A fundamental pillar of the values, tenets and ethos that created and strengthened the Western world is the dignity of the individual and the sovereignty that arises from the collective will of individuals.
We have been taught to root for the little guy.
But we have also seen, again and again, that this sensibility has clashed with another Western approach, and that is selectivity: selectivity in the application of its own fundamental values, including the honoring of the Will of the People.
Right now, a very exciting, exhilarating and potentially liberating phenomenon is taking place in a realm that is devoid of all of these characteristics. I am of course referring to the popular uprising in Iran against the dictatorial, delusional and profoundly anti-individual regime of the mullahs.
The Twelfth Imam mullahs that lead Iran are obsessively focused on the destruction of those they despise, and that happens to entail most of all of the West, especially Israel and the United States.
This hatred has coincided with a total disregard for the needs and aspirations of their own people. The prooftext of this assertion is to be found in the numerous popular uprisings that have characterized the mullahs’ iron grip on Iranian society and its people.
Now we are seeing a reprise of the previous uprisings of the regime, but with important distinctions that put the current uprising in a class of its own.
Unlike past uprisings, this one is not concentrated in a small number of locales and is not the province of a particular slice of Iranian society.
Instead, the current uprising began with the bizaari, the bedrock mercantile class of Iran, not with students nor with women, nor with Kurds. The bizarri were instrumental in the deposing of the Shah and even Ayatollah Khameini has praised and placated them in the current uprising.
The uprising has spread rapidly. Unlike previous uprisings that were more geographically concentrated, the current protests have reportedly spread to approximately 50 venues around the country.
There also seems to be a concerted pattern of opposition that has raised the stakes of what is going on. Police stations have been raided, weapons have been seized, security forces have been confronted, and the people show no signs of cowering or fleeing in the face of repression by the regime.
The current uprising has all the hallmarks of the Iranian people demanding their own sovereignty, the overthrowing of oppression, of a regime who has shown no interest in their own subjects, but rather has been obsessed with world domination.
One would think that this uprising would have become the great interest and concern of Western leaders, media and opinion makers. Strangely though, that has hardly been the case.
Instead, there has been a fascinating dichotomy that has been taking place. There is the group of European nations that have been remarkably silent throughout these protests. One is hard pressed to find press coverage of them or to hear political leaders speaking about them, let alone throwing their support to the people in the streets.
Then there have been those who see the great opportunity that this uprising represents. US President Trump has clearly thrown American support to the protesters, going as far as threatening the regime if they violently crack down on the protesters.
Israel, mostly by deed, has also been supportive of the protesters. Israel knows that it cannot be too overt or vocal in its support. Israeli support could be used by the regime against the protesters as a justification for cracking down on those who are in league with a major enemy and threat to the regime.
It is not hard however to envision an active involvement by the Mossad in the uprising. There have been reports about the disabling of security cameras, something that would seem to have the Mossad’s fingerprints on it.
There also is the issue of the location of security forces offices and sites, many of which have been attacked. It is also reasonable to assume that the Mossad has been instrumental in providing such locations to local protesters, as well as providing strategic and logistical support.
This dichotomy in the West is both very telling and very ironic. How is that the sanctimonious Western leaders and media who are so quick to call out their depiction so-called Israeli war crimes in the war in Gaza, are so radio silent about the aspirations and treatment of another Muslim population, the Iranian people?
Where is the consistency? Obviously, there is none. This selectivity begs the question of why the quick to be sanctimonious crowd would be so oblivious to the grievances of the Iranian people.
Is this just because of needing Iranian oil? I doubt that since oil is a fungible commodity that can be obtained elsewhere if need be.
More concerning is whether all of this reflects a monumentally hypocritical Western siding with the mullahs. Why might there be such a rooting interest? Could it be that to these forces in the West, Iran represents the best way of diminishing and forestalling Israel?
Or is this just an exercise in the appeasement of their own Muslim populations? By not calling out the Iranian regime and siding with their freedom loving discontents, Western leaders could be seen as telegraphing their endorsement of the legitimacy of Islamisist control in the Middle East.
Of course, it is this control that many of the Arabs and Muslims in the West seek to impose upon their host countries. Any attempts therefore to placate the local Muslims by seeming to endorse mullah legitimacy could carry severely self-destructive implications.
The uprising in Iran therefore provides a great test case for where the West is holding in terms of its own true convictions and its willingness to abide by and support those convictions.
Those who would wrap themselves in the mantle of human rights must vociferously defend and root for the people of Iran, seeking to throw off the shackles of repression.
For them to remain silent, to look the other way or to minimize the implications of the protests is instead a very visible and very repugnant exercise in hypocrisy.
Douglas Altabef is the Chairman of the Board of Im Tirtzu and a Director of the Israel Independence Fund