The UN Security Council held a minute’s silence for the late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Tuesday. There is great outrage in Israel. Nobody expects a regime change in Tehran. Israel correspondent Ben blessingreich reports for FOCUS online about the mood in the country.
The first reports of a helicopter crash that killed Iran’s president and foreign minister shocked some Israelis on Sunday afternoon. The spontaneous thought was: Our secret service must be behind this, and now Iran will retaliate terribly.
The night in mid-April when more than 300 Iranian suicide drones, cruise missiles and rockets flew towards Israel is still fresh in our memories. But when it became clear that Ebrahim Raisi had fallen victim not to the Mossad but to the fog and the difficult terrain, the Israeli reaction was a mixture of indifference, satisfaction and glee.
The government remained silent, while right-wing opposition politician Avigdor Lieberman, a former defense and foreign minister, summed it up: “We will not shed a tear.”
Condolences from European politicians were hardly registered in Israel, but official outrage was expressed at a minute’s silence held for Raisi in the UN Security Council: “What next? A minute of silence on the anniversary of Hitler’s death?” raged UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan.
Regarding the crash on the Iranian-Azerbaijani border, a good 1,500 kilometers from Israel, an unnamed Israeli official told the Reuters news agency laconically: “It wasn’t us,” and that is plausible. In the past, dozens of attacks against Iranian military officials or nuclear scientists have been attributed to Israel, but an operation against a top politician like Raisi would have been far too sensitive on the one hand and not worth the effort on the other.
According to the prevailing opinion of Israeli experts, Raisi was not of great importance. Number three in the hierarchy after Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Revolutionary Guard Commander Hussein Salami, Raisi was more of an executioner than a decision-maker, they said.
Although he enthusiastically supported the aggressive foreign policy, which was characterized by deep hostility towards the West and Israel and aimed at destabilizing the region, he did not dictate it, and Raisi’s departure would not change anything.
In particular, Israel does not expect any change in the current war situation. All of the enemies actively fighting Israel – Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, Shiite militias in Syria – will continue to be financed, equipped and directed by Iran.
However, according to one school of thought, the helicopter accident could have consequences in that it represents a further shock to the mullahs’ dictatorship. There are reports of rallies of joy over the death of the “Butcher of Tehran,” which the regime sees as a threat and is trying to nip in the bud. In the long term, the Israelis’ great hope lies in a regime change in Iran – that would dramatically improve Israel’s situation.