Amid a war of aggression waged by the United States and ‘Israel’ against Iran, a group of intellectuals identified with the left published in the British newspaper The Guardian a letter addressed to those it described as Iranian political prisoners.

Its signatories include respected figures such as Angela Davis, Judith Butler, Michael Löwy, Rashid Khalidi and Walden Bello. Their prestige, however, cannot place the document beyond criticism.

The letter portrays the Iranian people as trapped between ‘two blades of a pair of scissors’: the Islamic Republic on one side and the United States and ‘Israel’ on the other. This metaphor manufactures a false equivalence between the country under attack and the powers bombing it.

It equates a state defending its sovereignty with those responsible for an illegal war, decades of sanctions and sabotage, the assassinations of the Supreme Leader, military commanders and scientists, covert operations and attempts at regime change.

It equates a state defending its sovereignty with those responsible for an illegal war, decades of sanctions and sabotage, the assassinations of the Supreme Leader, military commanders and scientists, covert operations and attempts at regime change.

No government should be considered immune from criticism.

Yet there are historical moments when the choice of words, the intended audience and, above all, the timing of an accusation determine its political function.

When a country is under attack, repeating allegations used by the aggressor to legitimise war is neither neutrality nor intellectual........

© Middle East Monitor