Public Comment

A deafening silence by the western press greeted the brutal murder of Iranian scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. Strangely absent from the reported killing was the word “terrorist”. Fakhrizadeh was the fifth scientist to be (allegedly) assassinated by the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad. Not even a murmur of outrage was reported in the western press following these brutal crimes. 

Israel never even bothered to deny they were responsible. Neither Democrats nor Republicans condemned the killing. President Trump, on a whim, in complete violation of International law, decided to renege from the 2015 Nuclear Treaty boasting that it would be replaced by a “tougher” agreement. Crippling economic sanctions followed causing enormous suffering to the Iranian people amid a raging pandemic. The Iranians still have long memories of the theft of their oil in a 1953 coup orchestrated by British Mi6 and the CIA.  

What happened to our sense of morality? 

These murders are acts of terrorism and should be described as such by the western media. Failure to do so will expose us to charges of hypocrisy and embolden Iranian hard liners to seek revenge. An eye for eye, lust for revenge will leave us all blind. The Netanyahu government has played President Trump and Pompeo like a fiddle smothering them with flattery while cementing their chokehold on the suffering Palestinians expropriating more of their land and claiming the Syrian Golan Heights as their own. 

These targeted killings of Iranian scientists not only go unquestioned but in the words of Israeli journalist Gideon Levy, are considered “treasonous” to even pose. 

Why does Israel always get a free pass? After Fakrizadeh was murdered, Agnes Callamard, a U.N. Special Rapporteur and Director of Global Freedom of Expression at Columbia University, tweeted that the assassination was “a violation of international human rights law and a complete violation of the UN Charter that disallow the use of force extraterritorially in times of peace.” 

Yet it is Iran that continues to be targeted as a global threat. This, despite the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, repeatedly confirming in 2018 that Iran was complying with the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal. So which nation is the greater threat to world peace? 

Simply stated, Iran today has zero nuclear bombs while Israel is widely believed to possess 90 plutonium-based nuclear warheads and to have produced enough plutonium for 100-200 weapons, according to the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. 

I wonder how the world press would respond if Iran assassinated an Israeli or US scientist? Public discourse on these state-sponsored acts of terrorism has historically been absent: Washington and Tel Aviv have had such a long-running alliance and shared intelligence regarding Iran that targeted killings not only go unquestioned but in the words of Israeli journalist Gideon Levy, are considered “treasonous” to even pose. So much for Israel’s claim to be a democracy.