A Chequer-Board of Nights and Days

Let us avoid any and all attempts to create a monolith in our own minds out of the Muslim world. At the risk of repeating comments I have written in the past, nation-states--whatever their individual internal characteristics--have third-image self-interests that prevent them from dealing and working hand-in-glove with other states and even non-state entities, even though those states and non-state entitites oftentimes exhibit similar internal characteristics.

This case is made plain by this article:

Parvin Heydari, an Iranian mother of two, was flipping back and forth between the nightly news and Oprah when a bulletin on an Iranian state channel caught her attention. It urged Iranians to boycott what it called "Zionist products," including those made by Pepsi, Nestle and Calvin Klein, and warned that profits from such products "are converted into bullets piercing the chests of Lebanese and Palestinian children." As evidence, the voice-over intoned, "Pepsi stands for 'pay each penny to save Israel.'" Heydari says she changed the channel, as she has no intention of crossing Nestle's Nesquik off her shopping list. "Lebanon has nothing to do with us," she says. "We should mind our own business and concentrate on policies that are good for our economy, and our kids."

To many observers in the Western world, Hizballah, the Lebanese guerrilla group battling Israel, is a mere puppet of Iran. Some are convinced that Hizballah triggered the crisis on Tehran's orders to divert world attention away from Iran's controversial nuclear plans. But client states are not necessarily as docile as one might think. Just as Israel sometimes takes actions that surprise (and even displease) the U.S., Hizballah does things Iran has neither ordered up nor necessarily approves of.

It's impossible to know the precise origins of the current crisis in Lebanon, but since it erupted two weeks ago, the mood in Tehran has swung between indifference--the fighting rarely makes the headlines--and resentment over Iran's longstanding sponsorship of Hizballah. True, there have been officially sponsored rallies declaring support for Hizballah, whose leaders pledge religious allegiance to Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatullah Ali Khamenei. But the emotional support for Hizballah common throughout the Arab world is largely absent here.

Iranians like Heydari believe that their country, ethnically and linguistically Persian, should stay out of the Arabs' fight with Israel and focus on improving living standards at home. "I don't think it's right to support them when our own people are hungry," says Mohammad Reza Afshari, 23, a mechanic who works two jobs yet still cannot afford to move out or attend college. The shop where he works abuts a vast mural depicting a female suicide bomber with a baby in her arms, accompanied by the words i love motherhood, but i love martyrdom more. Frustration with such propaganda underpins young people's reactions to the conflict. "Where are the Arabs?" asks Afshari angrily. "They're sitting around, while we're risking our position in the world."

These divisions are, of course, to be welcomed, especially as they assist us in crafting a policy that helps isolate Hezbollah and prevents further attempts by it to destabilize the Middle East region. They are also to be welcomed in that they remind us of the nature of the Iranian domestic situation. Periodically, we are tempted to forget this, but it behooves us to remember the profound sense of dissatisfaction on the part of the Iranian people concerning the nature and policies of the Islamic regime. Articles like the one linked to above help concentrate the mind and remind us that the domestic situation in Iran constitutes a threat to radical religious fundamentalism in the long run. And even before any revolt or revolution occurs, in the short run, the sense of dissatisfaction felt by Iranians concerning their regime's foreign policy and ideological proclivities can be used to check acts of mischief on the part of the regime and cut off entitites like Hezbollah from the boon of state sponsorship.