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Nov. 20, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: How to make every second of your life come first
Caroline B. Glick: Whither American Jewry
Nov. 19, 2009
Binyamin L. Jolkovsky: Please Listen to this Godcast (5 minutes)
Jonathan Tobin: ADL Crosses the Line with Report Bashing Obama Critics
Nov. 18, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: What Judaism has to say about the secret of the Mona Lisa's smile
JWisdom.com: The (Jewish) Dating Game with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (8 minutes)
Nov. 17, 2009
Steven Emerson: How Does the 4th Amendment Impact Terror Finance Investigations?
JWisdom.com: If Frank Sinatra married Edith Piaf with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein (2 minutes) Life lessons from what would be regarded as the most inappropriate lyrics ever sung
Nov. 16, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : When borrowing is stealing
JWisdom.com: Deconstructing faith with Rabbi Warren Goldstein (9 minutes)
Nov. 13, 2009
JWisdom.com Sarah's subjective reality with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 6 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: Obama's failure, Netanyahu's opportunity
Nov. 12, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet By Marialisa Calta : A sweet sweet potato treat
JWisdom.com Does God get tired? with Rabbi Harvey Belovski ( 5 minutes)
Nov. 11, 2009
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Jews and money: When anti-Semitism isn't
JWisdom.com Marriages are not made in Heaven with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (VERY fast 15 minutes)
Nov. 10, 2009
Michael Doyle: Author of book exposing CAIR ordered to remove supporting documents from Web
JWisdom.com If the creation so loudly shouts the existence of the Creator, why aren't more people believers? with Rabbi Naftali Brawer (9 minutes)
Nov. 9, 2009
Mark Steyn: Shooter exposes hole in U.S. terror strategy
JWisdom.com It's never too late to have a happy childhood with Sarah Chana Radcliffe (5 minutes)
Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review June 19, 2009 / 27 Sivan 5769

The Man of the Hour

By Mona Charen


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Someone few Americans had ever heard of one week ago now stands poised to alter history. His name is Mir Hossein Mousavi and his case utterly debunks the school of historians who insist that history is made by large impersonal forces rather than by key individuals. While it is certainly true that Iran's current crisis had many antecedents, it is equally true that the decisions of this one man will play a decisive role in the outcome.


President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has accepted the congratulations of Syria's Bashar Assad and Russia's Dmitri Medvedev on his wonderful victory. Many people find it wonderful, though not in the sense he or Supreme Leader Khamenei would prefer. Ahmadinejad has assured observers that "Iran is the most stable nation in the world." But on the streets of Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz, and other Iranian cities, a broad alliance of Iranians are literally shouting from the rooftops that they will not accept the risible vote tallies announced by the government — a two-to-one landslide for Ahmadinejad. "Death to the Dictator" is on many lips.


The unfolding drama in Iran is at once thrilling, disturbing, and ambiguous. It's thrilling because for the first time since the Khomeini revolution in 1979, a spontaneous, grassroots movement threatens the rulers in Tehran. The mullahocracy, deeply unpopular with the Iranian people, has held power through violence and terror for 30 years. As much misery as Iran has spread worldwide through its sponsorship of terror and its pursuit of nuclear weapons, it has visited even more wretchedness on its own people. The economy, despite Iran's oil wealth, is crumbling, with double-digit unemployment. Corruption is endemic: Freedom House reports that even mail is not delivered unless the postman gets a payoff. Repression on a totalitarian scale is a fact of daily life. Though Iran's people have repeatedly given evidence of their disgust with the clerical leadership, they have been unable to escape the boot on their necks. Particularly during the past four years, shortages, corruption, and privation have plagued Iran. A survey conducted by the Ministry of Intelligence for the Majlis (parliament) a few months ago found that only 13 percent of Iranians would vote for Ahmadinejad.


But popular uprisings often end badly. They did in East Germany in 1953, in Hungary in 1956, in Czechoslovakia in 1968, and in China in 1989. As we watch smuggled amateur video of Basij militia clubbing peaceful demonstrators with batons from the backs of motorcycles, and government thugs descending upon Tehran University to the sound of screams and breaking glass, we reflect that this junta has been preparing itself for resistance. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps was recently overhauled to focus on "domestic foes" and placed in command of an estimated 2-5 million Basij militia. Foreign press are being hustled out of the country in a possible prelude to more savage repression.


Alternatively, if a severe crackdown does not materialize, then what? The millions of Iranians thronging the streets are testimony to the yearning for reform among the people. But what shape that reform would take is anything but clear. Mir Hossein Mousavi has become the repository for the people's hopes. He is, for better or worse, the face of the resistance movement. He ran for president of Iran as an alternative to Ahmadinejad. But now, with an unprecedented popular uprising at his back, can he become an alternative to the whole clerical establishment? Does he possibly have such ambitions? Reportedly a "favorite" of Ayatollah Khomeini, Mousavi served as Prime Minister from 1981 to 1989, during which time he oversaw Iran's initial moves toward obtaining nuclear weapons. He has served in a variety of advisory posts since then. He has never by word or deed signaled any willingness to depart from an Islamist dominated state.


His campaign was Gorbachevian in that he promised to make the Iranian government more transparent and permit more freedom of the press ("glasnost"), as well as to examine laws that discriminate against women ("perestroika").


But in one week everything has changed. What seemed impossible last week seems very possible today. So much now depends upon what Mousavi does with his de facto mandate from the people. He calls the demonstrations. He delivers the speeches. It is his photo they carry and his color (green) they wear. If he is a true reformer, this could be a turning point in world history. But we don't know yet what he believes or intends.

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