While the West is wringing hands over its failure to prevent Iran from advancing toward a functional atomic bomb, Israel has long been warning that there are many other ways Iran can and is destabilizing the Middle East and the world.
Case in point: Saturday’s stabbing of famed author Salman Rushdie.
“The attack on Salman Rushdie is an attack on our freedoms and values. It is the result of decades of incitement led by the extremist regime in Tehran,” tweeted Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid. “On behalf of the people of Israel, we wish him a full and speedy recovery.”
The attack on Salman Rushdie is an attack on our freedoms and values. It is the result of decades of incitement led by the extremist regime in Tehran.
On behalf of the people of Israel, we wish him a full and speedy recovery.
— יאיר לפיד – Yair Lapid (@yairlapid) August 13, 2022
The British-Indian novelist has had a long and successful career, but is best known to many for authoring the 1988 historical novel The Satanic Verses dealing with the origins of Islam. The book’s publication sparked widespread Muslim protests, and then-Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for Rushdie’s assassination. He has lived under British police protection ever since.
On Friday, Rushdie was taking the stage to deliver a lecture in New York when a man identified as a US-born Muslim of Lebanese descent rushed the author and managed to stab him 10 times before being subdued by staff and spectators.
Evidence on the assailant’s phone linked him to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Rushdie remains in serious condition.
