The Gentlemen’s Agreement for Women, too

Debbie Schlussel’s recent rant on the “Greeniacs”—i.e., those Westerners who preposterously elevate the Iranian People to the status of Western Revolutionaries fighting for Peace, Justice and the American Way—is wonderful and refreshing.

However, there is one little problem: it’s a problem I have noticed with another fine essayist, Diana West, who on her blog has also decried this strange phenomenon of an irrational romanticization of the “Iranian People”.

And that problem is that neither Schlussel nor West have remarked upon the curious, and lamentable fact that two important luminaries from within the Anti-Islam Movement—namely, their colleagues Robert Spencer and Pam Geller—have been among the most flagrant “Greeniacs” around, both of them purveying a preposterous romanticization of this opposition movement in Iran, and both of them virtually ignoring all the evidence of the deeply suspicious nature of the leaders of that opposition movement (including not only Mousavi, but also Ayatollah Montazeri, Maryam Rajavi and Massoud Rajavi of the Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK), and Mohsen Kadivar).

Both Spencer and Geller have also been ignoring Diana West and Debbie Schlussel.

Meanwhile, West and Schlussel, in turn, have been ignoring Spencer and Geller’s Greeniac mania for the Iranian People.

What’s going on here? It looks like the “Gentlemen’s Agreement of Silence” of the Anti-Islam Movement—whereby the unofficial aristocracy of the Movement pretend like there are no significant disagreements among themselves in the interest of protecting their silly anxiety that public differences will somehow weaken the Movement (when actually the strength of any sociopolitical movement is measured in great part by its ability to air differences in a mature and intelligent manner out in the sunshine of public discussion)—is afoot here. I don’t know how else to explain why Schlussel and West—ordinarily the most perspicacious analysts around—seem to have this blind spot for the egregious behavior of Spencer and Geller.

It’s bad enough when the MSM (both Right and Left) indulge in this kind of irrational romanticization of the Iranian People. It’s even worse, one would think, when major luminaries within the Anti-Islam Movement, such as Spencer and Geller, do so. And this problem is then compounded when other noteworthy luminaries within the Anti-Islam Movement—namely, Schlussel and West—ignore it.