++ All comments in Farsi have been about the MEK’s silence during Israel’s massacre of Palestinian civilians and destruction of vital infrastructure in Gaza. Most reactions conclude that the MEK don’t have anything to say for themselves. The cult is so mercenary that they can’t speak for themselves anymore and merely repeat and amplify what they are paid to say. The MEK is purely a click farm. Some compare the current silence with that followed the death of Massoud Rajavi. Again, the same thing has happened inside MEK: members are banned from talking or asking questions about Israel, just as they were/are banned from asking about Massoud Rajavi. When the MEK say ‘banned’ it means members will be severely punished, whether by shunning or being subjected to mass humiliation meetings. Some commentors point out that when the MEK arrives at this kind of deadlock situation, the only diversion left is to attack families and ex members. This week, former MEK member Ali Shirzad posted a note to say: ‘Before, you used to threaten to kill me. Now you threaten to set me up so I’ll be deported from Europe. This threat is clearly not directed at me because you know you can’t do this. It is directed against your own pathetic members in your camp in Albania. But I couldn’t stop laughing when I came to realise that the one who is threatening me is the one who herself has been deported from Europe, Maryam Rajavi.’ Other comments point out that as a mercenary force, the MEK has become like an old tool that Americans don’t want to throw out. They have enough room in the garage. Sure it’s an old tool, but it has sentimental value for the warmongers – like granny’s old sewing scissors, they just can’t throw it out.
++ While looking at Israel and Gaza and the MEK situation in Albania politically, some comments point out that the other side of the coin is the human rights of the people. The politicians only want to see profit and loss and sometimes they make a mistake – they forget the cost of human rights abuses by using these tools which in the long run comes back to haunt them. Examples are Al Qaida and Taliban. There is no profit in the long term from ignoring human rights.
++ Today, after eleven days, Rajavi said that Hamas – which according to the MEK means Iran – started the fight with Israel by firing rockets. (Nothing about the attack on the Al Aqsa mosque or the threats of evictions in occupied Sheikh Jarrah.) According to Rajavi, ‘Israel was forced to retaliate and kill a few Hamas militants’. This is as much as MEK has had the go-ahead to say. However, this was not posted on the first Farsi or English pages of the MEK sites, revealing that they were forced to say something, but what they said was not in Rajavi’s favour. The danger is that MEK members who remember the MEK’s history of collaboration with the Palestinians – from Yasser Arafat to Mahmoud Abbas – are now questioning this change of side to support the Israeli Zionists against the Palestinians. This is reminiscent of the change from anti-Imperialist struggle to hosting Neocons from America in the MEK rallies.
In English:
++ The total absence of MEK activity in the English language sphere is, as one Farsi commentator pointed out, evidence that for America, the MEK has become a defunct tool; not worth paying to hold rallies or make speeches or try to get to Paris for a publicity photo. Maryam Rajavi and her acolytes can only sit it out and wait. Meanwhile, in Albania, on a weekly basis, MEK members are dying from COVID-19, old age and illnesses.
May 21, 2021