{"id":1460316,"date":"2024-03-02T00:40:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-02T05:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1460316"},"modified":"2024-03-02T00:40:00","modified_gmt":"2024-03-02T05:40:00","slug":"irans-jewish-population-belies-claims-of-tehrans-genocidal-intent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/irans-jewish-population-belies-claims-of-tehrans-genocidal-intent\/1460316\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran’s Jewish Population Belies Claims Of Tehran’s Genocidal Intent"},"content":{"rendered":"

Iran’s Jewish Population Belies Claims Of Tehran’s Genocidal Intent<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

By Brian McGlinchey via Stark Realities<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

For decades, Israeli government officials \u2014 chief among them, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu \u2014 have accused Iran of plotting a new Holocaust <\/strong>against the millions of Jews who call Israel home. Netanyahu has said Iran is \u201cplanning another genocide<\/a>\u00a0against our people,\u201d and wants to \u201cdestroy\u00a0another six million<\/a>\u00a0plus Jews.\u201d<\/p>\n

Western journalists are quick to quote these claims, yet slow to publicize contradictory evidence \u2014 such as the fact that Iran is home to the Middle East\u2019s second-largest population of Jews, who freely practice their faith, peacefully coexist within the Islamic republic and even have a seat in the legislature.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s said that \u201ccharity begins at home.\u201d If we\u2019re to believe Netanyahu and his confederates in America, wouldn\u2019t an Iranian genocide against Jews begin there too?<\/p>\n

Iranian Jews at a Tehran synagogue<\/strong>\u00a0(Reuters\/Raheb Homavandi\/TIMA)<\/a><\/p>\n

Having long been subjected to the genocidal-Iran narrative, the average American probably assumes there\u2019s no such thing as an Iranian Jew.<\/strong> However, according to varying estimates, there are 9,000 to 20,000 of them in a land where the Jewish presence goes back nearly 3,000 years.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s well lower than the 100,000 or more Jews who lived in Iran in the years leading up to the 1979 revolution<\/strong>. The uncertainty of what life would be like in an Islamic republic \u2014 culturally, economically and in terms of personal safety \u2014 prompted tens of thousands to leave for Israel, the United States and other countries.<\/p>\n

Many of them were alarmed when Habib Elghanian, a prominent Iranian Jewish industrialist with ties to the deposed Shah, was arrested just a few weeks after the revolution and charged with corruption and spying for Israel. Prosecutors also accused him of soliciting\u00a0money<\/a>\u00a0for the Israeli Defense Forces, and thus being complicit \u201cin murderous air raids against innocent Palestinians.\u201d In May 1979, he was executed by firing squad.<\/p>\n

Though Elghanian\u2019s execution shook Iranian Jews, it also precipitated a critical development that has helped assuage their fears ever since.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The day after the execution, two rabbis and four younger intellectual Jews\u00a0arranged a visit<\/a>\u00a0with the Ayatollah Khomeini<\/strong>. By conveying that Iran\u2019s Jews considered themselves Iranian first and would support their fellow citizen\u2019s choice of a new system of government, they hoped to elicit a guarantee against Jews being targeted.<\/p>\n

To their surprise, Khomeini welcomed the Jews as VIPs<\/strong>. After a literal standoff that saw the Jewish delegation and the ayatollah both deferentially waiting for the other to take a seat first, they all sat on the floor in a circle.<\/p>\n

Khomeini lauded Moses as one of three prophets sent by God to guide humanity. Then, to the great relief of his guests, he drew a sharp distinction between the Israeli government and Iran\u2019s Jews, declaring:<\/p>\n

\u201cMoses would have nothing to do with these pharaoh-like Zionists who run Israel. <\/strong>And our Jews, the descendants of Moses, have nothing to do with them either. We recognize our Jews as separate from those godless, bloodsucking Zionists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Khomeini then issued a fatwa \u2014 an Islamic religious leader\u2019s formal decree \u2014 asserting that\u00a0Jews are a protected minority<\/a>\u00a0and forbidding violence against them.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jews do not, however, hold a fully equal place in Iranian society.<\/strong> Most notably, they may not hold senior government posts or become judges. Jews serve in the Iranian military, but cannot do so as officers. They can\u2019t\u00a0inherit<\/a>\u00a0property from Muslims, but if a member of a Jewish family converts to Islam, that person inherits everything.<\/p>\n

