When a madman throws a stone down a well, according to an ancient Iranian aphorism, 10 wise men and women are needed to remove it.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s currently secluded supreme leader, was that madman and now many people in Iran and around the world are trying to salvage the well.
Thanks to Khamenei, Iran has spent almost four decades on a path to war with Israel, which he calls a “cancer” in the region that must be annihilated. At the same time, the regime managed to stave off a showdown unwanted by Iran’s people and unwarranted by Iran’s national interest. Iran’s rulers could rely on bluff and bluster, proxies like Hezbollah, Hamas and the Assad regime in Syria, many Israelis’ reluctance to risk full-scale war and its ability to use its nuclear program to wring concessions from Western powers.
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