Superb, although it might be too subtle. I didn’t even notice the Iranian flag on the first run-through, and I wonder if most Iraqis will recognize the commander of the Quds Force from his photo. As intriguing as the clip itself is who’s airing it: Al-Furat, which belongs to ISCI, a.k.a. SCIRI, the Sadrists’ rivals for Shiite supremacy and formerly Iran’s proxy of choice inside Iraq. They’ve drifted away from Tehran and towards the U.S. over the past year, but until seeing this I assumed they had good relations with both sides. Now I don’t know what to think. It could be, I guess, that they’re simply miffed at Iran for favoring Sadr and are out for revenge, but even if that’s all there is to it, there must be some potent anti-Iranian sentiment circulating among Iraqi Shiites these days to make a spot like this worth running.
Below that you’ll find its counterpoint — vintage anti-semitism, replete with scholarly paeans to the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” and adorned with grotesque cartoons about Jewish world domination, currently airing on Iran network IRINN. I like to think this is what’s on opposite Galloway when he’s doing his tapdance for Press TV. Click the images to watch; the second clip’s long, so if you’d rather skim the transcript, have at it.
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