Voos Epes,
Now that I know your Satmar background, I think we can find some common ground. Rav Yoel Teitelbaum, while being staunchly anti-Zionist, believed that it’s an internal Jewish matter. All the more so, he did not believe in making friends with people with Jewish blood on their hands.
The largest terrorist group in Lebanon is Hezbollah. They have plenty of Jewish blood on their hands. And if you think that it’s only because they are anti-Zionist, guess again. The leaders of Hezbollah have said extremely anti-Semetic comments. The one that sticks in my mind is where their current leader, Nasralla, said that wished all Jews were in Palestine so that he could kill of them at one time. R”L.
What does that have to do with Iran? Everything. Hezbollah was founded by Iran, was/is funded by Iran, and takes their directions from Iran. See the wikipedia page on Hezbolla: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hezbollah So when Hezbollah says something anti-Semetic, they are showing Iran’s true feelings. Persians like to be graceful (sheker hachain) even if they have lots of hatred down deep. In Persian, this false gracefulness is called taarof. They show a happy face to NK but really don’t care for them. They are just using them.
With all that said, why does Iran let their Jews live there in relative peace? Two reason that I know:
1) The Iranians have some respect for their native Jewish population which has been there for 2500 years
2) Bargaining chips / Hostages – they let it be known that if Israel tries something dangerous against Iran, Iran will harm their Jewish community R”L.
Like I said before, knowing the background of the people will help you understand who you’re dealing with and what they are about. I wish that NK would follow Rav Yoel, bein lechumra bein lekula.