From AP:
TEHRAN, Iran - Nothing in the office of Iran's sole Jewish lawmaker calls attention to his faith — no Star of David, no menorah or other symbol of Judaism. But like nearly every public building in Iran, it has a portrait of the Islamic Revolution's patriarch, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Moris Motamed's political headquarters highlight the well-practiced survival skills of Iran's remaining 25,000 Jews — caught again in a political no man's land by the fighting between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Any public expression of sympathy for Israel would invite a sharp crackdown from authorities and hard-line Islamic groups.
"We are Iranians. We work for what's best for Iran. The fighting, fortunately, does not affect the Jewish community in Iran," said Motamed, who holds the single parliament seat reserved for Jews. Other seats are set aside for the Christian Armenian and Assyrian minorities and followers of Iran's pre-Islamic Zoroastrian faith.
The State Department's 2005 International Religious Freedom Report notes:
The Government's anti‑Israel policies, along with a perception among radical Muslims that all Jewish citizens support Zionism and the state of Israel, create a hostile atmosphere for the small community. For example, during the reporting period, many newspapers celebrated the one-hundredth anniversary of the anti-Semitic publication "Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
Mr. Motamed is apparently feeling the additional pressure of the ongoing conflict in painting a rosier picture of Jewish life in Iran, as he registered complaints in the 2005 report:
On April 13, Representative Maurice Motamed, who represents Jews in the Majlis, complained that Iran's state television was broadcasting anti-Semitic programs. According to the press, Motamed claimed that "insulting Jews and attributing false things to them in television serials over the past 12 years has not only hurt the feelings of the Jewish community but has also led to the emigration of a considerable percentage of the Jewish community." Motamed also claimed that repeated complaints about this problem have not had the desired effect.
The article continues:
But Iran's Jews have undeniable bonds with Israel — most notably Israel's Iranian-born president, Moshe Katsav. Thousands of Iranian Jewish families have relatives in Israel. The historical links between Persia and the Holy Land go back to antiquity and are celebrated each year with the festival of Purim.
In January, the leader of Iran's Jewish community, Haroun Yashayaei, issued a rare challenge to Islamic authorities after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called the Holocaust a "myth." He said Ahmadinejad was questioning "one of the most obvious and saddening incidents in human history."
Israel, however, presents a red line no one will cross. Iran's Jews have remain publicly silent as Iranian leaders have called for Israel's destruction, including Ahmadinejad's call last year for Israel to be "wiped off the map."
Last week, Jews in the southern city of Shiraz held a pro-Hezbollah rally that was covered by state-run television — a sign that the march was likely overseen by the Islamic regime to reinforce the idea of national solidarity.
The Web site of the Tehran Jewish Community includes statements opposing Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip and praising uranium enrichment by Iranian scientists. The U.S. and many of its allies, including Israel, believe Iran is using its nuclear reactor project as a cover for a weapons program.
"For Iranians, there is a distinction in their mind between Zionism and Judaism," said Motamed. "This is a very important distinction for us."
What are you still doing there? Come home to Israel.
Bo'i babait, mishpachanu!
When a Christian leader living under an Islamic regime, such as in the PA, they are quickly denounced on this site as "IslamoChristians" and written off as unworthy of support because of dhimmi attitutes. I've even seen the entire Palestinian Christian community condemned as no better than Muslims. Yet even Hanan Ashrawi or Michel Sabbah have NEVER demonstrated in support of Hezbollah.
I now wonder if the same standard will be applied to Islamo-Jews such as Motamed and the entire Jewish community in Iran condemned for their dhimmitude?
Should have read
"When a Christian leader living under an Islamic regime, such as in the PA, makes a pro-Muslim or anti-Israel statement, they are quickly denounced on this site as "IslamoChristians" and written off as unworthy of support because of dhimmi attitutes. I've even seen the entire Palestinian Christian community condemned as no better than Muslims. Yet even Hanan Ashrawi or Michel Sabbah have NEVER demonstrated in support of Hezbollah.
I now wonder if the same standard will be applied to Islamo-Jews such as Motamed and the entire Jewish community in Iran condemned for their dhimmitude?"
