Ahmadinejad, Israel, and the Jews of Iran
By Hamid Sabi
I will now discuss the modern story of Iranian Jews: the oldest and largest Jewish Diaspora. The bulk of Persian Jews came after the fall of Babylon. Cyrus had been viewed as the messenger of God, and thus, not as an enemy. This was also at a time when Jews felt more Persian than Jewish. Then Shi’ism came, and there was a drive to segregate the Jews, who were seen as unclean by Shi’a Muslims. Nevertheless, these groups had lived in harmony originally, and conditions were made better at the start of the 20th century by the king who saw himself as anti-religious and closed shrines and mosques. He opened the Jewish quarters (not ghettoes) and invited them to join him. Good relations ensued between Persian Jews and Muslims. Following the revolution, this situation changed, although friends still remained friends. But eventually, some Jews were forced to leave or to adopt a different way of life (one in accord with the regime).
Before the revolution the Jewish population was 80,000; it had grown notably at the end of the 19th century; but today the population stands at 25,000, with the bulk living in the capital. The regime now recognises Judaism: the synagogues are open and Shabbat is recognised; there are religious schools, and Friday is a holiday. The regime does not interfere in religious practice, but they do in social life. Men and women are not allowed to mix, no alcohol is allowed in public (unlike Muslims, Jews can have it at home), and women have to cover their heads when outside.
Iranian Jews can sometimes be used as a bargaining chip-something that is denied by the regime, which allows them to leave the country. Some Jews have gone to Israel and others to southern California, where there are 35,000 Persian Jews. The entire community had supported the Shah, which was a problem for Jews when the revolutionaries came to power. There was also a problem with the fact that they were connected to Israel, at a time when the regime was against Israel. Khomeini was anti-Jewish and those around him were afraid that he would try to kick all the Jews out when he came to power. The community was not prepared at this time, so it decided to create a group of Iranian Jewish intellectuals that would support the revolution, as a way of trying to negate Khomeini’s claims about the Jews. Many in the Jewish community thought they were traitors, but the Chief Rabbi did support them, and went on the march which deferred the execution order against the Jews.
With respect to Israel, Khomeini had a different agenda: privately he had nothing against Israel and asked for its help against Iraq, although publicly he shows hostility towards Israel. In 1998, there was a problem with a group of Jews. There had been a series of murders against Jews, which had been carried out by the ministry of information. The plot was to implicate Jews, who had supposedly taken instructions from Israel to murder these people. The plot didn’t work, but created an international outcry against Iran, who conceded these Jews were innocent, dropped all charges, and freed them. This was a low point in relations with the regime, but things have improved substantially since.
However, with Ahmadinajad things are difficult again. As long as the Islamic regime is there, the relations aren’t that good. The government regime of media is associated with neo-fascists in Germany. They have reprinted the Protocols of Zion and stoked up belief that Jews are behind a global conspiracy. Nobody believes these programmes, so the regime has not been successful. The Iranian people are more tolerant.
Questions:
- Iranian Jews can come and go, but passport says that you cannot go to occupied Palestine. They therefore travel through Turkey and get a visa so it doesn’t show in their passport. Until last Christmas this was tolerated when 40 Iranian Jews were welcomed with much publicity into Israel. This event changed everything and it is now criminal for anyone to travel to Israel.
- 9/11 created a huge wave of sympathy for America. Slowly the conspiracy theory took root after 9/11. Iran is the only country where the majority of people are pro-American; over 70% were against the government’s policy towards America (the guy who did the research is now in prison).
- Is Iran a democracy? Every election on the surface is free, but there are limitations. You have to be vetted by the Council of Guardians-and that is the problem.
- Why is there not a boycott? Because people think there may be a way out with particular moderates. You can make little bits of change, but not significant change.
- Conflicting statements- what will happen? You have different centres of power. The Supreme Leader sits above the President. It is very complex, and they compete with each other-none have supreme power. They all balance each other out. The only power that is not in hands of the mullah is the President’s, who was from the Revolutionary Guard. The parliament is now split. They will never flight against each other on issues that endanger the regime however. Albright apologised for the 1953 coup. The next step was to accept the apology and establish a relationship, however, someone torpedoed this. The regime does not fully control all its foreign policy-there are different power centres.
- Ambassadors? These are appointed by the president, although the supreme leader can override this and ask for a certain person.
- The Diaspora-does this have an influence? Yes, sometimes it has an effect-it can lobby.
- Barak Obama?-whether he will succeed with the intricacies is a different story. The regime tries to be too clever for its own good. Look at its relationship with the EU and UK.
- Israel?-no one in Iran wants to destroy Israel and consider it to be their last ally against the Arab world, who they hate. They do not have the means to destroy either.
- Syria and Hezbollah relationship? People are very naïve with understanding foreign policy. All the people at the top of the regime support a policy to be in more of a relationship with the West, but because of the rhetoric they have boxed themselves into a corner.
- What should the West do? From the American point of view, just bombing Iran would allow the regime to strengthen its grip and destroy the few liberties left. It would not produce a real result. Invading Iran would not create a better picture. People will unite behind the regime (which they hate) against the US (which they love) overnight if they are attacked as they are very nationalistic. Iran is not easily conquerable as it is 3 times the size of Iraq.
- Revolutionary Guard–they have gained massive power in Iran and undermined the relationship with Turkey. All are opposed to the government foreign policy, and have rigged votes to get Ahmadinajad elected. This dominance is likely to end due to the president’s unpopularity and the favour he has given Guards over the ministries. Every major construction project is given to and run by the Revolutionary Guards-there will be a power struggle in the next 6-9 months with the Mullahs before the next election. The people will eventually win!
13. Nuclear program-when the Pakistanis did it no one knew about it. We cannot believe the Iranian publicity–it is a poker game-they are bluffing and are nowhere near it. No one from Pakistan and India spoke about it. If Iran had one, they wouldn’t talk about it.
