Reza Pahlevi Calls for “Transition to Democracy” to Replace “Tyrant in Tehran”

“The regime must go,“ Shah’s son says; Harris speaks of Jewish “fear“

Reza Pahlevi’s call for an end of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s regime followed two similar calls from Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Reza Pahlevi, the son of the Shah of Iran, used the anniversary of the October 7 attack on Israel to release a video address calling for an end to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s rule in Iran.

“Forty-five years ago, my country was taken hostage by a radical regime that seeks not only to keep my people in chains, but to export its revolution to your countries and your people,” Pahlevi said in the video, which in the hours immediately following its release accumulated more than 4 million views on X. “The regime in Tehran is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocents—Iranians, Arabs, and Israelis, Christians, Muslims, and Jews. It facilitated the October 7 attack. It fueled sectarian conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Yemen. It is trying to unseat the Hashemite Kingdom, and delegitimize the custodians of the two holy mosques. It uses Palestinians as human shields, and now it has brought our cradle of civilization to the cusp of regional war.”

The Hashemite Kingdom is Jordan and the “custodians of the two holy mosques” are the Saudi Arabian monarchs.

“This is not the Iranian people’s war. It is Ali Khamenei and his regime’s war. The tyrant in Tehran couches his warmongering in Iranian nationalism but he does not speak for our nation,” Pahlevi said in what was billed as “a message to the friends of the Iranian people across the Middle East.”

“This regime that has held us hostage for nearly half a century must go,” he said.

“You might fear change will bring chaos. But fear not. We will not allow a power vacuum to follow the collapse of this regime. There is a vast coalition of patriotic Iranians at home and abroad ready to step in to serve our nation and make peace with the region,” he said. “I have told my compatriots that I will do my duty. I will step forward at their call to oversee this peaceful transition to democracy and Iran’s return to the community of nations.”

Pahlevi has been talked about for years as a potential solution to the problem of the Iranian regime’s nuclear ambitions and its support for terrorism, and for just as many years he’s been dismissed by skeptics as ineffectual or as lacking popular support.

Yet his video address comes as the Israeli government has taken the new and unusual step of openly calling for a regime change in Iran. At the U.N., Prime Minister Netanyahu said, “Nations of the world should support the brave people of Iran who want to rid themselves of this evil regime.” And in a September 30 video address to the people of Iran, Netanyahu said, “When Iran is finally free, and that moment will come a lot sooner than people think – everything will be different.” 

Iran’s October 1 missile attack on Israel raised the likelihood that Khamenei would be targeted directly.

And some influential Americans are starting to see the issue and speak about it. “As a nation, are we going to stand with Israel and absolutely demolish the government of Iran? We absolutely have to,” Senator Rick Scott, Republican of Florida, said at an October 7 commemoration event in Miami on October 7, 2024, where President Trump was to appear.

President Biden has been publicly discouraging Israel from attacking Iranian nuclear sites or oil- and gas-related facilities. Unconfirmed press reports from Israel have Biden offering the Israeli government some sort of unspecified compensation for refraining from such strikes. Biden and Harris are eager to push images of chaotic Middle East warfare off the front pages. A replacement of the Iranian regime with one friendlier to America could be a welcome “October surprise” for Biden and Harris if it could be achieved before Election Day. And even if it waits until after Election Day, if Trump wins, Israel and friends of democracy in Iran might be eager to make a change happen anyway in the lame duck period, before Trump, who has said he will cut a deal with Iran, takes office.

Harris speaks of Jewish “fear” on October 7 anniversary: Vice President Harris planted a pomegranate tree on the grounds of her official residence this afternoon to mark the October 7 terrorist attack anniversary (Trump visited the grave of the Lubavitcher rebbe in Brooklyn). Earlier in the day, she issued a statement on the topic. You can parse the statement for yourself, but the sentence that caught my eye was the one that said the attack “has rekindled a deep fear among the Jewish people not just in Israel, but in the United States and around the world.”

One of the key pieces of the Jewish liturgy is the hymn “Adon Olam,” which ends, as commonly sung in Hebrew (there are some extra verses in some versions), “I shall not fear.” 

There are obviously a wide range of emotional responses to October 7 and its aftermath, but if Harris, the second gentleman, or their speechwriting team on these issues thinks “deep fear” was the main one worth mentioning from American Jewry, I think she’s misreading the situation, or hanging around the wrong crowd. I’ve seen a lot more courage, determination, resolve, unity, confidence, strength, energy, generosity, even curiosity than fear. 

Schwab to Texas: The Wall Street Journal has a feature on the new CEO of Charles Schwab, Rick Wurster. (The Journal describes him as having grown up in “Acton, Mass., near Boston,” which is funny because Acton is pretty far-flung as Boston suburbs go.) “Therapy for his second daughter, who was born with disabilities, brought Wurster and his family to the San Francisco Bay Area. The move also led him to Schwab…..Now living in Texas, where Schwab is based…”

It turns out Schwab the firm and Chuck Schwab the founder both moved to Texas from the San Francisco Bay Area. The Wall Street Journal had an editorial mentioning it in November 2019, which I must have either forgotten or somehow missed at the time: “Schwab will pay much lower taxes in Texas. The Lone Star State imposes a 0.75% franchise tax on business margins (total revenue minus compensation), which is substantially less than the corporate tax rates in California (8.84%) and Nebraska (7.81%), where TD Ameritrade is currently headquartered. The city of San Francisco also imposes a 0.38% payroll tax and a 0.6% gross receipts tax on financial service companies. Texas has no individual income tax, while the top rate on income and capital gains in California is 13.3%.” And I mentioned it in passing at FutureOfCapitalism in May 2023 in connection with an item about Goldman Sachs expanding in Texas. 

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