Iranian dignitaries at the dedication of a monument to Jewish soldiers who died for Iran in its 8-year war to repel a 1980 invasion by US-backed Iraq<\/strong> (IRNA<\/a>)<\/a><\/p>\n

To a great extent, however, Iran\u2019s Jews live much like anyone else in the country<\/strong>, a reality sharply at odds with Western assumptions.<\/p>\n

While promoting Zionism or the Israeli government is illegal for anyone, Jews openly display their identity and practice their faith<\/strong>. Iranian Jews\u00a0wear yarmulkes and prayer shawls<\/a>\u00a0in public. Muslims pass by without giving a second glance \u2014 after all, Jews\u2019 presence in Iran and Persia goes back nearly three millennia, and the country is home to many important Jewish religious sites.<\/p>\n

There are\u00a013 synagogues<\/a>\u00a0in Tehran alone. Tourists are surprised to find that, unlike in Europe and elsewhere, Iran’s synagogue don\u2019t have locked doors, metal detectors or security guards.<\/strong> Tehran also has a\u00a0Jewish seminary<\/a>\u00a0and a\u00a0mikveh<\/a>\u00a0ritual bath facility.<\/p>\n

In 2015, President Hassan Rouhani officially\u00a0recognized Saturday<\/a>\u00a0as the Jewish day of religious observance, freeing Jews to observe their Sabbath (the typical Iranian workweek and school week goes from Saturday to Wednesday with a half-day on Thursday).<\/p>\n

An Iranian Jewish woman prays at the Abrishami Synagogue in Tehran<\/strong> (Behrouz Mehri\/AFP)<\/a><\/p>\n

Jews send their kids to Jewish schools, enjoy kosher restaurants and operate Tehran\u2019s oldest charity hospital,<\/strong> where 96% of patients are Muslims. \u201cWhen I am sick, I go across the street [to the Jewish-run hospital],\u201d a Muslim seminary student told the\u00a0New York Times<\/a><\/em>. \u201cThey might have a different religion, but they are fellow Iranians.\u201d<\/p>\n

That sentiment is widely embraced in Iran. In fact, the Anti-Defamation League\u2019s\u00a02014 Global Index<\/a>\u00a0of antisemitism (its most recent) found Iranians to be the\u00a0least<\/em>\u00a0antisemitic of any population in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

By some indications, Iranian Jews are more accepted by Muslims in Iran than by Jews in Israel.<\/strong> As a third-generation Iranian-Israeli explained to\u00a0Radio Free Europe<\/a><\/em>, \u201cIn Israel, we have racism towards people that came from Islamic states. As a child, I suffered a lot because I\u2019m Persian.\u201d<\/p>\n

When wealthy Jewish expatriates in 2007 offered\u00a0cash rewards<\/a>\u00a0of $60,000 per family to entice Iranian Jews to emigrate to Israel,\u00a0few<\/a>\u00a0signed up. The Society of Iranian Jews scoffed, saying \u201cthe identity of Iranian Jews is not tradable for any amount of money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jews are guaranteed<\/a> one of five seats in the Iranian parliament\u00a0reserved for religious minorities<\/strong>; three more are reserved on behalf of Iran\u2019s hundreds of thousands of Assyrian-Chaldean and Armenian Christians. The government has tolerated public rebukes issued by the Jewish representative and other Jews. For example, in 2006, Jewish MP Maurice Motamed and other Jewish leaders\u00a0criticized<\/a>\u00a0President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for\u00a0saying<\/a>\u00a0Jews \u201chave created a myth in the name of Holocaust, and consider it to be above God, religion and the prophets.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the other hand, Iranian Jews\u2019 political stances frequently align with the government\u2019s<\/strong>. When anti-regime protests erupted in 2022, the Tehran Jewish Committee, an umbrella group of organizations, issued a statement\u00a0condemning<\/a>\u00a0them, adding that its members have \u201calways obeyed the position of the Supreme Leader, like our compatriots.\u201d<\/p>\n

