Zionist oligarch implicated in bombing of Iranian pistachio factories

Satellite imagery flagged by the @mhmiranusa account on X indicates that US & Israeli Zionist war criminals have been bombing Iranian pistachio warehouses. The account owner said:

The pistachio warehouses of Iranian Pistachio Company near Rafsanjan Airport were targeted by American/Israeli fighter jets in the first week of Farvardin.

The attached before and after images show clear differences, with many buildings seemingly no longer standing. The blog The Dissident suggests a reason for the destruction, saying it’s:

…likely a gift to Lynne and Stewart Resnick, the Zionist billionaires who own the California-based Wonderful company, the largest producer of pistachios in the world.

As the writer elaborates, the Resnicks have benefited from over four decades of brutal US sanctions on Iran:

For as long as anyone can remember, Iran had been the world’s main supplier of pistachios. But Carter’s 1979 embargo on the country effectively cut off Iranian pistachio growers from the American market and created a need for alternative pistachio production, which was virtually nonexistent in the United States.

Over much of that period, the Resnicks have built up a farming empire in California, with:

…nearly 160 square miles…growing cotton, pistachios, almonds, oranges, lemons and grapefruit.

Sanctions on Iran boost US pistachio industry

A picture tells a thousand words, so this image best shows the effect Washington’s sanctions have had on the relative success of pistachio markets in the US and Iran.

This degrading of Iran’s capacity to produce the foodstuff gives the US – and the Resnicks in particular – an opening into a global market worth over $5 billion. Iran and California are two of only a few areas in the world where pistachios are grown.

The Zionist plutocrats have certainly contributed to the current shape of the market, with Mondoweiss documenting how:

…the Resnicks did what any smart and ruthless American would do: they made common cause with oil companies, Islamophobes, neocons and Likudniks, and began funneling money to think tanks and political advocacy groups that take a hardline approach with Iran. Economic sanctions, sabotage, vilification—all these things worked in the Resnicks’ interest. Bombing some of Iran’s pistachio fields wouldn’t be so bad, either.

The pair are:

…on the board of trustees of the highly influential Washington Institute for Near East Policy think tank, which was created as an AIPAC spin-off in the ’80s. In the realms of US government mid-east policy and media reporting about the region, the think tank is considered to be one of the most influential in the country. It is also ridiculously hawkish on Iran, calling for heavy sanctions and military strikes against the country.

Given so-called ‘Israel’ gleefully bombs schools, hospitals, mosques and even synagogues, it wouldn’t be a stretch for it to bomb a nut factory to help out one of their key advocates and financial backers. The terrorist land theft project has an entire military philosophy predicated on attacks against non-military targets, known as the Dahiya Doctrine.

Centuries of violent intervention to protect profits

It would also be entirely in line with centuries old corporation-backing imperial policy. It stretches back at least as far as Britain using its military might to back the East India Company which pillaged South Asia. Famously, the United States staged a coup in Guatemala in 1954 to overthrow the country’s legitimate president Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán. The illegal attack was done to help out the United Fruit Company, with Árbenz planning to redistribute their vast land holdings.

And of course, most relevant of all in the current context is what happened just one year earlier – Operation Ajax. This was the British-US plot in which they overthrew Iran’s elected prime minister Mohammad Mossadegh.

They acted after Mossadegh sought to put oil profits in the hands of Iranians, rather than imperial powers. He aimed to do this by nationalising the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, now known as BP. Iran has not had democratic governance since.

The Resnicks’ offences extend beyond backing Zionist war crimes. A documentary called Pistachio Wars highlights their hoarding of water in California:

As drought intensifies and communities struggle for access to water, this film exposes the hidden systems of power, greed, and corruption shaping the future of food, farming, and survival in the American West.

It is executive produced by Adam McKay, who directed Vice, the excellent skewering of mass murderer Dick Cheney.

The illegal attack on Iran has caused fuel prices to soar, and that will soon have a knock-on effect on the price of everything else. If you’re paying more for pistachios in particular, you now know why.

Featured image via the Canary