The President's Daily Brief - PDB Afternoon Bulletin | May 20th, 2024: Iran Divided Over Death Of 'Butcher Of Tehran' & Israel Sets Sights On Rafah

Episode Date: May 20, 2024

In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin:    As a divided Iran reacts to the death of the Iranian president, I wanted to take a moment to dig into his violent history that earned him the moniker "the Butcher of Tehran." Israel has officially informed the U.S. that they plan to broaden their ground operations inside Rafah despite desperate protests from the Biden administration to pump the breaks. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin.  Email [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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compassionate leader. Also, we'll bring you the latest out of Israel. As leaders inform the U.S., that they're preparing to broaden Israel's ground operations in Rafah despite protests from the Biden administration. But first, our afternoon spotlight. Iranian officials have declared five days of morning following the deaths of President Abraham Raisi and Foreign Minister Josein Amir Abdulyakian in a helicopter crash on Sunday.

Now, the response from the Iranian people, on the other hand, has been notably muted. While regime loyalists have dutifully packed into mosques in public squares to pray for Risi, there's reportedly little in the way of public grief being seen on Iranian streets, where shops remained open and ordinary life continued, basically uninterrupted. Many opponents of the Iranian regime have even taken to the streets to celebrate, setting off fireworks and handing out suites to mark the president's death, according to a Reuters report.

The public reaction stands in stark contrast to the massive outpouring of grief that followed the deaths of revered Iranian figures such as Qasem Soleimani, the former commander of the R.GC's goods force, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2020. So, why is the death of Iran's president not triggered the same public response? Well, it has a lot to do with his controversial history as a devout loyalist and enforcer of the theocratic regime. Reis's infamy goes back to the early years following the revolution, when he served as the prosecutor general of Tehran between 1989 and 1994, and earned the name the Butcher of Tehran. He reportedly oversaw a death commission, well, that sounds pleasant, that ordered the mass execution of thousands of Iranian dissidents in 1988. While Iran has always denied that there were mass executions, nothing to see here, folks,

Amnesty International estimates that at least 5,000 Iranian dissidents were killed in the first 10 years following the revolution in 1979. The U.S. has accused Reisi of decades of human rights abuses, including the execution of children and imprisonment of prominent human rights lawyers. Reisi rose to the presidency in 2021 in an election that sparked widespread protests and allegations that it was rigged in his favor. no. Enthusiasm for his administration was, well, frankly, already low, as the election had the lowest voter turnout in four decades. As president, he loyally worked to implement the vision of his close ally, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khomeini, expanding Iranian terrorist proxy networks across the Middle East and ratcheting up tensions with Israel to historically unprecedented levels. At home, the former president, now deceased, greatly tightened morality,

laws and stepped up enforcement of Iran's hijab and chastity laws. After two women died and custody for violating the law, protesters took to the streets and numbers not seen since the Iranian revolution. Rice, he responded with a violent crackdown that killed hundreds of Iranians between 2022 and 2023, according to Forbes. He was seen by many as a strong contender to succeed the 85-year-old Hamini as supreme leader, because apparently his brutality, his brutality. intolerance for any dissent and love of the morality police were exactly the traits the regime was looking for in their next supreme leader. Now, a 21-year-old student Tehran told Reuters that she was not saddened by his death due to the violent crackdown on protesters, but added,

quote, I am sad because even with Reis's death, this regime will not change, end quote. Her views reflected the attitudes of many Iranians in the wake of Rice's death, who said they expected it would have little impact on day-to-day life in the country. A local shopkeeper told Reuters, quote, Who cares? One hardliner dies, another takes over, and our misery continues. End quote. Now as the classic Who song says, Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. The shopkeeper added that Iranians are, quote, too busy with economic and social issues

to worry about such news. We're still waiting for official word on the cause of the crash, though it appears obvious that it was likely due to the fog and all-around bad weather. It likely didn't help that the Iranian president was flying in a Bell 212 model helicopter first introduced in 1971. Reports suggest that this model was likely 40 to 50 years old. Unsurprisingly, Iranian officials have wasted no time, here's no surprise, in casting blame on the U.S., in a rather pathetic attempt to leverage the incident. Iran's former foreign minister, Mohamed Javad Zarif, told state media on Monday that U.S. sanctions preventing Iran from buying U.S.-made aircraft were partly to blame for the accident.

Zarif said the crash would be, quote, recorded in the blacklist of American crimes against the Iranian nation. End quote. He added, I am such a tool. Okay, that last quote was made up. Coming up after the break, Israel has officially informed the U.S. that they plan to broaden their ground operations inside Rafa, despite constant protests from the Biden administration, to dial it back. More on that in just a moment. Kayak gets my flight, hotel, and rental car right, so I can tune out travel advice that's just plain wrong.

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Despite repeated warnings from the Biden White House, Israeli defense minister Yov Golip has informed senior U.S. officials that his nation is preparing to broaden its ground operations in the southern Gaza city of Rafa. The announcement comes as White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan meets with top Israeli leaders to discuss a more targeted Israeli military operation against Hamas in Gaza that would lower the risk of civilian collateral damage. Because when you're engaged in urban combat against a hardline brutal terrorist organization like Hamas, why wouldn't you take strategic military advice from Jake Sullivan? Now, the U.S. hasn't been the only country trying to ward off a Rafa offensive.

Egypt has been fighting very hard against any Israeli operation in the southern city, in large part because of the potential to create a Palestinian refugee crisis in the Sinai. And the last thing the Egyptian government wants, as we know from years gone by, are Palestinian refugees. However, a recent revelation by the Israeli government suggests that there could be another reason why Egypt has wanted to prevent Israelis from entering Rafah. Late last week, Israel publicly acknowledged that it had discovered dozens of smuggling tunnels leading from the southern Ghazan city directly into Egypt. The revelation was made during defense arguments against South African filed genocide allegations at the International Court of

Justice. Israeli Deputy Attorney General Gilad Noem devoted a significant part of his remarks to the ongoing military operation in Rafah, calling the Palestinian city a focal point for ongoing terrorist activity and a stronghold for Hamas operatives. In addition to hosting four Hamas battalions and their reinforcements from elsewhere in the Gaza Strip, Noam said that Rafa is the site of, quote, an intricate underground tunnel infrastructure that runs underneath the city and provides ample space for operatives, command and control rooms, and military equipment. He added that nearly 700 tunnel shafts have been identified in Rafa from which approximately 50 tunnels cross into Egypt. These tunnels are used by Hamas to supply itself with weapons and ammunition and could potentially

be used to smuggle out of Gaza hostages or Hamas senior operatives. By the way, since the start of the hostilities, nearly 1,400 rockets have been fired from Rafa alone, including more than 120 in the last two weeks. Finally, the UN estimates that approximately 800,000 people have now fled Rafa since Israel's military began a limited ground assault there two weeks ago. And that, my friends, is the PDB afternoon bulletin for Monday 20 May. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at PDB at thefirsttv.com. And remember, if you want to listen to the show ad-free, be sure to check out our premium

membership at PDB premium.com. I'm Mike Baker. I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, stay informed. Stay safe. Stay cool. here for Mint Mobile, with a message for everyone paying big wireless way too much. Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop.

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