Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger | “Second Thought: a US-Israel Initiative” | October 14, 2026
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*Assessing the current negotiation with the Ayatollah regime, the US should draw lessons from the 48-year-negotiation cycles since 1978, which have benefitted the Ayatollah regime, catapulting it from a 2nd rate geo-strategic power to a 1st rate power. The negotiation option expedited the transformation of Iran from “The American Policeman of the Gulf” to a chief epicenter of anti-US terrorism, wars, drug trafficking and money laundering, from a Persian Gulf footprint to a rogue global footprint, extending throughout the Middle East, to Central Asia, East and North Africa, Latin America and on US soil.
*The Ayatollah regime has employed gaslighting tactics since late 1978 and early 1979. It wasinitially introduced by Ayatollah Khomeini – then in exile in Neauphle-le-Château, France – who assigned a team of eloquent Iranian graduates of Western universities to conduct a systematic campaign of diplomatic outreach and public posturing, targeting the US Embassies in Paris and Tehran, the State Department, the CIA and the White House, as well as the US media and academic establishment.
*The gaslighting campaign represented Ayatollah Khomeini as an anti-communist ally, a bulwark against Moscow, committed to non-interference in neighboring countries and the non-exportation of the Islamic Revolution. He was presented as a spiritual leader, preoccupied with religious teaching and the well-being and human rights of the Iranian people, including women, Christians, Bahais, Zoroastrians and Jews.
*Ayatollah Khomeini’s messages manipulated the US into abandoning its staunch ally, the Shah of Iran, and to brutally lean on Iran’s military to succumb to the Ayatollah regime. The gaslighting campaign exploited the US’ eagerness to achieve an agreement, to promote human rights, democracy and non-interventionism. In addition, Khomeini leveraged the US’ fervor to secure the orderly supply of Persian Gulf oil, and benefit from the immense potential of economic cooperation with Iran, while taking lightly the elements of history, fanatical religion and ideology, which have shaped the ideology and strategy of the Ayatollah regime, transcending diplomatic and financial considerations.
*The gaslighting campaign manipulated the US to reject the well-documented warnings, issued by Iran’s military, of Khomeini’s 1,400-year-old fanatical, apocalyptic Shiite non-negotiable ideology, which mandates the regional and global exportation of the Islamic Revolution, the toppling all pro-US Sunni regimes, and bringing the “infidel” West to submission, especially “The Great American Satan.”
*How effective was Ayatollah Khomeini’s gaslighting offensive? Ten days before the official toppling of the Shah of Iran, President Carter told a conference of world leaders on the Island of Guadeloupe that a Khomeini-led Iran “would not export revolution… but would be interested in buying tractors, not tanks….” And, on January 11, 1979, six days before the toppling of the Shah, the CIA assessed that Khomeini would sit back and let his moderate, Western educated followers run the government…. US Ambassador to Iran, William Sullivan, argued that “upon returning to Iran from exile in France, Ayatollah Khomeini will play a “Gandhi-like” role; elections would likely produce a pro-Western Islamic Republic…” Harold Saunders, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern affairs, told the Senate Subcommittee on the Middle East that he did not sense anti-US sentiments as something that makes the relationship with the Ayatollah regime unworkable….”
*Prof. Elie Kedourie, a game-changing Middle East historian (London University), sounded the alarm on a chorus of academic and official voice, in Washington, DC, singing the praises of Khomeini….” He provided a few examples, which documented the success of the Ayatollah’s gaslighting campaign (Encounter Magazine, November 1984). For instance, ”on November 1, 1979, four days before the storming of the US Embassy [in Tehran], National Security Advisor, Brzezinski, told [the Ayatollah’s] Prime Minister and Foreign Minister that the US is prepared to expand security, economic, political and intelligence relationships [with Iran]….” Furthermore, Prof. Richard Falk (a global authority on international law, Princeton University) “assured his readers that the Islamic Republic will be flexible in interpreting the Koran…. The Islamic Republic will be a stabilizing element geopolitically….”
*In 2026, the Ayatollah regime has perfected the gaslighting tactic, along with Taqiyyah (dissimulation), displaying exceptional capabilities in its negotiation with the US Administration, and assisted – intentionally or unintentionally – by the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) and The isolationist and pro-Ayatollah regime Quincy Institute (funded largely by George Soros and the isolationist Koch family), and particularly by the Iranian-born Trita Parsi, whowas a co-founder and former President the NIAC and is a co-founder and Executive Vice President of The Quincy Institute.
*The NIAC and the Quincy Institute have consistently promoted the key strategic goals of the Ayatollah regime. The Ayatollah regime and the shadow allies in Washington have attempted to convince the policy-making, media and academic establishment into playing-down the Ayatollah’s fanatical, apocalyptic ideology, and sustain the negotiation option, which has bolstered the geo-strategic rogue posture of the Ayatollah regime. These two entities have contributed to the perpetuation of the Ayatollah regime; thus, intensifying the capabilities of the chief anti-US epicenter of regional and global wars, terrorism and drug trafficking. This has magnified regional instability, has threatened the existence of all pro-US Arab regimes, and has ruthlessly oppressed the Iranian population, especially women and ethnic and religious minorities. Their opposition to maximum pressure economic sanctions, the military offensive on the Ayatollah regime and foreign-imposed regime change has yielded a tailwind to the venomous octopus in Tehran with its tentacles stretching from the Persian Gulf to Latin America and US soil.
Is the US determined to repeat or avoid the critical mistakes of the last 48 years?
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