Just today as I was sitting in my Torts class, I was bored and I decided to read some of the blogs that belong to anti-Israel and anti-Zionists groups. There was one argument regarding how the Jews in Iran are so happy and they hate Israel and how they don’t support Israel and they love Iran more than Israel.
Then I came across people who were somehow using some foreign statistics regarding the number of the Jews who lived in Iran prior to 1979 and also the number of Jew who currently reside in Iran.
I would like to bring this subject to my own blog. See, Iranian Jews in Iran have been and will always been the biggest Zionists supporters around the globe. If under pressure, with intimidation from Iranian government, these people make statements against Israel, it doesn’t mean they are pro-Islamic republic of Iran. All my Jewish friends who live in here now or they lived in Israel, our biggest fantasy and dream was to visit Israel one day and join IDF. Even today, when most of us reside in the U.S., we still have full support for Israel.
The other side, always try to utilize an argument against Zionism and portray how Iranian Jews are against Zionism. They will utilize any tool in their hand trying to discredit the existence of Israel. One of these tools is portraying how Jews are against Zionism. My message to them is: dream on! Just because of small minority of spoiled Jews in the U.S who are against Zionist, doesn’t mean all Jews especially Jews in Iran are against Zionism.
But why do they try so hard trying to disconnect Zionism and from Jewish support? The reason is very simple: to try escape the reality that most of their view is simply anti-Semitic. They are trying to portray that their view is not anti-Semitic. Even though they hate Zionists more than anything because it is an ideology that calls for a Jewish nation that defends Jews, they still claim that it doesn’t have the right to exist. However, it is very apparent from the actions of Islamic Republic and a lot of Arab countries (for example Holocaust Denying Conference), and many of these anti-Zionist groups, that these groups ARE anti-Semitic.
Iranian Jews have flourished very well in Israel and in the United States. It is the perfect proof to show that Jews in Iran are oppressed because they are always held back in every aspect of the society. Any action to try to hide these facts is just a pathetic way of excusing their own ignorance toward Israel and Iranian Jews.
6 comments:
From what my parents tell me, the Jews of Iran have always been and still are supporters of Israel. They are deeply Zionist at heart.
The Irooni Jews I know have always supported Israel and alway will. Hell, I even know a lot of Iranian Muslims and Bahais that support Israel.
Also, Judaism, being Jewish, and supporting Israel's right to exist are all in one package for many people including me.
I think we need to recall who we are dealing with here - Iran isn't interested in facts, least of all when dealing with how thier Jewish citizens feel about anything.
Despotic regimes like the one currently established in Iran aren't interested in the truth - they wish only to perpetrate their mad quest to destroy the Jewish people and thier culture.
I doubt Iran is any better than Hamas or any other radical Islamin group.
I don't know what anti-Zionist and anti-Israel websites you're reading, but it seems like you've gotten a very poor impression of that general school of thought. The ideas behind much of the mainstream of political anti-Zionism relate to the inhumanity with which Israel treats all of its neighbors, and Israel's continued policy of making a deal with Palestinians, infringing upon the terms of the deal (i.e. the settlements), and then taking more and more in the name of "self-defense."
Incidentally, what you might be referring to is the fact that when political Zionism was introduced in the late-19th and early-20th century, a very small percentage of Jews anywhere supported it. Most Jews felt that the establishment of a Jewish-only land was admitting that the anti-Semites were right -- that there really was something about Jews that made them different from Europeans, and the only way out for them was to completely isolate themselves from society. To me, this seems much more racist than any argument about the state of Israel today as a political entity. The fact is that most Jews are far more endangered in Israel than just about anywhere else (although, to be fair, they aren't half as endangered as the Palestinians, some of whom are forced to live on $2 a day while their Israeli neighbors are subsidized by the US government). Some Jews still don't support Israel, it's true, although I believe that percentage is a minority. I've never thought that this argument was particularly strong; I don't like to make arguments against Israel that sound like they're arguments about Jews, because I love the Jewish people, I hate anti-Semites, and yet I still strongly feel that one can view Israel as an oppressive, imperialist power and a political bully.
