Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel’s decision to invite Reza Koresh Ali Pahlavi was puzzling. This wasn’t a diplomatic move but political propaganda.
And it wasn’t just an ordinary invitation. Pahlavi was invited for Holocaust Remembrance Day, and he attended the main memorial ceremony with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog. The two Israeli leaders also met with him separately, and Gamliel outdid herself by calling Pahlavi Iran’s “crown prince.”
Reza Pahlavi is the son of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and the grandson of Reza Khan, an Iranian army officer who seized power in a military coup in 1921 and founded the Pahlavi dynasty. He created an autocratic imperial monarchy in what was then called Persia.
Reza Khan was forced to give up his crown in 1941 after the Red Army and the British invaded. They did so because they feared that oil-rich Iran, which was staying neutral during World War II, would ultimately join forces with Nazi Germany. Twelve years later, after a military coup instigated by the United States and Britain, Reza Khan’s son Mohammad rose to power and ruled until 1979, when he was ousted in the Islamic Revolution fomented by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Reza Koresh Ali Pahlavi, who was crown prince before the revolution and nicknamed “baby shah” in the West, moved to the United States and has lived there for 44 years. During the early years of his exile, he tried to regain power back home.
Despite promising that most power would remain in Khomeini’s hands, his proposal was rejected. His request to volunteer for service in Iran’s air force during its war with Iraq in the ‘80s was also rejected.
Comparisons of Nazi Germany to Iran are a motif in many of Netanyahu’s speeches. But with such statements, he's cheapening the Holocaust.
After that, he set up a government in exile and took part in several plans to stage a coup, including failed efforts to recruit Saudi Arabia and prominent Israelis to his cause. Among the Israelis were then-Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, businessman Jackob Nimrodi and David Kimche, who served as deputy head of the Mossad and then as director general of the Foreign Ministry.
Reza Pahlavi has been considered friendly to the Jews and Israel. He always mentions the days when Iran under his father’s rule had close ties with Israel, both defense ties (arms deals and training for the shah’s security services) and economic ties (Iranian oil that was sold to Israel).
Even today he fantasizes that he’ll someday return to power, but this is a pipe dream. He has supporters in the Iranian exile community, especially in the United States, where around 500,000 exiles live. But the prevailing view is that he’s a red flag even for opponents of the Iranian regime, both inside and outside the country. They don’t see him as a suitable person to lead them.
So inviting him to Israel won’t contribute to Israel’s overt and covert efforts to drive a wedge between the Iranian people and their government.
Similar ideas arose back when Meir Dagan headed the Mossad from 2002 to 2011. He thought it would be possible to provide help to opposition forces in Iran that sought to topple the clerics’ oppressive regime.
But none of these flirtations – mainly by the Mossad working with Iranians in exile – have done anything to advance the regime’s downfall. They’ve produced no results whatsoever, except maybe helping sabotage operations and assassinations aimed at Iran’s nuclear program. All the experts agree that if the Iranian government eventually falls, it will be due to an internal development, not an external one.
The only explanation for the decision to invite Pahlavi to Israel is that the Intelligence Ministry considers the visit a psychological operation aimed not at the outside world but at the Israeli public. In other words, the ministry is using him to connect Holocaust Remembrance Day with the Iranian enemy.
Comparisons of Nazi Germany to Iran are a motif in many of Netanyahu’s speeches. But with such statements, the prime minister is cheapening the Holocaust, a unique historical event that shouldn’t be compared to anything anywhere under any circumstances.
Still, in light of Netanyahu’s mantra, it seems safe to assume that Gamliel received a green light from the prime minister for Pahlavi’s visit. Incidentally, Foreign Minister Eli Cohen wasn’t involved in the invitation at all.
Gamliel also said that Pahlavi symbolizes a different kind of leadership. It’s a sorry joke to view the son of a dictator as an enlightened leader, even if that dictator was pro-Western.
Pahlavi’s visit here won’t contribute anything to either Israel’s battle against Iran or its foreign relations. Few countries consider him a role model.
Pahlavi has the right to visit Israel just like anyone else. But making this an official visit under the government’s auspices and inviting him to the main Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony at Yad Vashem with the prime minister is, again, a cynical exploitation of the memory of the Holocaust.
This is also another attempt by Netanyahu’s government to divert attention to Iran from the protests against its efforts to weaken the justice system. Actually, it’s an own goal that won’t produce any sympathy for Israel among Iranian opponents of the ayatollahs’ regime.
The Shah’s Son’s Visit to Israel Is Cynical Use of the Holocaust
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23.04.2023
Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel’s decision to invite Reza Koresh Ali Pahlavi was puzzling. This wasn’t a diplomatic move but political propaganda.
And it wasn’t just an ordinary invitation. Pahlavi was invited for Holocaust Remembrance Day, and he attended the main memorial ceremony with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog. The two Israeli leaders also met with him separately, and Gamliel outdid herself by calling Pahlavi Iran’s “crown prince.”
Reza Pahlavi is the son of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and the grandson of Reza Khan, an Iranian army officer who seized power in a military coup in 1921 and founded the Pahlavi dynasty. He created an autocratic imperial monarchy in what was then called Persia.
Reza Khan was forced to give up his crown in 1941 after the Red Army and the British invaded. They did so because they feared that oil-rich Iran, which was staying neutral during World War II, would ultimately join forces with Nazi Germany. Twelve years later, after a military coup instigated by the United States and Britain, Reza Khan’s son Mohammad rose to power and ruled until 1979, when he was ousted in the Islamic Revolution fomented by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Reza Koresh Ali Pahlavi, who was crown prince before the revolution and nicknamed “baby shah” in the West,........
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