TEHRAN (ISNA)- A US daily lashed out at Zionist regime's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his mistakes about wearing jeans in Iran.Washington Post daily in an article titled ' Why it matters that Netanyahu doesnt know that Iranians wear jeans', written by Max Fisher, has slammed Netanyahu for his wrong comments which define possible role of Israel in recent efforts of Iran and the West.
The full text of the article comes as follow:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave an interview last week to the BBC's Persian-language station, beamed directly into Iran, in which he made a gaffe that ended up drawing quite a bit of criticism. "If the people of Iran were free, they could wear jeans, listen to Western music and have free elections," he said. But Iranians do wear jeans -- as a great many of them pointed out by posting photos of themselves in denim online, often with a message deriding the Israeli leader for his ignorance.
It's not exactly shocking that Iranians would mock Netanyahu. This was an opportunity for Iranians to express their dislike of the Israeli leader as well as their own national pride, a significant force in any country but particularly in Iran.
Netanyahu's comment touched on a common perception in Iran: that the country is mistreated and misunderstood by a bellicose and condescending West. Anything that entrenches that idea is not going to help with the ongoing efforts to find either a nuclear deal or a larger detente. One little incident is not going to dramatically shift the national mood in Iran, of course, but what Western leaders say and do over the next months and years of diplomacy could certainly help shape the conversation inside the country. Netanyahu's comments are a reminder of that, and a sign of the sort of role he might play.
Netanyahu's error, as a factual point, was not a particularly significant one, but the comment came as part of his larger appeal to the Iranian people, in which he seemed to suggest that they overthrow their government. Among Iran analysts, though, it's generally accepted that most Iranians within the country want to see their system reformed, not toppled. The mission of overthrowing the Iranian government is a Western one. It's also a goal that tends to rally Iranians around their government and against the West, not the other way around.
The Israeli leader seemed to portray Iran as a totalitarian prison of a country, run by a small band of hated tyrants. But as some have noted, this sounds more like North Korea than Iran. Iran is a far cry from Pyongyang's style of rule, and is not peopled with 78 million Iranians just waiting to be liberated.
The biggest obstacle to any nuclear deal or larger detente may ultimately come from the hard-liners within Tehran. Their largest objection is that the Westerners cannot be trusted because they're bent on the Islamic Republic's destruction, a fear that Netanyahu's framing of the matter doesn't help.
It's a telling little irony that, when Netanyahu criticized Iran's severe restriction of civil liberties, it led Iranians not to criticize their government but Zionist regime's -- and to do it using the very social networks, such as Facebook. This was a relatively minor misstep in public diplomacy, but it's a worrying indication for Washington and Tehran of the sort of role that the Israeli leader sees himself playing in their burgeoning outreach.
By ISNA
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