Bashing Israel May Backfire

Roya Hakakian writes:

Twenty-five years of demonizing America has sent the Great Satan's popularity skyrocketing among young Iranians. In similar fashion, the passion for the Palestinian cause is cooling, and the average Iranian is beginning to look at Israel with new interest. Iranian bloggers are expressing their exhaustion with the regime's embrace of the Palestinian cause at the expense of Iranians' welfare.

Fifty years after it was first spoken, Martin Niemoeller's famous warning proved true in Iran: First they came for the Baha'is, then the Jews, then the women, until they came for the average Iranian who, by then, had no choice but to subject himself to the dark rule of theocracy.