM HERZOG
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Back in 1979, in an article entitled “Iran & Islam,” Chaim Herzog wrote, regarding the events of 1979 that saw the fall of the Shah and the advent to power of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini:
“We are witness today to a very strange and interesting phenomenon which bodes ill for Western society. It is the return to an extreme fanatic form of orthodoxy in Islam …. This extreme religious fanatical movement, covering vast and important areas of the world, couple as it is with a radical form of xenophobia … bodes ill for the world.
The current developments in the Middle East must also be seen in the context of the Arab attitudes to the minorities living in the Arab world…
The outside world dare not ignore the .developments in the Middle East caused by the rise of extreme fanatical orthodoxy, especially when this is linked to the acquisition of nuclear capabilities….
This sombre picture, with the very dangerous possibilities emerging therefrom, must bring into sharper focus for those concerned with the defence of the West in the Middle East. It’s the only stable regime, where the government rules the generals, and not vice versa, where the orderly transfer of powers in a democratically elected parliament is the order of the day, and where a military force of proven quality and ability exists and is prepared to fight for what it believes. It will be essential for many of the Arabists in the U.S. Department of State and the Chancelleries of Western Europe to break away from their prejudices and make a realistic evaluation of the new situation in the Middle East.
The main hinge of Western defence until now was Iran, but it no longer occupies that position…. Political stability … [is] concentrated today in only one country in the Middle East, namely, Israel….
[A peace treaty] cannot … be established at the expense of Israel, because on no account should such a process weaken Israel in any way within the global strategy of the area. Israel’s importance to the West … has grown immeasurably as a result of events in Iran….’
(Source: Australia-Israel Review, February 4-28, 1979, pp. 10-12.)
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