LETTER: Iran is a poisonous regime

Your cartoonist seems to be deep in the ANC-Russia-Turkey-Usual Suspects camp regarding Israel’s action against Iran. 

In one cartoon he mocks the threat from Iran as a possible, maybe, sometime one that should presumably be ignored, and in another that Donald Trump would be pouring fuel on a fire by helping Israel defang Iran. 

Of course, both characterise Benjamin Netanyahu as the villain orchestrating events, which illustrates how the hate of one person and/or Israel can blind a person to the facts. The Ayatollah’s first statement on arriving from Paris in 1979 was that destroying Israel was a pillar of the revolution, and every day since then it had been “Death to Israel”. 

Iran has diverted billions of dollars from its hapless citizens to that cause and on the way has caused civil wars in Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq, supported the Butcher of Baghdad, threatened Jordan and Saudi Arabia, caused the disaster in Gaza and exported terrorism worldwide.   

What then is the downside of removing the proven danger of this poisonous regime, whose domestic support is down to 15%, according to polling by the Dutch Gamaan Institute, whoever volunteers to do it?

Sydney Kaye
Cape Town

JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 200 words may be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.​