Faced with the threat of the Ayatollahs, here comes the left of "yes, but" again

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There is a left, in Italy and in the world, that continues to turn a blind eye to a tragedy no less serious than the tragedy that Gaza is experiencing, and that left, in Italy and in the world, that chooses not to call things by their name , that chooses to look the other way, that chooses to move by assuming symmetrical poses to the lords of global terror is the same left that every time it finds itself talking about two tragedies of our contemporary age , global anti-Semitism and the atomic threat of the Iranian ayatollahs , it is there that prevaricates and plays with the "but also", with the "yes, however", with the "but the problem is another". No, the problem is not another. The problem, faced with the possibility that a theocratic regime is gaining ground in the Middle East, equipped not only with proxies to set the world on fire but also with a nuclear arsenal with which to threaten the planet, and faced with the possibility that a new global intifada is slowly gaining ground around the world, is to refuse to look at reality for what it is, trying to minimize, scale down, contextualize, even justify.

In the last two days, two different symbols of progressive culture have broken down, in different ways, the wall of hypocrisy, from the left, on these two terribly intertwined issues. The first case, to be praised, is in Italy and is a case represented plastically by the Repubblica led by Mario Orfeo, who yesterday valorized a story that deserves to be handed out in the WhatsApp groups of all the parties of the broad camp , which in the last hours, faced with the Israeli defensive attack against Iranian arsenals, have shown solidarity more towards the regime of the ayatollahs than towards a country that for decades has been threatened by that regime of deserving to be wiped off the geographical maps. Two days ago, Repubblica told the formidable story of Ramtin Ghazavi, a famous Iranian tenor, the only one to have ever worked at La Scala in Milan, who for over 10 years has not been able to return to his native country due to his hard positions against the regime in Tehran. Ghazavi, who often recalls that after the 1979 revolution in Iran the only opera house was closed and opera was banned, during the La Scala 2023 Premiere, wore a T-shirt with the slogan “Woman, life, freedom”, which became the symbol of the Iranian protests after the killing of Mahsa Amini. Today, Ghazavi, speaking of Iran, his Iran, scandalously says what the useful idiots of the Western ayatollahs often fail to say. First: “I am experiencing this new war like many compatriots, I consider it the only solution to free ourselves from the regime, I say this reluctantly and with great pain because my parents and my friends are still in Iran”. Second: “The regime is already weakened and did not expect such a strong attack. And if the head of the snake falls, the people will also rebel. I have seen the bombs, I have lived in shelters, I have stood in line for milk, I know what war is. What is happening is painful but necessary”. Ghazavi also says that he gets angry “when I hear people here in Italy who speak without knowing our situation” and in doing so he fearlessly compares his Iran to North Korea, “a totalitarian regime that controls one of the richest countries in the world”. Ghazavi, in his own small way, has been explaining for years, not just for days, that doing everything necessary to fight against the regime of the ayatollahs should be a progressive battle, it should be the battle of all those who are committed to defending, in the world, freedom, civil and human rights. And in a certain sense, the same concept, albeit in an even more powerful way, is what the great aircraft carrier of progressive thought in the world chose to address yesterday: the New York Times.

What did the New York Times do? Simple. It chose to launch an appeal to all American progressives to stop playing with diversions when it comes to anti-Semitism. The United States, the NYT wrote, is experiencing the worst wave of anti-Jewish hatred in decades. In Boulder, Colorado, a man set fire to peaceful protesters who were demanding the release of Israeli hostages. Less than two weeks earlier, a young couple was shot dead as they left an event at the Jewish Museum in Washington. In October, a 39-year-old Chicago resident was shot in the back as he walked to synagogue. American Jews, the NYT also writes, now feel compelled to hide the signs of their faith. Synagogues have hired more armed guards to welcome worshippers. Jewish schools have hired guards to protect children and teachers. Progressives, in recent years, have shown that they want to do everything to fight many forms of hatred, but too many in these years and months have shown that they tolerate anti-Semitism. The problems, the NYT recognizes, are also found on the right, where xenophobia, conspiracy theories, nationalism release energy useful for turning on the fans of hatred of all kinds. But something more serious has happened on the left. And to explain why, the NYT cites the famous three "Ds" of Natan Sharansky, a former Soviet dissident, former Israeli vice-premier who years ago suggested a "three-dimensional" test to identify when criticism of Israel borders on anti-Semitism. The Ds are delegitimization, demonization and double standards. And progressive rhetoric, the NYT concludes, has regularly failed this test in recent years. And not understanding that the new anti-Semitism has exposed Jews to a greater risk of being victims of hate crimes than any other group is not understanding a problem that is ultimately symmetrical to the one that lies at the heart of the defensive war waged by Israel against the atomic theocracy: doing whatever is necessary, even on the left, to not show complicity with those who have chosen to transform being Jewish, being Zionist, being a Jewish state into a mortal sin, to be destroyed by force, by violence and if necessary even with a final solution. And anyone who fails to denounce anti-Semitism with the same unequivocal tone with which he correctly denounces other types of tragedies is doing nothing more than acting like a useful idiot for the main center of global terror and universal anti-Semitism: the Iran of the ayatollahs.

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