The 6th century B.C. Persian Emperor Cyrus, who granted the Jewish people their freedom, is pictured at left in the painting “Cyrus II le Grand et les Hébreux” (by Jean Fouquet, 1470-1475). The Persian Safavid ruler Shah Abbas I, pictured at right reviewing the severed heads of captured Ottoman Turkish soldiers, instituted restrictive ordinances against Jews in 1588.
Iran’s Views of Jews and the U.S.
by Lawrence A. Franklin
Iran’s imminent nuclear breakout capability will, of course, come with insufficient notice for anyone to stop it.
With its new intercontinental ballistic missiles, Iran can deliver these nuclear warheads to every capital of Europe. It does not even have to do that. It need only threaten to, while spelling out what it wants.
Doubtless, Iran has also put the “Great Satan,” the U.S., high at the top of its list.
Such a history, which reveals why most Jews of Iranian ancestry live abroad, can only intensify Israel’s suspicion of any agreement reached with the current Iranian regime, which has pledged often to eliminate “the Zionist entity,” the “Little Satan.”
Christians and Jews are familiar with the biblical narrative of how the ancient ruler of the Persian Empire, Cyrus, granted the Jewish people their freedom after his conquest of the Babylonia in 538 B.C. His proclamation launched the most meaningful “aliyah” [going up to Israel] until modern times.[1]
The Persian ruler even contributed treasure to help finance the rebuilding of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem, which had been destroyed by the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar.
There is, however, a different narrative. When Zoroastrianism was declared the official state religion during the Sassanid Dynasty (224-651 A.D.),[2] the plight of Iran’s Jews deteriorated.
This fusion of state and religion gave Zoroastrian clerics more political power than the monarchy. It also led to the enforcement of intolerant uniform rules of worship for all of Persia’s citizenry.[3]
That persecution clearly shows that Iranian “Jew-Hatred” predates the birth of Islam. Professor Shaul Shaked details pre-Islamic Sassanid Era polemics against the Jews:[4] The Sassanids burned synagogues and outlawed the celebration of the day of rest, Shabbat. One Sassanid monarch, “Feroz the Wicked” (Reshi’a), had most of the Jews of Isfahan murdered [5] — in the very city where the biblical heroine, Esther, and her cousin, Mordecai, are buried.
Later, in most of the Safavid (1502-1736) and Qajar (1781-1925) dynastic eras, the monarchs’ relationship with Iran’s Jews was at best problematic. After the conversion of Iran’s Muslims to the Shia sect of Islam, Jews, like other non-Shia minorities in Persia, were forced to live as dhimmi (tolerated, second-class citizens).
For centuries, there were forced conversions, the closing of synagogues, and destruction of Hebrew books[6] Outward signs distinguished Jews from the rest of Iran’s “loyal” citizens. Throughout the Safavid Era, Iran’s Jews were forced to wear colored hats and non-matching shoes.[7] In 1588, under the Safavid Shah Abbas I, restrictive ordinances against Jews were instituted, which came to known as “Jam Abbasi Laws,” severely limiting Jewish property rights and professions in which Jews could work.[8] Sometimes anti-Jewish feelings resulted in the often deadly Yud Bazi (Jew Game)[9] or Yud Khost (Jew Murder).[10] Attacks occurred: Muslim Imams whipped up their followers in anti-Jewish diatribes.
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Iran Speeding to Nuclear Weapons Breakout
by Bassam Tawil
(Image source: Shutterstock/Petr Kratochvila)
Iran, with its proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Bahrain and Yemen, has surrounded all the oil fields in the region and is currently busy encircling Jordan, Israel and Palestine.
Iran not only reaches now from Afghanistan to the Mediterranean, but Iranian Shi’ites have been spreading out through Africa and South America.
By the time U.S. President Barack Obama leaves office, Iran will not only have nuclear breakout capability, but also the intercontinental ballistic missiles to deliver its nuclear warheads to Europe and North America.
If Iran can finally drive the U.S. out of the Gulf by threatening U.S. assets, it will be free to pursue still further expansion.
If the deal signed with Iran is full of loopholes, it is Obama who will be blamed. Does Obama really want his legacy to be, “The President who was even a bigger fool than Neville Chamberlain”? He will not be seen as “Nixon in China.” He will be seen as the Eid al-Adha lamb.
Recently, foreign ministers from the European Union (EU) have been holding meetings with representatives of the Arab and Muslim world, including Turkey and Qatar, with the intention of forming a “joint task force to fight Islamist terrorism.”
Turkey and Qatar, for example, directly encourage Islamist terrorism, thus there is no way they can be part of a task force to act against it.
In some Islamic thinking, such nonsense, because of its certain lack of ever seeing the light, is merely a prologue to the ultimate war between Gog and Magog (“yagug wamagu”), and heralds the End of Days.
The Arab-Muslim world engages in perpetual internal strife. Iran, for instance, with its proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Bahrain and Yemen, has surrounded all the oil fields in the region, and is currently busy encircling Jordan, Israel and the Palestinians. Iran not only reaches now from Afghanistan to the Mediterranean, but Iranian Shi’ites have been spreading out through Africa and South America. Another sign of the End of Days is the United States’ collaboration with Iran against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. It means the world will eventually pay for America’s looking the other way while the Iranians are building nuclear bombs in their cellars.
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Iran