In October, Jews in five cities participated in\u00a0rallies<\/a>\u00a0against Israel\u2019s brutal assault on Gaza. Some held a sign reading, \u201cDo not commit crimes in the name of Judaism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outsiders reasonably wonder if Jews feel compelled to take such stances<\/strong> to maintain their safe place in society. The Israeli and US governments go a step further,\u00a0accusing<\/a>\u00a0Iran of actively coercing such speech, but they offer\u00a0nothing<\/a>\u00a0to substantiate those allegations.<\/p>\n

A New Political Order, Not A New Holocaust<\/strong><\/h3>\n

While the existence of Iran\u2019s unmolested Jewish population belies claims that their government is bent on eliminating Jews, any thorough evaluation of those claims must also confront Tehran\u2019s sharply-worded statements against the State of Israel.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Iran doesn\u2019t recognize Israel as a state and, ever since 1979, Iranian ayatollahs, presidents and generals have called for Israel to be \u201cdestroyed<\/a>,\u201d \u201cwiped off the map<\/a>\u201d or \u201celiminated<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

While that language can sound like threats of physical destruction, scrutiny of the full quotes almost invariably confirms the speakers are referring to the elimination of the State of Israel as a political entity<\/strong>. Western news outlets, politicians and propagandists, however, often omit the context that makes this distinction clear \u2014 if not misquoting the speaker altogether.<\/p>\n

Among those opposing Zionism are some ultra-orthodox Jews<\/strong> (Andy Solomon via Middle East Monitor<\/em><\/a>)<\/a><\/p>\n

Anti-Iran propagandists\u2019 all-time favorite citation springs from a 2005 speech by then-president Ahmadinejad<\/strong>, who was said to have declared that \u201cIsrael must be wiped off the face of the map.\u201d The quote became a staple of Iran-hawk rhetoric that\u2019s still employed more than 18 years later \u2014 despite the fact that he\u00a0actually said<\/a>\u00a0something quite different: \u201c[Ayatollah Khomeini] said this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

In that same speech, titled \u201cThe World Without Zionism,\u201d Ahmadinejad listed three other regimes that have ceased to exist \u2014 Iran\u2019s own monarchy, the Soviet Union, and Saddam Hussein\u2019s Iraq government. As I\u00a0wrote<\/a>\u00a0in 2012:<\/p>\n

He wasn\u2019t calling for the annihilation of a\u00a0population<\/em>, but for the dismantling of a governing\u00a0entity<\/em><\/strong>. That\u2019s highly antagonistic language, to be sure, but it\u2019s not genocidal\u2014any more than Ronald Reagan\u2019s assertion that \u201cfreedom and democracy will leave Marxism and Leninism on the\u00a0ash heap of history<\/a>\u201d was a pledge to incinerate the Soviet, Chinese or Cuban people.<\/p>\n

Even when current-day news reports include accurate quotes about Iranian bluster, the headlines and leads frequently use shortened quotes that leave a false impression<\/strong>, as was the case with an\u00a0Associated Press<\/em>\u00a0article<\/a>\u00a0titled, \u201cIran leader says Israel a \u2018cancerous tumor\u2019 to be destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The great many who only scan the headline or first few paragraphs would reasonably think Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was threatening to blast the entire country to smithereens. Only those who dive deeper into the article would find Khamenei actually said, \u201cThe Zionist regime is a deadly, cancerous growth and a detriment to this region. It will undoubtedly be uprooted and destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the Iranian government has explicitly threatened a physical attack, look closely and you\u2019re almost certain to find the threat was not to initiate war but to retaliate <\/strong>if Israel strikes first. For example, consider a 2022\u00a0Times of Israel<\/a><\/em>\u00a0article titled, \u201cIranian general threatens to \u2018raze Tel Aviv and Haifa to the ground\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

You wouldn\u2019t know it from the headline, but the commander of the Iranian ground forces, Kiumars Heydari, was warning against Israeli aggression. He said, \u201cFor any mistake made by the enemy, we will raze Tel Aviv and Haifa to the ground by the order of the Supreme Leader.\u201d The\u00a0Times<\/em>\u00a0included that quote, but didn\u2019t include another that reinforces the contingent nature of Heydari\u2019s threat. Referring to the upgrading of Iran\u2019s arsenal, he said, \u201cAll this equipment is to\u00a0respond to the stupid aggressions of the enemies<\/a>\u00a0of the Islamic revolution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heydari\u2019s remarks came days after an Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps colonel was shot to death in his car outside his Tehran home. Israel told U.S. officials it had assassinated him, according to an intelligence source cited by the\u00a0New York Times<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Eliminating Israel: Khamenei Gets Specific<\/h3>\n

