In our dreams, we often destroyed the command center of the Iranian police. Sometimes we also destroyed the studios of Iranian state television, where the tortured political prisoners were forced to make public confessions. They had to confess with a smile during a live broadcast.
The IRGC-announcers read reports about the execution of enemies of Allah as if they were talking about the extermination of pesky mosquitoes. Oh, how often Sardar (the so-called general who was a general of oppression) Salami, the commander of the IRGC, died in our minds.
But an Iranian dissident would never have been able to destroy so many jihadist (resemble Nazis figures) or their command posts, or their studios for crimes against humanity or organized lies. Are the Iranian dissidents cowards? Why can't the Iranians overthrow the regime?
The Iranian regime is not a normal dictatorship. The Islamic Republic is not a banana republic. The regime of ayatollahs is a totalitarian state.
A tale of totalitarianism
A totalitarian state, as Hannah Arendt taught us, seeks to create a new human being (Neue Mensch) through violence, lies, and re-education. Arendt rightly wrote in The Origins of Totalitarianism that terror is not an incidental feature but the essence of a totalitarian regime.
The Nazi regime acted in the name of nature for the domination of the pure race. The Soviet Union acted in the name of history for the abolition of all classes. The Islamic regime acts in the name of Islamism for the domination of political Islam.
To achieve all these goals, totalitarian regimes set up extraordinary special repressive organs: SS (IRGC), SA (Basij), Waffen-SS (Quds-IRGC). They can crush any protest. And then they rewrite history and indoctrinate the new generation through education and state media. The Homo Islamicus is the new type of human being (Neue Mensch) that the Iranian regime, like all other jihadists, wants to create. This requires the use of extreme violence.
Nevertheless, in every decade, a new generation of dissidents came out onto the streets to protest. In the 1980s, thousands were executed and buried in mass graves. In the 1990s, students from a number of major universities protested. In 2009, massive demonstrations were held against the regime led by Mir-Hossein Mousavi. The Green Movement was ruthlessly suppressed. In 2022, young women and men (Woman, Life, Freedom) took to the streets and demanded regime change.
Once again, the IRGC activated the Ayatollahs' guillotine: the machine worked quickly and mercilessly, carrying out executions, arrests, torture, rape, and intimidation. Ayatollah-ruled Iran is a massive graveyard for dissidents. Many friends, including two members of my family, did not survive the execution chambers of the ayatollahs. Brave Iranians also participated in Operation Rising Lion. There is no shortage of bravery in Iran.
On Friday, June 13, the regime was confronted with an opponent that attacked not only military targets but also the regime's organs of oppression. They never expected that Israel would attack the entire regime without large-scale support from America. The entire command structure of the IRGC was eliminated that Friday.
After that, IRGC barracks, nuclear facilities, and symbols of oppression were bombed. Israel is not at war with Iran, but with the regime of IRGC ayatollahs. The leader of the Iranian opposition, Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, called on the population to rise up against the regime. Young people in Tehran, Isfahan, and Shiraz chanted “Death to Khamenei.”
Now is the time for Khamenei to disappear forever. Why? Wouldn't someone even more dangerous come to power in his place? No. After Khomeini, Khamenei is the most experienced and charismatic leader of Iranian Islamists. The most suitable candidates to succeed Khamenei have already died of natural causes. If Khamenei manages to appoint his son Mojtaba Khamenei as his successor in the coming months, his wish for a peaceful transfer of power will be fulfilled.
The daughter of Hashemi Rafsanjani, Faezeh Rafsanjani (former member of the Iranian parliament), said shortly before the start of the war that she supports Mojtaba Khamenei, because otherwise Reza Pahlavi will come to power, or in other words, the Iranian people will come to power. Even before the war, she felt that the regime was in serious danger. All polls indicate that a majority of the population wants regime change. Khatami, Rohani, Pezshkian, and the Rafanjani clan, the so-called reformists, want to guarantee the survival of the totalitarian regime of the ayatollahs.
In the scenario that Khamenei, his son, and Pezshkian die, Israel, America, and Europe must help Iranians to overthrow the regime.
What is Europe's interest? If this regime does not fall, what remains after the war will, once thoroughly prepared, take revenge on the free world. Israel will be even more at risk if the regime survives this war. Within a decade, after executing thousands of opponents inside and outside Iran, they will produce the deadliest weapons of mass destruction with the help of their friends in North Korea.
The appeal to Israel
My appeal to Israel is, do not burden your children with a monstrous, life-threatening regime. History will not forgive us. As long as gas and oil are the most important fuels, it is inevitable that America will secure gas and oil supplies for the free world. America will never find peace with this regime in power.
Totalitarian regimes were never overthrown by their own people without external intervention. Hitler's regime was destroyed by the Allies. The Soviet Union was destroyed by the top leadership of the Communist Party itself, which was supposed to happen in Iran in 2009 during the Green Movement led by Mir-Hossein Mousavi. The Islamic Republic of the IRGC would end up in the dustbin of history due to military pressure from Israel and America, and active support for the population.
What a history! Now, after a thousand years, the children of Israel are liberating Iranians from their tyrant. Once, the Iranians did the same for the Jews, in the time of Cyrus the Great. You and I are brothers, each other's guardians in an eternal bond forged by Cyrus the Great.
The writer is a Dutch-Iranian philosopher and law professor.