If you'd like to get into debate with a serious political thinker who feels like these questions need answers and is never going to resort to racism or stupidity, then please e-mail me.
Kevin:
I don't know your e-mail address or anything. However, what I have observed is that a lot of Arab nation has resort to Nazi Propaganda in order to form an argument against Zionism. I have seen them just take a cartoon, took the word Jewish out and replaced it with "Zionists". In Iran, they carry on any attack they want and only replace the word Jewish w/ Zionists.
About Israel, what about Arafat failure to stop terrorism against Israel? What about all the money that was givne to them to rebuild the their countries in the 90s and the only they built was more sophisticated terrorists organizations.
When you compare Israel with this military war monger, you fail to consider the Palestinian failures in terms of achieving peace. When Israel was brainwashing its population to agree with peace process, Palestinians and Arafat was brainwashing its kids to fight Israel and it worked and violence broke out in 2000 after all those kids reached about 16-25. Then Arafat released all the terrorists that Israel had gathered and turned over to Palestinian Authority, and they went STRAIGHT BACK TO TERRORISM.
You see, it is very simple to call Israel imperialists and stuff like that, but the process of Palestinian getting their own country is their own fault. I am sorry, you can't just blow up buses and expect Israel not to close its border to you. You are making $2 a day (which i don't think it is exactly true) is not Israel's fault. It is your leaders fault, the militant's groups that you give moral support to, and other country's like Iran fault.
It bothers me a lot Kevin that a lot of muslims say something like this Israel has no place in a muslim land. This jewish nation has no right to exist.
About political zionism, when I was in Iran, the only thing we prayed for was a Jewish country and we loved Israel because we all identified ourselves w/ being Jewish. I know in the U.S. the Jews are differnet, but trust me, I feel a lot safer when i ma in Israel than any other place in the world.
Why do you think Israeli Palestinian problem is such a big deal, people go as far calling it ethnic cleansinng, mass murdere, and all the other names they could find, they try to find any proof to condemn Israel, however, they all have turned a blind eye to darfur. Howcome I don't see groups protesting in UC Berkeley, putting up shows about how Darfur kids are being slaughtered, but I see all these moeny being spended to discredit Israel in the eyes of the world. Howcome no one dares to talk about China and its treatment of its prisoners, or Iranian way of raping their female political prisoners and porring colorox on their vagina after they had raped them!? howcome no one take it that seriously, but when Israel acts in its own self-defense, the world goes on a rampage agaianst Israel? I tell you why, it has to do w/ the fact that Israel is a Jewish nation. Anti-semtisim has given its form to anti-Zionism. Don't get me wrong, there people who truly love jewish people and they have a different opinion about Israel. At least they believe in the right of State of Israel to exist but they think Israel should change its tactic. I am talking about those who just want to destroy Israel and they just don't want this country to exist! They are anti-semtic!
"We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population."
David Ben Gurion, Founder of Israel
"We must do everything to ensure they [the Palestinian refugees] never do return" David Ben-Gurion, in his diary, 18 July 1948, quoted in Michael Bar Zohar's Ben-Gurion: the Armed Prophet, Prentice-Hall, 1967
"If I were an Arab leader, I would never sign an agreement with Israel. It is normal; we have taken their country. It is true God promised it to us, but how could that interest them? Our God is not theirs. There has been Anti - Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They see but one thing: we have come and we have stolen their country. Why would they accept that?"
David Ben Gurion, Founder of Israel
"Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you because geography books no longer exist. Not only do the books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either. Nahlal arose in the place of Mahlul; Kibbutz Gvat in the place of Jibta; Kibbutz Sarid in the place of Huneifis; and Kefar Yehushua in the place of Tal al-Shuman. There is not a single place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population." Moshe Dayan, address to the Technion, Haifa, reported in Haaretz, 1969
Jason M:
Thank you very much for the articl!
Post a Comment