Abstract
During a three-week trip to Iran in May and June, the main political topic of conversation was U.S. President Bill Clinton's announcement of a trade embargo against the Islamic Republic. Politically aware Iranians-members of Tehran's diverse business, intellectual, and political elites-seemed surprised, even shocked, by this newest twist in American policy. Tehranis who regularly interact with foreigners earnestly sought explanations from visitors as to why Washington had adopted such a punitive measure. Whenever they did not obtain a satisfactory response, they volunteered their own interpretations. Invariably, they blamed Israel. The American president, they insisted, had agreed to do Israel's bidding to appease pro-Israeli voters among the American public. Even those few who expressed doubts about the Israeli role two years ago when the Clinton administration targeted Iran, along with Iraq, in its dual containment policy said they had been persuaded by the latest evidence: a newspaper photograph or television clip of Clinton wearing a yarmulke while announcing the Iran boycott at a New York meeting of American Jews.' But why would Israel and its American supporters adopt a course as potentially confrontational as a boycott? Interviews in the Tehran bazaar, mosque courtyards, universities, and people's homes turned up a variety of explanations. Farideh Bagheri, a retired high-school teacher,
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