In the eyes of the authorities of the Islamic Republic, the most interesting part of Biden's visit to Israel is his direct flight from Israel to Saudi Arabia, or rather the implications of this flight and of the talks that will probably take place around its meaning.
The very thought of the possible consequences of the visit seems to have put the Tehran authorities on the defensive.
At a cabinet meeting yesterday morning, President Raisi threatened, without naming names: "If the visits of senior US officials to the countries of the region were intended to strengthen the status of the Zionist regime and normalize relations with some countries, their efforts would in no way create security for the Zionists."
Double concern in Tehran
The Islamic Republic's concern about the Abrahamic agreements in general and the tightening of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia in particular is twofold.
First, it is a justified existential concern that Israel is doing to Iran what the republic has been doing to Israel for years through its presence in Syria, Lebanon and Gaza: it is becoming "its neighbor" through military alliances with countries bordering the enemy state.
Afraid of Israeli rapprochement with Saudi Arabia, Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi, Photo: IPA.
Israel is already in Iraqi Kurdistan and the Republic of Azerbaijan, and now it is also befriending its neighbors to the south: the Emirates, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
The Iranian authorities describe this in the words "knife in the back".
Raisi, according to the speech, has already repeatedly sent a message to the Americans through emissaries, threatening "a decisive response to the movement, even the slightest, against the integrity of Iran's land."
Israel is approaching from the south
The second concern is the status of the Islamic Republic in the Islamic world.
It is clear that Saudi Arabia is leading the Sunni world and the Islamic Republic the Shiite world, but the struggle for the leadership of all Muslims has not yet been decided.
Saudi Arabia has a significant asset that Iran does not have: Mecca.
And a lot of money.
What is left for the Islamic Republic in the struggle in Saudi Arabia for the leadership of the Islamic world is to unite all the currents of Islam around a common enemy.
And who is more suitable than Israel?
The excuse is, of course, "protection of the oppressed Palestinian people," even though Iranian Arabs in the Khuzestan province are fighting for the exact same things: they suffer discrimination and strive for separate self-determination.
As part of Iran's attempt to unite the Islamic world against Israel, any gesture of rapprochement between Israel and the Arab states is immediately interpreted as a betrayal of the Arab state by the Palestinian people.
Tehran's obsessive defense of the Palestinians has often been described as a 'hotter bowl than the stew' - meaning they try to protect them even in places the Palestinians do not want or need to be protected, from talks and cooperation, when there is, to joint football games.
The network is busy with hijab
And why am I writing this time mainly about the authorities and not about the reactions on the net?
Because the network in Iran is less interested in visiting Biden this week.
There are almost no independent tweets and posts on the subject, and those that do - the majority, as well as most reactions to media outlets' publications - tend to defame Israel and the US, "the donkey went to the donkey" and insults the US and its involvement in the region. The languages are almost identical in writing, but some of the vocabulary, as well as spelling of the names and user details betray).
Meeting between the American delegation and the Iranian delegation as part of the negotiations for the nuclear agreement (archive), Photo: AP
In Iran itself, this week, and still are, more concerned with women's headdresses.
Tuesday of this week was the anniversary of the massacre at the Gohar-Shad Mosque in Mashhad in 1935, in a confrontation between worshipers and Shah's security forces who wanted to enforce a Western dress code on men in Iran.
While the government declares this day as "Iranian Day of Modesty" and holds gatherings for women in praise of the veil (in a stadium where women struggle to enter football games!), The secular women, led by journalist Messih Al-Jinad, have declared "Hijab without Hijab" - where many women walked around in public places without any head covering, and even uploaded many documents about it to social networks.
The hashtag war "modest Iran" and "hijab without hijab" occupied the network and the press much more than Israel, the United States, Saudi Arabia and their joint plots against Iran.
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