You are quite wrong that all Christians living in the "Palestinian Authority" are denounced at JW as islamochristians. Only those "Palestinian" Christians who, in the Middle East, or outside the Middle East, willingly lend themselves to promoting the Islamic agenda, the agenda of either Abbas's Slow Jihad or Hamas's Fast Jihad, and who, what is more, attempt to hide the real mistreatment of Christians that has led so many to flee the PA-controlled territories, such as that current Mayor of Bethlehem, a Christian who denies what has been happening to Christians (meanwhile, his two children are safely in the U.S.), or such people as Naim Ateek, who spend their time working to promote the Lesser Jihad against Israel with gullible Christians -- such as some in the Presybterian Church's upper bureaucracy, or among other denominations -- are the ones who deserve to be described as "islamochristians." The fact that Ashrawi and Ateek have not demonstrated in favor of Hezbollah hardly merits our forgetting all the work they do on behalf of the Muslim Arab effort to weaken and delegitimize both Israel, and through Israel, the ability of non-Muslims to maintain some sort of foothold and control of the Holy Land (it is either Israel or Islam -- take your pick).
What of those Jews in Iran whom you mention, as if by not denouncing them, one is exhibiting a double standard? Really? Are the situations identical? Have those Jews been making tours around the world, like Ashrawi and Ateek, trying to influence people to promote the Islamic agenda, or are they terrified quasi-prisoners in Iran, a country run by a regime, and that regime headed by people -- Khamenei and Ahmadinejad -- who apparently are eager to see Israel removed from the face of the earth, and in a country where the treatment of Jews as "najis" (unclean) even led, well into the 1970s, to such rules as not permitting Jews out when it rained for fear that drops might drip from their "uncleanness" and land on a pure Muslim, thereby contaminating him unforgivably.
The quickness with which you take offense, the false charge that you level at JW (we have never denounced all "Palestinian" Christians as islamocrhistians, but Ateek and Sabbah and Ashrawi do fit the bill) and finally, your notion that "the Jewish community" (what are you talking about -- the few tens of thousands who may be left, down to a fifth of their numbers under the Shah, who live in a state of constant terror -- what have they done in the outside world to promote the Islamic agenda? What, exactly?) should be denounced here, shows an unwillingness to make necessary distinctions -- if Ateek, Ashrawi, and Sabbah were facing death, and if they faced that every day, and if furthermore they only made such comments under such fear and as soon as they came to America they ceased to promote the Muslim Arab cause, then of course one would forgive them. But that is not the case.
Tell me again about how that "Jewish community" in Iran is promoting Islamic aims the way that Ateek, Ashrawi, and that Bethelehem mayor have been doing. Details, please. And oon't please offer up as your evidence of this the description above of a clearly terrified population, including those -- how many? -- who must have been pressed, on point of terrible punishment, into that hideous "pro-Hezbollah" demonstration -- how many were there, by the way? Did you see some videos? Are you privy to some additional information?
Your complaint is telling and shows bad faith. Who, reading the article above, could not see clearly what a hideous and terrifying situation those remaining 25,000 Jews, all that remain of the Jewish community that was in Persia for 2,500 years, endure every day.
Objection overruled.
Hugh,
Obviously I've hit a nerve, so I'll respond with some observations and questions for you.
1. You haven't seen pro-Hezbollah demonstrations by the Zoroastrian or Assyrian and Armenian Christian communities in Iran. Do you assert that they are not oppressed by the Islamic Republic? Are they any less Najis in the eyes of Muslims?
2. Ateek, Sabbah and Ashrawi speak only as individuals and are simply unsavoury characters enriching themselves by playing on the misguided sympathies of Western liberals. Ashrawi was elected as a representative of Fatah and not as a representative of any Christian interests.
Motamed, on the other hand, is the official Jewish Representative in Majlis, constitutionally directed to represent the Iranian Jewish community and elected solely by them. If the actions of Ateek, Sabbah and Ashrawi are unexcusable, which I agree they are, how can you excuse the actions of Mr. Motamed especially in comparison to the brave example of Haroun Yashayaei.
3. As for your question "Tell me again about how that "Jewish community" in Iran is promoting Islamic aims the way that Ateek, Ashrawi, and that Bethelehem mayor have been doing. Details, please."
Read the article: "For Iranians, there is a distinction in their mind between Zionism and Judaism," said Motamed. "This is a very important distinction for us."
