Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu frequently warns the world of the dangers of Iran, particularly a nuclear-armed Iran.  But he may have revealed that he doesn’t know much about his Middle Eastern rival, claiming a “free country” would allow its people to wear jeans and listen to western music.  Which young Iranians pretty much do all the time.  And they rubbed it in.

“If the people of Iran were free, they could wear jeans, listen to Western music and have free elections,” Netanyahu told an interviewer with the BBC’s Persian Channel, imploring young people to stand up against the government.  His logic:  A nuclear-armed Iranian government would be invincible, and the public would remain “oppressed” and unable to join the modern world.

And then Twitter exploded.

Hundreds of Iranians began tweeting photos of themselves in jeans, many displaying western pop music cds or itunes playlists.  Some like to listen to our own Missy Higgins.  Some pictures were funny, some were crude, at least one was poignant:  A photo of the jeans-wearing young son of an assassinated Iranian Nuclear Scientist, whose family is suing the US and Israel. 

Is Iran a free country?  Hell, no.  Not by our standards.  Is it the same as it was after the 1979 revolution?  No.  But what was clear at the end of the day is that the loudest voice against Iran seems to know the least about it.