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For Jews, There Have Always Been Two Irans By Dr. Milani

 
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cyrus
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 10, 2005 3:28 pm    Post subject: For Jews, There Have Always Been Two Irans By Dr. Milani Reply with quote

For Jews, There Have Always Been Two Irans
November 10, 2005
The International Herald Tribune
Abbas Milani

Source:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/11/10/opinion/edmilani.php


PALO ALTO, California -- The Bible is full of praise for Persia (today's much-maligned Iran) and for its rulers. In the Book of Ezra, God speaks through the proclamations of Cyrus, the king of Persia, who declares, "The Lord God of Heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem."

Cyrus acceded to this divine command, and thus was the Second Temple in Jerusalem built. In other parts of the Old Testament, there is ringing praise of Cyrus as God's "anointed" and the "chosen" ruler, who freed Jews from their Babylonian captivity.

The Jewish feast of Purim celebrates the story of how Esther, queen to a Persian king, saved the Jews of the kingdom from annihilation. But along with the benevolence of Cyrus and the wisdom of Esther, there also lurked on the horizon the evil vizier, Haman of the race of Agog, whose mind and heart were darkened by rancor and hate.

Today, there sits in place of Cyrus one who has inherited not the magnanimity of Cyrus, but the malice of Haman: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who openly calls for Israel to be "wiped off the map."

Even in the modern history of Iran, the two strands, one lofty and humane, the other base, have continued to thrive side by side. In 1941, as Hitler was beginning to put in motion his murderous "final solution," the Iranian government convinced Nazi "race experts" that Iranian Jews had lived in Iran for 2,500 years, were fully assimilated members of the Persian nation and must be afforded all the rights of Iranian citizens.

The Nazis accepted the argument, and the lives of Iranian Jews residing in Europe were saved. Moreover, thousands of European Jews were saved when Iranian diplomats provided them with Iranian passports. And in the years after World War II, the Iranian government and people were exceedingly helpful - according to Israel's first ambassador to Iran - in facilitating the travel of hundreds of Iraqi Jews escaping persecution and heading for what was soon to be Israel.

Iran in fact was the first Muslim country to de facto recognize Israel and established close ties that lasted till 1979. But even then, the dread spirit of Haman was also in the air. As the Iranian government and many of its people were involved in helping Jews in their hour of need, there were also some ayatollahs who delivered fiery speeches against Jews, and against Israel. Clerical support for the oppression of Jews, which often hid its ugly head behind slogans against Zionism, began to emerge at the time.

When Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini came to power in 1979, he became the standard-bearer of this tradition. He paid lip service to the idea that Jews would be treated as equals in Iran. Islam, after all, affords Jews many rights as "people of the book." But in fact, Jews were subjected to many cruel and unjust punishments. The first nonmilitary, nongovernmental person sent to the firing squad by the Islamic revolutionary courts was a Jew, Habib Elganian, a prominent Iranian businessman.

In this sense, Ahmadinejad's shameful pronouncement about wiping the state of Israel off the map is more than another slip of tongue by a notoriously incompetent, loose-tongued president. Historically it conjures the spirit of Haman; politically it is the continuation of a policy that does not reflect Iranian history and character but caters to the lunatic fringe of Iranian politics, and of the Muslim world.

Ahmadinejad's comments must furthermore be seen in the context of the crisis the Islamic regime faces. For 25 years, the regime's cure for its own glaring incompetence has been to create a crisis. The European Union, particularly Britain, France and Germany, who had been for two decades dependable allies of the regime, has become increasingly estranged over Iran's nuclear adventurism and allegations of its support for terrorists in Iraq. Syria, the regime's only ally in the Middle East, is now politically on the ropes.

The domestic crisis is no less serious. The economy is in shambles. The stock market has lost about a third of its total value; the banking sector is all but collapsing; $200 billion dollars of capital has left Iran since the election, and there is increasing acrimony between different factions within the ruling clergy. Ahmadinejad's dangerous rhetoric was meant to energize the "base" and prepare them for the coming battles.

The captive people of Iran, or the millions forced into exile by the regime, must not be held responsible for the sins of the ruling cabal. Instead we must try to find ways to help the Iranian people achieve their hundred-year-old dream of democracy. Only in a genuine democracy can the spirit of Cyrus be truly celebrated and the shadow of Haman expunged.

(Abbas Milani is director of the Iranian studies program at Stanford University and a co-director of the Iran Democracy Project at the Hoover Institution.)
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Spenta



Joined: 04 Sep 2003
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 11, 2005 12:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Iran & Israel were allies, much to the chagrin of the PLO & the Islamists who were training in Libya in the '70s until the Iranian revolution which Arafat claimed would not have been possible without him and his 10,000 kalashnikofs, paid for by Qaddafi. There's a reason why Khomeini's triumph became Arafat's (see all the photos), why they posed in front of the Israeli embassy. They took over Iran and have been destroying it ever since ... the Iranian people fared better when Iran was allies with Israel, they got screwed when the Islamist/Palestinian mafia took over and they've been paying the price ever since.
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Haya



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PostPosted: Sat Nov 12, 2005 2:00 pm    Post subject: Friends Reply with quote

I hope and pray that - as in the recent and ancient past - we two peoples can again become friends. But what can be done to free the Iranian/Persian people from the shackles of the theological dictatorship they are suffering under.
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Kaaveh Ahangar



Joined: 16 Sep 2005
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 12, 2005 6:58 pm    Post subject: freedom for iran Reply with quote

اهنگ جدید انقلابی و زد اخوندی علیرضا عصار به نام "خاک خونین " رو واست میزارم که بشنوی و اگه دوست داشتی بزاری که همه بشنوند این صدای مردم ایران رو
http://naini.com/clips/khakekhoonin.html
. به اميد ازادی ایران از ننگ اخوندا

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Long Live the Memory of Shahanshah Aryamehr.
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cyrus
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 13, 2005 12:58 pm    Post subject: Re: freedom for iran Reply with quote

Kaaveh Ahangar wrote:
اهنگ جدید انقلابی و زد اخوندی علیرضا عصار به نام "خاک خونین " رو واست میزارم که بشنوی و اگه دوست داشتی بزاری که همه بشنوند این صدای مردم ایران رو
http://naini.com/clips/khakekhoonin.html
. به اميد ازادی ایران از ننگ اخوندا


Thank you for the post, this is good clip.
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Kaaveh Ahangar



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PostPosted: Sun Nov 13, 2005 5:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

damet garm aziz.
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blank



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PostPosted: Mon Nov 14, 2005 6:34 pm    Post subject: Re: Friends Reply with quote

Haya wrote:
I hope and pray that - as in the recent and ancient past - we two peoples can again become friends. But what can be done to free the Iranian/Persian people from the shackles of the theological dictatorship they are suffering under.


The world has to unite in not making deals with the regime, by freezing the raghead's assests, by a commercial and financial blockade, by throwing them out of the UN, by all the (major) countries calling back their embassadors, by putting them in a financial squeeze, the way they did in South Africa, and finally by giving support to the right opposition groups.
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