Had a Christian "leader" in Palestine made the same statement, would you not condemn it?
Finally you accused: "Your complaint is telling and shows bad faith. Who, reading the article above, could not see clearly what a hideous and terrifying situation those remaining 25,000 Jews, all that remain of the Jewish community that was in Persia for 2,500 years, endure every day."
Bad faith???. The same is also true about the Palestinian Christians who in 1967 made almost the total population of Ramallah. Today there are less than 200. Do they live in any less of a "hideous and terrifying situation" today?
Or the 200,000 Assyrian Christian refugees in Syria who've had to flee both the US imposed Islamic regime in Baghdad and the ongoing deprivations by your beloved Kurds?
The same standards must be applied to all living under the Islamic nightmare, whether Jewish, Christian, Hindu or any other faith.
Provoslavni . . . I can't imagine being either an Iranian Jew or a Palestinian Christian. Both are hard, aweful existances. On the charge of dhimmitude, who'se more dhimmitude in attitude; does it matter? Even some of the most vociferous Christian Palestinian defenders of Arafat are running scared in Hamastan. What were the motivations of the Iranian Jews who marched against Israel?? Maybe they were 'encouraged to, maybe they wanted to, or maybe they were instructed to. Does it matter. Of the over hundred thousand ex-patriat Iranian Jews throughout the world, you can't find one who lives outside of Iran who defends its government. You will find a spare Jew in Iraq, a thousand or two in Casablanca, Tehran, a declining remnant in Turkey. Like the vanishing Christians of the East, they'll be gone in a generation or two. Personally, I understand dhimmitude among a Christian or Jew in Lebanon or Tehran. I get it. It's easy for me to criticize from the USA, isn't it. What concerns me greatly is not which remnant shows the most dhimmitude, but rather the dhimmitude displayed by so many throughout the world, scared of what immigration has wrought, too willing to sacrafice anyone--or thing(freedom of speech)at the alter of pc correctness towards the religion of beheading. I personally feel that debating which group had it worst under the Muslims is like looking at live lobsters boiling in the water. Which one will die first?
Provoslavni
Iranian Zoroastrians, Assyrians or Armenians don't have any connections with Israel that Jews, rightly or wrongly, are perceived to have. Therefore, chances are that they are under no pressure to lambast Israel, nor are they inclined to do it on their own.
Jews, on the other hand, do have theological connections to Israel, and serve as a convinient tool in the hands of the Iranians to de-legitimize Israel. Iran can score propaganda points by pointing to a Jewish demonstration against Israel, like the one in Shiraz above, but like other pro-regime demonstrations in Iran, it was likely the combination of a rent-a-mob along with the threats of intimidation. Like the article pointed out, Iranian Jews who do make it to Israel are very loyal to Israel, and have served with distinction, such as Moshe Katsav. OTOH, Iran gains no propaganda value from, say, an Assyrian demonstration against Israel.
If you want to find Islamo-Jews, you are looking in the wrong place. Look at Hamas, who is represented in Israeli and US courts by Stanley Cohen, who advocates that the US take the side of Hamas and eliminate Israel. Look at the various Leftist Jews in the US who support Hamas and Hizbullah. If you want Islamo-Jews, they are your guys. The treachery that's characterestic of people on the Left (regardless of parental denomination) is rivaled only by the treachery of Muslims towards their own countries, if those countries happen to be Infidel countries.
Infidel Pride and Biorabbi,
You're both right and thanks for interjecting some reason back on us before Hugh and I got off into needless polemics. Despite many of us calling each other to task over minor inconsistencies and petty disagreements, we are all in agreement on the important issues.
As I re-read my own post, I realize the tone is harsh and could be interpreted as lacking empathy for the suffering Iranian Jews. I assure you that was not my intention. Rather it was to re-emphasize the common oppression that Jews and Christians face together under Islam.
The truly disgusting dhimmis are not those under Islam but those who have the freedom to confront the Muslim tyranny but refuse to do so. Olmert's imbecile daughter comes to mind.
Whether it's in Iran or under the Hamas controlled PA both Christians and Jews suffer alike and we need to support them all. Mr. Motamed, like the numerous priests and bishops who make dhimmi statements, must speak carefully so as to not bring Muslim pogroms on their communities. We are no in their situation and so should think twice before making judgement.