Tonight I went to a very interesting lecture by Professor Bernard Lewis of Princeton, who is also a Professor Emeritus at Tel Aviv University.
He was discussing the Zoroastrian/Iranian themes of good and evil, of grace and oppression which he believes are recognizable in the the Jewish Bible, personified as King Cyrus (almost viewed as a messianic figure, according to Lewis), and Haman (viewed as the evil Jew hater in the book of Esther).
He went on to say that this dichotomy or divide between themes of good vs. evil is present today in the Islamic Revolution of Iran which has spread to other Islamic societies and factions, including Hezbollah and Hamas. Evil is exemplified (to them) as America and American power centers such as Israel, and Good is exemplified by Islamic Republics such as Iran.
He referred to the cold war in which he said the West and the Soviet Union were effectively deterred from pursuing the destruction of the other because of MAD - Mutual Assured Destruction, but this is not the case with Iran, says Lewis. For Iran's leaders, as Islamic Revolutionaries, maintain an End-of-Days scenario, where they believe, like the Zoroastrians, that there will be an Apocalyptic battle between Good and Evil, and that those who perish as martyrs, fighting for the cause of Good (Shiite Islam), would have a free pass to the "Great brothel in the sky" (as Lewis put it)!
It was incredibly interesting to hear his perspectives, and though I don't agree that Judaism, and then Christianity are copy-cat religions of Zoroastrianism, I do think that the Muslim extremists have a more dangerous mentality than what has threatened the west before.
One thing I went away with that was refreshing, was the concept of (rather than immediately attacking Iran militarily), creating a war of ideas in Iran through media and propaganda, and create disunity among the Iranians. A house divided cannot stand! Professor Lewis hit the nail on the head. If Israel or America attacks Iran right now, Iran has no reason to hold back - on the contrary, they will feel like it is their chance to fight to the bitter end, and there would be a terrible loss of civilians - but if the West and Israel can create factions in Iran, which could lead to the collapse of the current regime and Coup, then the West and Israel would be more victorious. BUT - Bernard Lewis and I both agree that military force cannot be ruled out (because it may be too late for the former to effectively work).
