I have always wondered why Iran wants to be involved to the point they are willing to risk their own destruction in their desire to annihilate Israel over the Gaza Strip. This is also rather interesting that Iran has zero investment or care for the Palestinians, nor do they have any historical connection, while the Palestinians themselves feel no connection to Iran either.

I think one needs to look to the more extreme nature of the Iranian government and how with new generations they work to maintain that extremism. It is in the basic nature of younger generations to become more moderate in their views as they desire a better life, more freedom, and greater choices than their forefathers had, and this is true in any country. For Iran they use extremism as their control and when you are extreme you need a bad guy or guys to fuel it. If there were no bad guys then it would be very hard to fuel that type of control.

History shows that Iran at one point had Iraq as their evil they needed to overcome. In that war to become a martyr was viewed as an honor to the family, and many young people, even children became human mine hunters. Now we see ten to twenty thousand signing up to be martyrs once again for cause. Am I the only one to see this as genocide of your own young population, all for the sake to maintain control over the population as a whole using fear and hate as the motivators?

If the Arab world really wanted to help the Palestine refugees they could dump food, construction, industries into the Gaza Strip instead of weapons and hate. The ruling party in the Gaza Strip also use hate for Israel as their motivator for control and would rather launch rockets then to build a viable society.

For those who say it is all a shame that Israel has pulled out for they continue to keep a total lockdown on Gaza to starve them out, history shows this is not the case. In pass wars Israel even though they won with great gains in land were still willing to give it all back once those countries worked with them in a peaceful way. Both Jordan and Egypt have done this successfully even though they were part of a very bloody war in the past with Israel. Israel has also shown that they will not hold back when provoked, and this is their greatest weakness for Arab countries rely on it to fuel their hate and extremism instead of working to prevent it.

So coming back to the title, if Iran attacks Israel it has little to do with the Palestinians and more to do with what they need to do every few decades to maintain their extremists control over their own people, even if it means death to 100,000s of them. Do not be fooled by what those in control are willing to sacrifice to maintain that control.

or is it that they see innocent people being killed, their land stolen and that nobody is doing a damn thing about this 60+ year atrocity...

You must keep in mind that many Iranians long for the return or the equivalent of influence that Persia enjoyed under Xerxes.

They conveniently forget that they did very well, right up to the point that they began to fight the West.

It was one ass-kicking after another.

The real question is do they really desire a return of Persian influence, or do they really desire another ass-kicking from another Western power?

or is it because their is world wide media attention and they see the opportunity to make the world forget about their nuclear ambitions.

Gaza is nothing more than a propaganda tool for Iran.

Iran is also probably feeling a little f--ked. Russia is selling them a complete nuclear infrastructure, for which they're paying twice - once in cash on the barrelhead, once again in increased bond interest rates and other economic sanctions that are crippling them.

All they have to comfort themselves is the pie in the sky that Mahmoud Ahmadinejhad has sold them - that one day they will be able to burn Israel down to the ground and the day after that, the Seventh Imam will return to put down all those nasty Sunnis. And if they have to nuke a path through Saudi Arabia to make their hadj after that, that will be nice, too.

Nice when all you have to do is hate to get through your day, huh?

[edit on 31-12-2008 by Murky]

Originally posted by Xtrozero
Why is Iran so involved in attacking Israel over Gaza?

Because their leader is a meglomaniac who wants attention and wants his name in the history books - glorious in war against the Jews. It's a psychological thing with him. From what I can see, most youthful Iranians just want their blue jeans and some Western music. (I could be wrong, but that's what I've dug up).

Well, Hitler wanted his name in the history books too. And he succeeded.

Ahmajackoff needs to quietly sit in the corner right now.

Iran is a deeply religious country. They have taken in MANY refugees from surrounding countries as needed, and have even been recognized as having some of the best refugee camps in the world.

They took in millions of poor Afghani's, people that could not contribute to their economy, but they took care of them because they do have a sense of moral responsibility.

Just because the MSN does not talk about it, doesn't mean it is not happening.

I think we look for the most complex to explain, really it's all about the Temple Mount and what must occur before it is to be rebuilt, and for Iran they have to assist in any way they can to bring forth the 12th Imam, no matter how insane this all seems they have to start some sort of large scale war, either the Islamic factions or the factions that have an interest in the Temple Mount to reach that prophecy of total destruction and the need to rebuild it, some sort of large scale war will come to pass in the Middle East probably bigger than any of the wars we have seen in our time.

[edit on 31-12-2008 by phinubian]

Originally posted by warrenb
or is it that they see innocent people being killed, their land stolen and that nobody is doing a damn thing about this 60+ year atrocity...

I see a lot more innocent people killed throughout the Middle East by Muslins on muslins, and the secular violence seems to be just a part of life over there that makes what Israel does pale in comparison.

Atrocity by whom? Egypt and Jordan both have a big hand over decades in causing the situation we see today. Hell, Egypt had control over that area and the people there for a good part of those 60 years you talk about. Also I’m not sure what land you are talking about when you say steal. If you recognize Iraq, Syria and Jordan then you must recognize Israel too, for they all were created the same way by the Brits and French.

Originally posted by FlyersFan
Because their leader is a meglomaniac who wants attention and wants his name in the history books - glorious in war against the Jews. It's a psychological thing with him. From what I can see, most youthful Iranians just want their blue jeans and some Western music. (I could be wrong, but that's what I've dug up).

Well that is the problem I see, and why I feel Iran does what it does. The current ruling party cannot maintain their absolute control if the young want to start acting moderately and want to care about other things in life than the Jews or Americans. When fear and hate are your tools of choice you don’t have many options other than to create devils around you.

Originally posted by Sonya610
Iran is a deeply religious country. They have taken in MANY refugees from surrounding countries as needed, and have even been recognized as having some of the best refugee camps in the world.

They took in millions of poor Afghani's, people that could not contribute to their economy, but they took care of them because they do have a sense of moral responsibility.

Just because the MSN does not talk about it, doesn't mean it is not happening.

This could be very well true, but it doesn't explain why they don't want to help in Gaza other than to supply weapons and bombs. The 2 million Palestinians in Gaza Strip are basically screwed with no way out. A big part of the reason is they want to fight and die than to have peace and prosper. They could prosper if the Arab countries told them to stop and helped prevent the shipment of weapons while supplying what they need to finally get a leg up. I don’t only blame Iran on this, but we do see Iran as the biggest arms supplier in many countries over there in an effort to breed chaos.