Israel Matzav: Jewish holiday extended? Khameni dead?

Today might yet be designated a Jewish holiday. It has not yet been confirmed but Ayatollah Ali Khameni is rumored to be dead. 

Cairo-based journalist Gamal Sultan wrote on social media that Khamenei died after suffering from a bout with prostate cancer, after surgery failed to alter the course of his demise, according to Rassd News Network.

Daniel J. Levy of The Times Of Israel wrote on Twitter late Saturday: “Hearing unconfirmed reports from a usually very reliable source of Ayatollah Khamenei’s death today.”

On Friday, Iranian media confirmed that “The commander of the Islamic Revolution, Ali Khamenei, his health deteriorated on Friday morning, and was admitted to a Tehran hospital,” reported Al Bawaba News.

Reports on Thursday revealed that the “Supreme Leader” may have been hospitalized and was said to be in critical condition, according to Israel Hayom. Khamenei, 75, was reportedly rushed to the hospital due to complications from his ongoing bout with cancer.

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The rumors concerning Khamenei’s possible death come at the end of the Jewish holiday of Purim, which commemorates the thwarting of a Persian plot meant to destroy the empire’s Jews. The Book of Esther states that Haman, who served as a minister to who is believed to be King Xerxes I, planned to slaughter all of Persia’s Jews, but his plot collapsed after Mordecai and Esther exposed it.

History has shown that a country’s power structure is most vulnerable when its leadership appears to be in a state of transience. It remains to be seen whether Iran’s dissidents will seize the moment of uncertainty and rise up in an attempt to take their country back from its Caliphatist despots.

Maybe Barack Obama would like to take his place.