@willowtree99 No, I said that Israel’s precise targeting was to its credit, ie relative to indiscriminate bombing (of the type that, incidentally, Iran has since carried out in Tel Aviv and elsewhere). If it transpires that Israel’s actions have neutralised a nuclear threat against Israel, Europe and/or the US, that’s one positive, because (as U vd L recently said), Iran cannot be permitted to have nuclear weapons.
If Iran has enriched uranium to 60%, as the IAEA has stated, it is plainly not intended for benign civilian purposes. Which suggests that Khomeini’s fatwa was, not uncharacteristically, an exercise in dissembling bullshit.
I am not surprised in the slightest about the ethnicity of the Persian Jews. My husband is Persian, grew up in Iran and recalls all of his young Jewish school friends disappearing overnight after the revolution (along with many of his non-Jewish family members). The vast majority (90% or thereabouts) of the Jewish population fled to Israel and other countries, because Islamic theocracies are not renowned for their kindly treatment of Jews, and Iran is no exception. Funds were raised from wealthy Jewish diaspora to pay for the passage of any Jews wishing to leave Iran. Those who remained presumably felt more affinity to other ethnic Persians than to their co-religionists. They certainly didn’t stay because the regime was kind enough to give them a single seat in parliament - which is hardly a ‘gotcha’ seeing as Jews cannot take any other governmental or official role, are restricted in travel and education, have been “advised” (ahem) to cease any communications with family and friends in Israel and forced to attend anti-Israel protests. Not to mention the regime’s pesky habit of holocaust denial.
I’m also not sure that the fervent wish to annihilate Israel is quite so “understandable” if you consider the last 40 years of Islamist dictatorship in Iran, rather than the 18 months or so since October 7th (which, incidentally, was funded and conceived by Iran, the Hamas puppet master). Whereas Iran prefers to bleed Israel slowly to death by funding Islamist terrorism, Israel has chosen to strike openly and with impunity, to “cut the head off the snake” as I think the US once described it. I don’t condone Israel’s actions - its “a plague on both your houses” for me. But it’ll be a cold day in hell before I am complacent about the risk of a nuke in the hands of a lunatic Islamofascist dictator.
If anyone needs some light relief after all that (understandable) I highly recommend the scene in “The Dictator” where SBC is desperately trying to keep a straight face while promising he absolutely, definitely does not have any nuclear weapons. Apposite!