In a 2014\u00a0Q&A<\/a>\u00a0posted to social media, Ayatollah Khamenei elaborated on his vision of the State of Israel\u2019s elimination<\/strong>. Here are some key excerpts:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only means of bringing Israeli crimes to an end is the elimination of this regime. And of course the elimination of Israel does not mean the massacre of the Jewish people in this region.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe proper way of eliminating Israel: The original people of Palestine including Muslims, Christians and Jews, wherever they are\u2026take part in a public and organized referendum<\/strong>\u2026Jewish immigrants who\u2019ve been persuaded into emigration to Palestine do not have the right to take part.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ensuing government\u2026will decide whether non-Palestinian emigrants\u2026can continue living in Palestine or should return to their home countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Until the referendum, Khamenei calls for \u201cresolute and armed resistance,\u201d to be facilitated in part by arming the Israeli-occupied West Bank \u201clike Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUnacceptable\u201d solutions include \u201ca classical war by the army of Muslim countries\u201d or \u201cthrow[ing] migrated Jews [to the] sea.\u201d<\/p>\n

Khamenei\u2019s agenda is undoubtedly hostile<\/strong> to Israel as a governing entity, includes a call for revolutionary violence, and raises the specter of a potential mass expulsion of Jews who migrated to Israel after some unspecified date. However, it isn\u2019t remotely a blueprint for killing \u201canother 6 million\u201d<\/strong> Jews, as Netanyahu and others would have you believe.<\/p>\n

It should be noted that many of the world\u2019s Jews \u2014who, like the Iranian government, say the creation of a Jewish ethno-state has victimized Palestinians \u2014 also call for an entirely new political order in the land currently controlled by the State of Israel.<\/p>\n

Defenders of the status quo in Greater Israel say peaceful coexistence of Muslims and Jews would be impossible in a successor state to Israel. In addition to undermining claims that Iran is genocidal, the enduring, peaceful coexistence of Jews and Muslims in Iran is problematic for that narrative as well \u2014 which may help explain why wealthy Israelis tried bribing Iranian Jews into leaving the country behind.<\/p>\n

\u201cDeath to Israel\u201d and \u201cDeath to Traffic\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n

At Iranian demonstrations and even in parliament, it\u2019s common to hear chants of \u201cDeath to Israel\u201d and \u201cDeath to America,\u201d<\/strong> the latter phrase originating during the 1979 revolution. These slogans are seized upon by anti-Iran hawks who say it would be foolish not to take Iranians at their word \u2014 meaning Iranians want all Israeli and American people to die.<\/p>\n

However, when you\u2019re crossing cultural lines, discerning meaning isn\u2019t always so simple<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Travel guru Rick Steves learned this\u00a0firsthand<\/a>\u00a0as he was being driven to the Tehran airport at the end of a 12-day stay. When his car encountered heavy traffic, his driver spontaneously exclaimed, \u201cDeath to traffic!\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

A perplexed Steves said, \u201cWhat? I thought it was \u2018Death to America\u2019.\u201d His driver explained, \u201cHere in Iran, when something frustrates us and is out of our control, we say \u2018death\u2019 to that.\u201d <\/strong>Upon reflection, Steves likened it to an American saying \u201cdamn those teenagers,\u201d without really wanting them to burn in eternal hellfire.<\/p>\n

That explains the seeming paradox of Iranians chanting \u201cDeath to America\u201d while holding a reputation for being extraordinarily welcoming and hospitable to American tourists, or \u201cDeath to Israel\u201d while peacefully coexisting with Jews. \u201cOnce, a group of [Iranian] women embraced and kissed my American colleague on both cheeks, proudly announcing \u2018we love American people,\u2019 before turning around to chant \u2018Death to America\u2019,\u201d\u00a0writes<\/a>\u00a0Nazila Fathi.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we do use this phrase, it strictly refers to governments, not people,\u201d<\/strong> explains Pontia at\u00a0My Persian Corner<\/a><\/em>. \u201cIranians are much better when it comes to differentiating between people and their governments\u2026it\u2019s very clear to us that when we say \u2018death to America or \u2018down with America\u2019 (or anyplace else), we are solely talking about the government.\u201d<\/p>\n

