The Islamic Republic allowed a journalist from a Jewish paper (the Forward) to travel around the country and interview both officials and private citizens. The resulting article, writes Michael Totten, avoids some of the worst pitfalls of reportage from repressive regimes, but is not without its share of naïveté—beginning with a misunderstanding of the role of the translator and fixer provided by the government to accompany him on his travels:
[Larry Cohler-Esses] has no way of knowing if the translations are accurate, and meanwhile I know for a fact that both the translator and the fixer reported on him to the government. They were required by law to do so. For all he and I know, they worked for the Ministry of Intelligence. . . .
[Furthermore], anyone and everyone in Iran who talks to an American journalist flanked by an official fixer and translator knows that every word he utters will be carefully read by the authorities. That’s as true for people inside the government as it is for people on the street. Authoritarian regimes install fear in everyone, including their own officials. Nobody wants to be purged. So who knows what they privately believe?
As for the insistence of government officials and “senior ayatollahs” to Cohler-Esses that they object to Israeli policies, and not to Israel’s existence, Totten writes:
[I]t makes no sense [to say] that Iran objects only to Israeli policy. Iranian leaders routinely scream “Death to Israel.” (They also routinely scream “Death to America.”) . . . The United States government objects to plenty of Mexico’s policies, but not even Donald Trump or Pat Buchanan begins meetings by screaming “Death to Mexico” or appears at any “Death to Mexico” rallies. The United States doesn’t even have “Death to Mexico” rallies.
Read more on World Affairs Journal: http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/blog/michael-j-totten/forwards-dispatch-iran