The "Happy Jewels" in Iran [Updated]

Old Testament Scroll in Mullah Jacub's Synagogue, Isfahan, Iran by Hamed Saber(also see note at end)

There is a ludicrous article titled "Israel's Problem in Tehran" that hit the front page of Digg yesterday. The author is Jonathan Cook, a British "journalist" living in the Middle East who is a frequent Muslim apologist and regularly writes hit pieces on Israel (more on that below). From the article in question here:

Iran is the new Nazi Germany and its President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is the new Hitler. Or so Israeli officials have been declaring for months as they and their American allies try to persuade the doubters in Washington that an attack on Tehran is essential. And if the latest media reports are to be trusted, it looks like they may again be winning the battle for hearts and minds: Vice President Dick Cheney is said to be diverting the White House back on track to launch a military strike.

That last line is classic - "Cheney is said" to be preparing a military strike on Iran. In other words, there is no evidence, but we can correctly report that someone, somewhere has said it...

But back to the subject, the rest of the article is much more pernicious; it is pure Iranian propaganda, and it might as well have been written by the Mullahs themselves. It claims that the Jews live there happily and peacefully, with full freedom to travel, and even huge bribes by Israel won't convince them to leave:

If Ahmadinejad really is Hitler, ready to commit genocide against Israel's Jews as soon as he can get his hands on a nuclear weapon, why are some 25,000 Jews living peacefully in Iran and more than reluctant to leave despite repeated enticements from Israel and American Jews?

This is literally journalistic malpractice. Why didn't he mention that so many have left already? Before the Iranian revolution, there were an estimated 65,000 Jews living in Iran. In fact, the vast majority of Persian Jews don't even live in Persia anymore; there are approximately 75,000 former Persian Jews living in Israel, and 45,000 in the United States (One of whom is Jimmy Delshad, the mayor of Beverly Hills!)

In the meantime, the 25,000-strong Iranian Jewish community is the largest in the Middle East outside Israel and traces its roots back 3,000 years. As one of several non-Muslim minorities in Iran, Jews there suffer discrimination, but they are certainly no worse off than the one million Palestinian citizens of Israel -- and far better off than Palestinians under Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza.

Here he does at least acknowledge that the Jews suffer discrimination, but tries to whitewash it as much as possible. They are certainly "worse off" than the Arab Israelis, since Israel's Arab citizens have full rights under the law and the Persian Jews do not! I'll agree that they probably have a better and safer life than Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, but there is one crucial difference: The Palestinians are sponsoring terror and suicide attacks against Israel, while the Persian Jews are doing nothing to terrorize Iran. But it's certainly not all roses; since the revolution, several Jews have been arrested and executed in Iran, on charges of spying for Israel or helping Jews to emigrate, although these have fallen off in recent years.

His choice of words here is telling too. There is no such thing as "Palestinian citizens of Israel". There are Palestinians, and then there are Israelis. Two different nations altogether (well maybe three, with the Hamas-Fatah civil war...) What he is doing is deliberately trying to lump in the Arab-Israeli citizens with the Palestinians, as if all Arabs in the region truly belong to Palestine, which he sees as the only legitimate state.

Iranian Jews have little influence on decision-making and are not allowed to hold senior posts in the army or bureaucracy. But they enjoy many freedoms. They have an elected representative in parliament, they practice their religion openly in synagogues, their charities are funded by the Jewish diaspora, and they can travel freely, including to Israel.

So now he acknowledges a little discrimination, but he leaves out a good deal of info. Not just the "Army or the bureaucracy" but Jews also cannot serve in the Judiciary, or become a school headmaster, including at a Jewish school. Yes, that's right, the headmasters at several Jewish majority schools have been replaced by Muslims, and lessons in Hebrew have been deliberately curtailed. Additionally, Iran insists that all schools remain open on Saturday, in accordance with the normal Iranian schedule, even though Saturday is the Jewish sabbath.

And yes, there is a Jewish representative in the Iranian parliament. But that's not out of any particular love of Jews, or any evidence that Iranians would vote for a Jewish leader. Rather, it's more a device for Iran to project a public image of inclusiveness: there is exactly one seat reserved in the Iranian Parliament for a Jew (and another one for a Zoroastrian). Moreover, the Parliament has little power anyway, since Iran's Supreme Revolutionary Council controls everything.

The "traveling freely" is also a canard. Iran forbids travel to Israel (although they have granted certain exceptions) - in fact, this rule is clearly printed in every Iranian passport. So if Jews want to travel there, they normally have to take complicated measures in their travel and avoid getting a telltale Israeli stamp in their passport. Additionally, Iran is very aware of losing the community and puts restrictions on entire families moving together. There are also no postal or telephone services from Iran to Israel either, although certainly the Internet has now made contact easier.