Khamenei has offered his own\u00a0clarification<\/a>: \u201cObviously, by \u2018death to America,’ we don\u2019t mean death to the American people\u2026it means death to US policies and its arrogance.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Iran\u2019s official English-language statements, \u201cdeath to\u201d is frequently translated as \u201cdown with<\/a>.\u201d However, the Iranian expression is the gift that keeps on giving to Iran hawks from Tel Aviv to Washington, DC.<\/p>\n

Israel and US flags burn at an annual Quds Day protest in Iran held to demonstrate solidarity with Palestinians<\/strong> (AP)<\/a><\/p>\n

None of this is to say that the Iranian government is virtuous<\/strong>, or that it isn\u2019t a major adversary of Israel. Iran calls for the State of Israel\u2019s violent overthrow. It supports Hamas and other organizations that advance that goal. It has praised violent attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians, from shootings in the West Bank to the Oct. 7 Hamas invasion.<\/p>\n

However, claims of genocidal intent by the Iranian government are contradicted by the treatment of the country\u2019s own Jews and by close scrutiny of Iran\u2019s supposedly genocidal rhetoric.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As with other geopolitical myths \u2014 Saddam\u2019s weapons of mass destruction, Iraqi soldiers\u00a0removing Kuwaiti infants from incubators<\/a>,\u00a0Gadhafi dispensing rape-drugs<\/a>\u00a0to soldiers \u2014 the myth of a genocidal Iranian government is purposefully cultivated:<\/strong> Americans who believe 6 million Israeli Jews are at risk of an Iranian-inflicted genocide are more likely to support the ongoing redistribution of billions of dollars of American wealth and weapons to Israel \u2014despite that aid\u2019s little-known\u00a0illegality under US law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Americans persuaded to believe the worst about Iran are also more likely to support hostile policies toward the country, including economic sanctions that, like terrorism,\u00a0intentionally inflict suffering on innocents<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Those prone to accepting at face value the claims of the Israeli government and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should consider that it was Netanyahu who,\u00a0thirty-two years ago<\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0first claimed Iran was \u201cthree to five years\u201d from having a nuclear weapon<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

It was Netanyahu who, testifying before the US Congress in 2002,\u00a0emphatically<\/a>\u00a0declared \u201cthere is no question whatsoever that Saddam is\u2026advancing towards the development of nuclear weapons<\/a> \u2014 no question whatsoever.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was Netanyahu who \u201cguaranteed<\/a>\u201d that same congressional audience that a regime-change invasion of Iraq would \u201chave\u00a0enormous, positive reverberations<\/a>\u00a0on the region.\u201d<\/p>\n

And it was Netanyahu who bragged to West Bank settlers that \u201cAmerica is a thing you can move very easily<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having helped \u201cmove\u201d America to throw away the lives of more than 4,500 service members in an invasion of Iraq that destabilized the region and caused hundreds of thousands of deaths, Netanyahu, his government and Israel\u2019s fellow travelers inside the United States have long sought to nudge America into a war with Iran too.<\/p>\n

If we\u2019re to avoid another catastrophe triggered on false pretenses, take care that your perception of the Iranian menace isn\u2019t moved too easily.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stark Realities<\/a>\u00a0undermines official narratives, demolishes conventional wisdom and exposes fundamental myths across the political spectrum.\u00a0Read more and subscribe at\u00a0starkrealities.substack.com<\/a><\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

*\u00a0 *\u00a0 *<\/p>\n

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ZeroHedge.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nFri, 03\/01\/2024 – 19:40<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bRead More<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Iran’s Jewish Population Belies Claims Of Tehran’s Genocidal Intent By Brian McGlinchey via Stark Realities For decades, Israeli government officials \u2014 chief among them, Prime…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1460316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1460316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1460316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1460316\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1460316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1460316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1460316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}