Righting U.S. Policy Mistakes Toward Iran
I want to commend Jonathan Braun for his fascinating, very thorough, informative, and well researched article on the front page of The Jewish Press on January 16 (“From Betraying the Shah to Bankrolling the Mullahs: How Democrat Administrations Empower Evil in Iran”).
In the article, he highlights how the Carter Administration betrayed the current Shah of Iran, Mohammad Pahlavi, who incidentally had maintained very friendly relations with Israel at the time, by supporting the radical Islamist Ayatollah Khomeini, believing that he was less corrupt and more “moderate” than the Iranian monarchy. Carter, in turn, was “rewarded” for his very myopic and wrong-headed view, which led to the downfall of the Shah and the Islamists then assuming power, when their radical government subsequently stormed the U.S. embassy in Teheran, taking 52 American hostages. The hostages were imprisoned for 444 days and that crisis ultimately led to Jimmy Carter’s re-election defeat. It also led to Iran becoming not only a great threat to Israel but to all Western civilizations by forming the largest terrorist network in the world, with the ultimate goal of converting the entire world to their radical version of Islam.
Mr. Braun then continued to condemn the administrations of Obama and Biden for further allowing the radical Iranian mullahs to survive by empowering them both financially (by un-freezing all their assets and removing all the previous sanctions levied against them) as well as militarily (by allowing them to accumulate a vast arsenal of missiles and nuclear weapons to be used against Israel and ultimately against the entire western world). However, thankfully, the current Trump Administration immediately reversed this trajectory by greatly weakening them both financially and – together with Israel – militarily. That has now led to what hopefully will be their downfall, as the Iranian people are in the midst of a revolution, hoping to be liberated from their tyrannical and repressive Islamist leaders.
I would like to add that while Braun correctly blames the majority of the Democrat political leaders and presidential administrations as well as the liberal media for minimizing how evil and destructive Iran has become, there is some hope on the horizon. I am referring to a very recent almost full-page editorial of the New York Times (which I consider one of the leading voices of the liberal media) dated January 16, 2026, with the heading in large print: “We Stand with the People of Iran.” The editorial advocated that Trump as well as all European nations should actively help support the Iranian people, including extending sanctions against their tyrannical government to help liberate them from what the editorial calls the most “nefarious” regime in the entire world. It in fact cites as one of their many crimes their desire to destroy Israel through their many proxies in the region.
I am now waiting for all the young college students to take a cue from the many brave protesters of Iran and start realizing that the true oppressors of the world are not Israel, but in fact Iran, which is the main supporter of all existing terrorist organizations, including Hamas and Hezbollah. And in their protests, they should start replacing the Palestinian flag with the pre-1979 Iranian monarchical flag harking back to the more peaceful and liberated times that the Iranian people are now striving for. This, in turn, would also help liberate the Palestinian people as well – since Hamas, without the support of Iran, would also be destroyed.
Josh Rosenthal
Queens, N.Y.
Where Are the Protesters?
It is outrageous that with many thousands dead and arrested in Iran, there is complete silence from the myriad of anti-Israel protesters worldwide. Iran’s brutal Islamo-fascist regime is the leading sponsor of terrorism, and its persecution of its own people is evil and extreme. It is Israel that, by defeating Hezbollah and thus causing Assad’s regime in Syria to fall, also helped weaken and humiliate the regime in Iran through its 12-day war followed by the U.S. strike.
Iran’s support for its proxies caused the October 7th massacre, and thus is responsible for the war in Gaza which would not have otherwise occurred.
Truth always prevails, and the people of Iran and all the world must see that Israel is a force for good and that the “big lie” of the Islamists and their allies will not prevail.
Harvey (Chaim) Herbert
Brooklyn, N.Y.