Hacker News Reader

Comment by grokcodec | Hacker News Reader

Something to keep in mind - responsiblestatecraft.org is published by the Quincy Institue, considered by many to be a de-facto lobbying group for the Islamic Republic of Iran. Here is one data point: https://quillette.com/2024/06/20/the-quincy-institute-middle...

View on HN

Thanks for the heads up. It's useful information. From the article:

> The Quincy Institute routinely vilifies supporters of Israel in Washington. Its principal goal is to reorient American policy in the Middle East, marginalising America’s two leading allies, Israel and Saudi Arabia, while promoting Iran as a future regional hegemon. John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, authors of The Israel Lobby, are both Quincy fellows and regular contributors to its website. In March, Mearsheimer gave an interview to Al Jazeera, which the Institute promoted under the headline, “Israel Lobby’s Influence on U.S. Policy as Powerful as Ever.”

Sounds no different to what Israel lobbyists do in the US too, though? American democracy at work ...

Here's the difference though - Israel is an ally of the United States while Iran is a sworn enemy that has killed thousands of Americans since the 1979 revolution and routinely chants "Death to America". So, not equivalent.

And Iran was once any ally of America too ... there's no reason it cannot be again.

No reason? And how exactly do you see that? The Iran of 60 years ago before the revolution was a completely different country than it is today. It has taken glee in killing thousands of Americans directly and through its proxies, and shouted death to America a gazillion times since.

They're both enemies to the US. If anything Israel is a more realistic threat at home.

How many Americans has Israel killed either directly or by proxy ? be specific

At least 34, by the IDF's own admission: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Liberty_incident

I see all you've got from the past 60 years is one tragic friendly fire incident. Iran has intentionally killed thousands of American civilians and service men either directly or through its proxies since 1979, including 43 American civilians murdered and 13 taken hostage on October 7, 2023.

Israeli lobby sent those US soldiers to the Mid East in the first place. It's not the early 2000s anymore, American public isn't buying the WMDs excuse again.

America was first to torture, take hostage and kill thousands of Iranian civilians through the CIA and SAVAK. I understand completely why Iranians despise Israel and America.

Why do you expect me to get angry at Iranians for using American tactics? Is turnabout not fair play, am I supposed to support it when the US and Israel tortures people but balk when Iran does it?

> Iran is a sworn enemy that has killed thousands of Americans since the 1979 revolution

Do you want to include SAVAK's pre-1979 death/disappearance/torture count to help contextualize your point? Or would that undermine it?

how many Americans did SAVAK kill ? be specific

We don't know. The CIA destroyed the documentation.

Israel is very open about manipulating public opinion in the US. They call it hasbara and they just vastly increased their budget for doing it. You don't need the Quincy Institute (not that there's anything wrong with them!) to learn about it either. Here's a recent Time article:

https://time.com/article/2026/07/13/brad-parscale-israel-inf...

Post from an exec of that group, Trita Parsi: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tritaparsi_this-image-was-sen...

I don't take any issue with this pic if it's real, but it seems either fake or not from where he claims. So it's hard to take that org seriously. And yeah tbh that last name makes me take a second look.

What makes you think it's fake or implausible? I'd 100% scribble things like that if I was a bored serviceman in the Middle East.

The plane's proportions look out of whack in the photo. I don't think the scribbling is implausible, but either way it's strange for an exec of an org like that to be posting unverified stuff like that.

Is quillette a reputable source itself?

how do you gauge if a source is reputable ? genuinely curious

Who founded it, who funds it, what is the broad consensus on the coverage they typically run, what do I see in their coverage when I look through it, what have they retracted, what have they not retracted, what advertisers do they permit. Probably some other criteria, to be honest. Maybe "does the editor here seem to have a conscience".

great questions. The broad consensus is a bit tricky though. As they say: "Eat shit - 10 billion flies can't be wrong"

For sure. Doesn't mean checking media bias fact check or whatever isn't worth a moment.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com