Regarding the monetary incentives for Jews to emigrate to Israel:

The announcement was met with scorn by the Society of Iranian Jews, which issued a statement that their national identity was not for sale. "The identity of Iranian Jews is not tradeable for any amount of money. Iranian Jews are among the most ancient Iranians. Iran's Jews love their Iranian identity and their culture, so threats and this immature political enticement will not achieve their aim of wiping out the identity of Iranian Jews."

This quote is real, but remember the few remaining of the Jewish community tend to be the die-hard few who are comfortable or successful where they are. There are the travel restrictions (mentioned above) to be considered as well.

Cook goes on:

More important than the welfare of Iranian Jewish families, it seems, is the value of Iranian Jews as a propaganda tool in Israel's battle to persuade the world that coexistence with the Muslim world is impossible.

This would be funny, if it weren't indeed so tragic. Apparently, the possibility that the Persian Jews are being used as an Iranian propaganda tool never even occurs to the author.

It also doesn't occur to him the real reason why the Jews are living there in relative peace. Shariah (Islamic) law open allows peoples of other religions to coexist with Muslims as long as they do so in as "dhimmis", subservient to Islamic rule, like a conquered nation. That's why Israel is so hated in the Middle East. Muslims can't stand the fact that a sovereign state in the region is not governed by Muslims, refuses to submit as a dhimmi, and not only that, has defeated the Arabs in several wars.

I should also add that Cook makes the tired claim that President Admedinijad never really said he wanted to "wipe Israel off the map":

He was not threatening to exterminate Jews or even Israel... Nonetheless, this erroneous translation has survived and prospered because Israel and her supporters have exploited it for their own crude propaganda purposes.

This is sheer nonsense, which I debunked in an earlier article.

And if all that's not enough, the very picture on the article is misleading as well. It's not of the Persian Jew community (of which you can see photos here) but of a holocaust denial conference in Tehran last year.

And something that's really creepy about the article is that in the comments section, nearly every comment, whether for or against the article, refers to "Jews" as "Jewels", or in a few cases, "Jays". What's up with that? Is this some moderation attempt by the web site to prevent the word "Jew" appearing too often? Or is the word automatically being filtered somehow?

Jonathan Cook

So who is the author Jonathan Cook anyway? He is a freelance "journalist", author of such articles as "Five Myths That Sanction Israel's War Crimes", "The Lies Israel Tells Itself" and "Nearly All the War Crimes Were Israel's". A visit to his full list of articles, shows that his area of focus is solely on the Middle East issues and is fanatical in his support of Islamic nations and hatred of Israel. And strangely, according to one of his articles anyway, he is not a Muslim but an atheist. What is scary is that he's not just limited to his own web site or Al-Jazeera, but to mainstream newspapers like The London Times, The International Herald Tribune, and The Guardian.

Now as I write this, I pause for a little self-reflection. Aren't I biased as well? Don't I tend to defend Israel on this site? Yes, I do, and like every human being, I have biases. I see a tiny country like Israel, fighting for its very existence, while most of the rest of the world is cheering its enemies on. But at least I try to look at the other side of the picture. And more importantly, I am not a journalist, and I don't pretend to be writing newspaper articles here. If I were, I would inject far less of my own opinion into them (I would also insist on being paid for it).

Miscellaneous, but important additional information

I need to mention that although the article appears on Al-Jazeera.com, it's a different organization and not to be confused with the popular Al-Jazeera news and satellite channel, whose web site is www.Al-Jazeera.net.

If you are not big on religion or ancient history, you might wonder: why are Jews living in Iran anyway? Their presence in Iran (and Iraq) dates to the Babylonian Captivity around the 6th Century BC. The Babylonian emperor conquered Israel and forced many thousands of Jews to emigrate to Mesopotamia. This was described in many Biblical books, including Jeremiah, Ezra, Nehemiah, Daniel, and Psalms. For a quick history, one good source is here.

Note about the picture above: it was taken by an Hamed Saber, an Iranian photographer on Flickr, who claims that Muslims have asked him to take it down, and that he's been harassed with questions like: "Are you advertising Israel?"

[UPDATE 26/08/2007 09:40:00 AM]:
Cook's article appeared even earlier on the Guardian's web site. Also, Karmel Melamed, who (unlike Jonathan Cook) actually is a Persian Jew, also takes Cook to task here.







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