Persian film shows nuke war with Israel
Video titled ‘Point of No Return’ and peppered with Islamic themes shows Iran ’emptying’ Haifa, Tel Aviv of population
Yifa Yaakov is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
A Persian-language animated film shows an Iranian invasion of Tel Aviv, the word “Holocaust” being trampled, and a nuclear attack.
The film, called “The Rachel Corrie Message 2: The Point of No Return,” purports to show an Iranian reprisal for a failed Israeli nuclear attack on Iran.
The approximately four explosive-laden-minute long clip depicts Israelis surrendering en masse to invading Iranian troops and Israel’s airport being renamed as “Martyr Rachel Corrie Airport.”
Corrie was an American pro-Palestinian activist killed by an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza in 2003.
The film, which reportedly first surfaced on Iranian hard-line websites earlier this year, was made by an animation company named Fatimah al-Zahra, a likely reference to the daughter of Islam’s prophet Muhammad and an important figure in Shi’ite Islam.
The movie opens with shots depicting Iranian fighter planes over Israeli cities.
A caption in Persian then reads, “Iran will act on its promises on the nuclear issue.”
The action largely takes place in the sky, with a niqab-clad Iranian girl looking up from a field, where an Iranian tank lies abandoned, to observe Iranian planes racing to intercept Israel Air Force jets.
In the background, a female Iranian news presenter announces that Israel has shot several nuclear missiles at Iran during the course of the war, but all have been intercepted by defense systems built by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps-controlled Khatam al-Anbia engineering firm, named after the prophet Muhammad.
Though the Iranian defense systems try to intercept the Israeli invasion, eventually a nuclear bomb explodes in the desert, presumably in Iranian territory.
Undeterred by Western entreaties to “show self-restraint,” Iranian forces advance on Israel in retaliation for the nuclear attack.
The Iranian attack is visualized both literally and symbolically in the film, with the symbolic rendition showing a man in a cloak — possibly a cleric who symbolizes Iran and the “resistance” movement, which includes Hezbollah — stepping on a piece of a downed Israeli plane bearing the word “Holocaust” and a Star of David.
The plane also bears the word “Palmachim,” the location of the IAF airbase from which anti-ballistic Arrow missiles are launched.
The film then shows Iranian planes and air defense systems attacking Israeli jets, and Iranian tanks rolling through smoke-filled Israeli streets. About two minutes into the film, the news presenter announces that units of the “Armored Corps of Islam” — presumably a joint Iranian-Lebanese Shi’ite force — have started advancing toward the al-Aqsa Mosque, with Haifa and Tel Aviv “practically emptied of their population.”
The words “victory” and “resistance” flash on the screen in Persian as the news presenter announces that over 2,500 “Zionist soldiers” have surrendered to the force.
The film, one of several animations depicting wars with Israel or the US to appear in recent years on Iranian websites, implicitly criticizes the West for failing to honor its commitments towards Iran, suggesting that Iran cannot be held accountable for acting against Israel independently.
The Times of Israel Community.