Here’s someone new to blame for everything: Eli Yishai. After all, Benjamin Netanyahu wanted it so much, Ehud Barak pressed so hard, Shimon Peres wielded so much influence – and along came the interior minister and ruined everything.
There we were, on the brink of another historic upheaval (almost). Proximity talks with the Palestinians were in the air, peace was knocking on the door, the occupation was nearing its end – and then a Shas rogue, who knows nothing about timing and diplomacy, came and shuffled all the proximity and peace cards.
Downtown Tehran, winter: impossible traffic, the energy of 9 million Iranians making their way through congested streets, the white peaks of the Alborz Mountains disappearing shade by shade in the ever-increasing smog. The government’s declared another pollution emergency, and the center city is closed to license plates ending in odd numbers. The students at the university, where I am teaching a seminar on American Studies, are complaining openly about the failures of their elected officials.
“Nahal” and I are sitting in a café off Haft-e Tir Square. She is smart and dynamic, a graduate student and freelance journalist who is quick to criticize the US government and the perfidy of CNN. When I mention that, a few days ago, I had overheard Friday prayers and was taken aback by the chanting of Marg bar Amrika! (“Death to America”) she retorts: “But you call us the Axis of Evil!”
Iran: So what happens on the day after 22 Bahman? And what does it all mean?
We have three special reports and analyses this morning. Mr Verde sees the Regime’s win yesterday as pyrrhic: “For any regime, especially one that claims to be a popular republic based on Islam, pointing TV cameras at the right-looking crowd while beating the “wrong crowd” with all its might, especially on the anniversary of its formation, is not a victory.”
EA’s Scott Lucas considers the political significance of yesterday’s events, and concludes that, if President Ahmadinejad could be said to have won, then he “won ugly”. EA correspondent Mr Azadi, who was in close contact with sources in Tehran throughout Thursday, gives a detailed summary from eyewitness accounts. We have also highlighted Pedestrian’s snapshot and compelling interpretation that any “defeat” for the opposition yesterday was a tactical miscalculation rather than the end of the challenge to the Government.
We have posted an ABC TV interview with internet activist Mehdi Saharkhiz(of “Only Mehdi” fame) and will continue to add to yesterday’s video posts from Iran (set four can be viewed here), together with other TV coverage that has and will become available.
The regime’s propaganda machine drones on about nukes, nukes and more nukes, trying to divert attention away from internal squabbles and human rights issues. We’ll keep you updated on all the news our live weblog throughout the day.
At the risk of overloading readers with analysis, I think Pedestrian’s snapshot — with a compelling eyewitness account — and interpretation deserve full attention. It complements both the “inside Tehran” narrative we have posted and my emerging sense, from other information and analysis, that any “defeat” for the opposition yesterday was a tactical miscalculation rather than the end of the challenge to the Government:
Khordaad 88 has translated numerous eyewitness accounts of today’s demonstrations. We will continue to bring you more in the next few days.
Before the demonstration, we screamed, we shouted: this is such a stupid idea [gathering at Azadi]. We kept arguing that we could not “capture” Azadi Square, and this will only help the enemy. No one listened.
After the announcement of the planned construction of 1,600 Israeli housing units in East Jerusalem, Haaretz’s Gideon Levy put the absurdity on paper by declaring there is someone to blame now: Israel’s Interior Minister Eli Yishai:
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