First, a preface from NY Times report, “Iran Exhibits Anti-Jewish Art” (Aug. 25):
Mr. Shojaei [curator of Tehran exhibit lampooning the Holocaust] said none of the images were intended as anti-Jewish, only anti-Zionist and anti-Israeli — and of course, anti-American and anti-British. As evidence, he said Iranians lived peacefully with this country’s Jews.
But Morris Motamed, the one Jewish member of Iran’s Parliament, said he had not gone to the show, because “it was in line with anti-Semitism and aimed at insulting Jews.”
He added, “I felt if I went, I would get insulted and get hurt.”
It’s interesting to note that Iran has one Jewish member of its parliament and that he’d feel secure enough to make this statement to the American press. This reveals a complex truth about Iran: it is not a true democracy, it provides official license to anti-Semitism and terrorist violence, but is not totalitarian. In the meantime, our khaver, J. Zel Lurie, sums things up with alarm in his latest column, excerpted below, in the South Florida Jewish Journal:
The first skirmish in Shiite Iran’s declared war to eliminate Israel and take over the Middle East has ended in a tenuous cease-fire.
Iran is the only Shiite dominated country in the world. There are strong Shiite minorities in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. In Iraq, the Shiites are a 60 percent majority with ties to neighboring Iran.
Iran has found Lebanon to be ripe for take over. It invests heavily in the Shiite minority: training Hezbollah young men in guerilla warfare, paying Syria to transport tens of thousands of powerful Russian-made anti-tank missiles and Katyusha rockets….
On the Israeli side, 117 soldiers were killed and about a thousand suffered wounds; 3,970 rockets fell in Israel, killing 43 civilians and doing considerable property damage. The property damage will be repaired quickly and by 2007 it will be a sad memory.
In Lebanon, however, the accurate Israeli bombs were dropped on bridges, utilities and other infrastructure, It will take years and billions of dollars to fully repair…. Hezbollah is putting up temporary bridges and handing out $10,000 to those who have lost their homes. The take over will be gradual, but Lebanon is destined to be an Iranian satellite, threatening Israel to the south and Southeastern Europe to the West.
As for the atom bomb, Iran has refused the Security Council’s injunction to stop making enriched uranium…. How can they be stopped?
President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert can take a huge… step in the right direction by opening talks with Syria. Such a move won’t be easy for President Bush who classifies Syria with Iran and North Korea as rogue nations.
Rogue nation or not, Syria is a secular Moslem nation which is not Shiite. For years it has been willing to make peace with Israel if the Golan Heights were returned….
Education Minister Yuli Tamir, a Labor stalwart with a Peace Now background, advises Olmert to call Fouad Siniora, the prime minister of Lebanon, and invite him to a summit meeting. She writes: “We must take advantage of the earthquake to rescue Lebanon from the jaws of Iran and try to get Syria out of there as well.”
While Israeli ministers and journalists are tossing ideas back and forth Hezbollah is acting with almost limitless Iranian funds. Iran is well on its way to taking over Lebanon and becoming a nuclear power.
Leave A Comment