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CANDLELIGHTING

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THE JEWISH VIEW

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HOLIDAYS

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JUDAISM 101

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{weblog_name} - Iranian Tea Leaves
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Former Iranian President Mohammed Khatami –who in the late 1990s many thought could restore sanity to his Islamic nation’s foreign policy – just bowed out of his country’s June Presidential elections, Reuters news service reported today. Mr. Khatami served in his country’s top elected position from 1997 to 2005, a period which saw a thawing in relations with the West. But since the election of his successor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, those ties have sharply deteriorated. Mr. Ahmadinejad, a populist who never missed an opportunity to inflame, clearly wants to keep his job for a second five-year term. It’s hard to read the tea leaves from Tehran as to what Mr. Khatami’s move means. In my view there are two likely scenarios: First, it could signal that Iran’s true leader, whose title says it all – Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini—is… read more