Hezbikies Ho!

The following sentence concludes a letter (ostensibly on Iran) published in The Australian on June 20:

"In fact there seems to be little sympathy for the Palestinians on the streets of Tehran, and the reported attacks on protestors by imported Hamas and Hezbollah thugs have caused additional anger." (Mary Werther, Camberwell, Vic.)

Reported, eh? In part, Werther's letter recycles the following disinformation from Israel's right-wing rag The Jerusalem Post: "Palestinian Hamas members are helping the Iranian authorities crush street protests in support of presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, two protesters on the streets of the Iranian capital said on Tuesday... 'The most important thing that I believe people outside of Iran should be aware of', said a protester who did not wish to be identified, 'is the participation of Palestinian forces in these riots'. Another protestor... also cited the presence of Hamas in Teheran [sic]. On Monday, he said, 'my brother had his ribs beaten in by those Palestinian animals. Taking our people's money is not enough, they are thirsty for our blood too'. It was ironic, this man said, that the victorious Ahmadinejad 'tells us to pray for the young Palestinians, suffering at the hands of Israel'. His hope, he added, was that Israel would 'come to its senses' and ruthlessly deal with the Palestinians." (Report: Hamas helping Iran crush dissent, The Australian Jewish News, 19/6/09)

Apparently, we're expected to believe that, among the thousands of demonstrators flooding the streets of Tehran, the Jerusalem Post has managed to locate a pair (no names, no pack drill) who are more pissed off with Hamas and Israel's alleged mollycoddling of the Palestinians than they are with Ahmedinajad.

Werther also mentions "Hezbollah thugs." In which case she may have been perusing another choice site, worldtribune.com: "Iran opposition sources said Hamas and Hizbullah have come to the aide [sic] of government forces in wake of the presidential elections... They said Hamas and Hizbullah officers trained by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Iran employed brutal tactics against students and other supporters of Ahmadinejad's chief rival, Mir Hussein Moussavi [sic]. 'We have seen masked and unmasked security personnel who were speaking with a clear Arabic accent or simply did not look Iranian', an opposition source said... The sources said the use of motorcycles by Hizbullah, said to have been developed in 2006, was seen in IRGC and Basij operations against pro-Moussavi [sic] demonstrators in Teheran [sic]..." (Hamas, Hizbullah join Iran's paramilitary forces in post-vote crackdown, 19/6/09)

Why, you all remember those Hezbollah bikies who took on the most moral army in the universe back in '06, don't you? And how, until those same Hezbikies thundered into Tehran, motorcycles were completely unknown in Iran?

For a more detailed discussion of this nonsense see Right-wing Media & Twitter Echo-Chamber Continues to Spread Unsubstantiated Rumors (19/6/09) at Views from the Occident blog.