November 08-2013
The anti-American demonstration at the US embassy this November 4 was far larger than in any recent year, but still failed to show that anti-Americanism is a dominant feeling among the Iranian public.
The rallies are replete with constant chants of “Marg bar Amrika,” literally “Death to America” but actually closer in meaning to “Down with America,” which is the translation used on the English-language placards handled out this year.
The demonstration is held every year to mark the November 4, 1979, seizure of the embassy.
For the last decade, the crowds have been puny, never even reaching 10,000 by most estimates of reporters attending them.
This year, the turnout was much greater, with most reporters estimating “tens of thousands” and the Associated Press putting the total at 50,000, though The Wall Street Journal cited only “several thousand.”
Still that is not a large number in a metropolitan area with 12 million people that can produce crowds of hundreds of thousands for other public events.
Furthermore, some were there only because they were bussed in from schools or government offices and did not share the ideology of the sponsors, according to American Thomas Erdbrink of The New York Times, who attended the rally.
He later spoke with National Public Radio (NPR) and explained what he saw and heard around him.
“They brought in lots of people,” he said, “people who are working in government offices but also lots of school kids. And they were all there right in front of me, shouting ‘Death to America’ a million times.”
Asked if the presence of an American upset any of them, Erdbrink said, “No, not at all. And actually all those people I spoke with told me privately that they didn’t really mind Iran talking [diplomatically] to the United States. And they admitted that they wanted to see some sort of solution for this long and bitter period of both countries not talking to each other. The majority of the people clearly is in favor of talks with the United States, but there is a very strong force in Iranian politics.”
Erdbrink continued, “These are the hardliners that we’re talking about—hardline Shiite Muslim clerics, military commanders who feel their interests will be threatened if there is any sort of rapprochement between Iran and the US. And they were the ones organizing this day and they were flexing their muscles….
“It’s clear that the people behind this effort of, well, sabotaging the talks are influential, wealthy, and it’s almost impossible for President Rohani to silence them at this point.”
And, Erdbrink said, “It is clear that all the changes he has promised might not bear fruit if he is not given more space by these hardliners.”
Erdbrink concluded, like anyone living in Tehran, with a taxi driver story. “As I was driving to the demonstration this morning, the taxi driver who I’ve known for quite a while as being a very quiet man who never debates politics, he was very upset this morning. He said, ‘I don’t understand our country anymore. On one hand, we are talking to the United States. On the other hand, we are shouting ‘Death to America.’ To me as a simple man,’ he said of himself, ‘it is clear that this will not lead to anything.’ He kind of said that he was very quickly losing his faith in President Rohani and his ability to make the real big changes that he wanted, at least.”
The protest was typical of those that have been held for a third of a century on this day—anti-American chants, the burning of the US flag, anti-American songs and poetry, the shouted approval of a statement pledging undying hatred of the United States, and fiery speeches.
The statement declared that the United States is “the nation’s Number One enemy.” It also described the “Death to America” slogan as the key factor in Iran’s national unity. That strangely defined Iran not as pro-Iranian but as anti-American, an odd way to posture an entire nation.
The chants included: “If Khomeini orders us to Jihad, the world could not resist us,” “Students are alert and hate America,” and “The blood in our veins, a gift for our Leader.”
The main speaker was Saeed Jalili, the candidate who ran as a hardliner in the June presidnetial elections and drew 11 percent of the vote, probably the best indicator of the where the hardline ideology stands with the Iranian public.
Jalili, who remains on the staff of the Supreme Leader, fed the crowd the usual red meat. But he was also very clear in saying that he and those of his ilk support the talks with the United States—echoing the statement two days earlier of the Supreme Leader. (See story elsewhere in this week’s issue.)
Jalili also tried to make the “Death to America” chant sound less hostile to Americans. He told the throng the chant was not aimed at the American people but at the US government. And he said it doesn’t call for the death of Americans or their state, but rather it “means death to arrogance, death to violence.”
Jalili also made an important distinction. “Our enemies claim that foreign diplomacy should be pragmatic, not ideological,” he said. “By claiming to be pragmatic, they are departing from the path of the Imam [Khomeini].”
Most revolutions start out heavily ideological, but shift to the pragmatic in a short while. The Chinese Communists, for example, shifted in 20 years and welcomed Richard Nixon in their midst just 23 years after taking power. But the Islamic Republic is now in its fourth decade and the ideologues retain authority.
That authority, of course, is contested—not least by the 51 percent of the public who voted for President Rohani in June. And an alliance of 30 student groups issued a statement Monday that was effectively a response to Jalili. “Our yearning for independence,” the statement said, “does not mean that we want to be isolated and provocative in our foreign diplomacy.”
It would not, of course, be a political demonstration in Tehran without at least one sign of tastelessness. In one example, a car was driven around bearing a large placard on its roof displaying a death notice for Barack Obama.
The White House brushed such things aside. Spokesman Jay Carney was asked about the “Death to America” chants, but ignored the question and said, “We believe that the vast majority of Iranians would prefer a better relationship with the West and would prefer the benefits of … rejoining the international community to the current status quo.”
All the major dailies made the rally their lead story of the day. But the English language news websites each just carried a solitary story, not their usual half-dozen, suggesting they were told to play down the rally.
The Rohani Administration had nothing to do with the rally and just looked the other away. However, the Tasnim news agency reported that three cabinet members attended the rally: the health, education and science ministers.
There were many speakers, including Hassan Abbasi, described as a researcher, who told the crowd that in recent years the US National Security Agency (NSA) has been installing spying antennas in Tehran and Sari, which is near the Caspian.
The rally gave the state media an opportunity to tell the public once again that the people who seized the embassy published documents showing the United States was using the embassy to plot a coup to topple the Islamic Republic. Actually, no such documents were ever found or published, but the regime continues to peddle that story.
The state media continue to say that the United States never accepted the reality of the revolution. But Bruce Laingen, who was the senior diplomat at the embassy when it was seized, has said repeatedly that his marching orders from President Jimmy Carter were to tell Iranian officials the US government accepted that the Shah was gone and that the Islamic Republic was a reality Washington wanted to build relations with.
