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Comment by throwaw12 | Hacker News Reader

> because they see Mullah’s regime as one of their biggest allies when it comes to attack West/Israel/Free market

you are looking it differently, I disagree, I am one of those who supported Palestine.

Reason we are silent, because our governments already did what's needed from our side: heavily sanctioned the Iran, if I go and protest, what do I ask? To sanction Iran? They would laugh at me. Obviously, I am not going to protest and ask our government to go to war with Iran, which kills even more people.

Why is it different for Israel? Because our government supported it, we didn't sanction them, that was what we were asking for, while brutality was even higher than Iranian regime.

Not trying to downplay casualties, but just looking at relative numbers and methods, I don't see Iran bombing own people or killing 10% of its own population

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Not to whataboutism this, but I've barely heard pro-Palestinian crowd talk about the stuff Syria did to the Druze, the Alawites, and now to the Kurds.

Multiple of my friends on Instagram still post daily about the atrocities in Gaza, but haven't posted anything about the atrocities in Aleppo or Kobane. Nor did they post anything when the STG was massacring the Alawites or the Druze last year.

So I find it hard to believe that it's about the sanctions or whatnot.

You are right, I also see less protests and difference in general, when it comes to other issues. I want to be transparent here and share my views (as an immigrant and living in the West, coming from other part of the world)

I personally protested for Sudan, Syria and Venezuela. Of course you might say I am just giving you excuses, but on a personal level I feel different for each one of them when protesting, my expectations also different:

* Sudan - IMO it was funded by UAE, our gov. can sanction them, but they have excuse: "Do you have proof???"

* Syria - Their excuse: "What are you talkin about, we don't cooperate with ex-Al-Qaeda, what can we do there?"

* Venezuela - "Dude, we are doing it, just shut the f... up and watch how awesome we are in conducting these operations"

* Gaza - I think initially we were naive thinking our government will help, but in reality it turned out it was same government, so it resembles more to Venezuela case rather than other cases.

I don't disagree. But still, it's normal to have a higher standard for Israel, a democracy; to assume protest will be more effective at swaying them. Should we not hold Israel to an higher standard?

> if I go and protest, what do I ask? To sanction Iran? They would laugh at me.

That's a very weird take I see repeated over and over again

You don't protest only to get your government to do something, the protests against Israel expectedly did not meaningfully change US relations with Israel yet you still presumably went out

you can express solidarity with Iranians, you can protest the massacre, or just make people be aware there are thousands dying

I do protest the massacre, but I don't know what to expect as a result. What do I ask our gov. to do?

Sanction them? To stop sending them weapons? Isolate them diplomatically?

Surprisingly, all is done already

That's a pretty self defeating approach that in general is not compatible with protests of any kind (Israel included). I don't think there were any protests in the history of the world that couldn't have died using the logic of "nothing will change"

As long as Iran has multiple countries it can sell its oil, there is still pressure to apply

The real reasons there are no protests are in my opinion the same ones people generally suspect

Stopping Russian or Iranian oil shipping is pretty hard to do legally.

You are not convincing China to only source oil from western aligned nations.

We (Europe and US) can't even convince India.

Short of kinetic intervention. There isn't much to be done about Iran.

I doubt bombing Iran will make the protesters in Iran more successful or united.

Well you see that take over and over because that's what people actually believe in and feel and it's almost weird it has to be repeated over and over. Most protestors are not solidarity protestors. Most protestors show up when they're angry, when they feel like there's something obvious that can be changed and when people around you refuse to do the obvious thing. If you don't have these factors, you don't really get big protests.

For example I don't believe the US saw particularly large scale anti Germany protests surrounding WW2. Before the US joined the war people didn't really know what to do, while after they joined the war there was little disagreement. The Vietnam protests were much larger, because you have the internal conflict and something obvious to do: stop fighting.

People showed up for Gaza protests because they were angry and because they felt people around them, and particularly their governments were complicit in events. People do not show up for Iran because everyone agrees it's terrible but no one really knows what to do, so who are you going to be yelling at on the streets and what would you yell? Additionally events in Iran, relatively speaking probably triggers more hopelessness/confusion than anger, these are not exactly the best emotions to inspire protest

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