Importing Enemies
15th April 2024
That Ayatollah Khomeini invented “Quds Day” is not surprising. “Al Quds” is Arabic for Jerusalem; the name derives from the Hebrew nickname for “the Holy City,” Ir HaKodesh. Khomeini introduced the holiday in 1979, shortly after the revolution that installed him in power. Celebrated on the last Friday of Ramadan, the festival is generally attended by anti-American and anti-Zionist protests and chants calling for the death of both nations.
Back in 1979, America was glued to TV screens receiving updates on the Teheran hostage crisis, which was national news and contributed to the downfall of then-president Jimmy Carter. In 2012, a similar hostage crisis, in an American diplomatic facility in Libya, hardly gathered attention. Today, few in the U.S. are aware that Palestinians still hold (if they are still alive) five Americans hostage in Gaza and that they killed dozens more in Southern Israel during the massacre in October last year. The Biden Administration does not appear to be preoccupied with their release. By contrast, Vladimir Putin secured the release of Russian-Israeli dual national Roni Krivol, despite him being a male of military age.
That Quds Day is observed in Dearborn, Michigan is not surprising either—but it is disturbing. This year the occasion stirred controversy because it was marked by chants calling Death to Israel and Death to America. It wasn’t the first time such screams were heard in the Heartland, but now they are getting noticed. Even more recently, a group of Chicago leftists planning their protests for the Democratic National Convention this summer were delighted to learn how to chant “Death to America” in Persian.