Certain defenders of Iran are fond of pointing out that Iran has the largest population of Jews in the Middle East outside of Israel. What they never mention, of course, is that Jews are restricted from traveling abroad (they must leave a family member as hostage and cannot take large sums of money out of the country), and that Iran will not allow Jews to observe the Jewish Sabbath, and Muslims are in charge of all Jewish schools.
So when I see a story like this, I don’t believe that it’s anything other than Jews today doing what Jews used to have to do throughout the ages: The bidding of the state that could, at any moment, obliterate the Jewish community.
Members of Iran’s small Jewish community staged a demonstration outside of the United Nations’ office in Tehran, to protest the Israel Defense Forces’ operation in the Gaza Strip.
The official Iranian news agency, IRNA, reported that community members, alongside Jewish parliamentarian Siamak Mara-Sedq, urged Israel to do its part to return quiet and security to the region.
The chairman of Iran’s Jewish Union, Rahmatullah Raafi, said the community had come out in support of the Palestinian people.
“We are here to express out support and sympathy for the Palestinian nation,” he said, adding that Muslim nations could rise up as a single large force against Israel. He also said that the victors of the current conflict were the residents of Gaza.
A people who are under threat cannot be expected to be speaking freely. Which is why I think the Jews of Yemen are behaving like the dhimmis that they have been for millennia, also:
Yemeni Jews have condemned the recent Israeli massacres in the Gaza strip, saying what is happening in the strip is denied by all religions.
Rabbi Yahya said that what the Israeli military is committing in the strip forces Jews in Yemen to stay home in fear of intimidations by some people who don’t like to understand that Yemeni Jews are not part of Israeli military actions in Palestinian territories.
For his part, Jew Suleiman Bin Yaqup said Israeli crimes in Gaza are unacceptable by Yemeni Jews as killing people is unlawful.
Yemen’s tiny Jewish community is in danger of extinction by Jihadis.
Before Israel was created, Jews made no waves, kept their heads down, and publicly went along with whatever the prevailing sentiment was in their country. The Jews were essentially a subject people in every nation (save America), putting up with pretty much everything the host nation dished out, quietly, and without fighting back.
Sadly, the Jews in Iran and Yemen are perfect examples of the Jews of the past. They’re the Jews that Hamas and Fatah want to see in the faux state of Palestine. They’re the Jews that the world sighs for in nostalgia—and in secret. Or maybe not so secret. Because one of the things that the world has been unable to accept these past sixty years is a strong defense of Jews, by Jews, for Jews.
That’s why you have so many people calling for Israel to stop their war against Hamas. Because we’re not the good little dhimmis we were in Europe and Arabia. We’re no longer standing quietly for pogroms and murders.
Don’t tell me how great Jews had it in Muslim lands before Israel was created. That is a lie.
Dhimmis were excluded from public office and armed service, and were forbidden to bear arms. They were not allowed to ride horses or camels, to build synagogues or churches taller than mosques, to construct houses higher than those of Muslims or to drink wine in public. They were not allowed to pray or mourn in loud voices-as that might offend the Muslims. The dhimmi had to show public deference toward Muslims-always yielding them the center of the road. The dhimmi was not allowed to give evidence in court against a Muslim, and his oath was unacceptable in an Islamic court. To defend himself, the dhimmi would have to purchase Muslim witnesses at great expense. This left the dhimmi with little legal recourse when harmed by a Muslim.
The Jews of Iran and Yemen could tell you all about it—if they didn’t fear for their lives for telling the truth.
Good stuff, linked at Protein Wisdom.
Damn straight.
Keep it up!
“Because we’re not the good little dhimmis we were in Europe and Arabia.”
Yes indeed. Funny how so many supposed sophisticated and civilized Westerners are obsessed with Jew who do not “know their place.” (And yes, for those who are uncertain, my comparison to the KKK and its sympathizers is intentional.)
‘The Jews were essentially a subject people in every nation (save America), putting up with pretty much everything the host nation dished out, quietly, and without fighting back.’
I understand your general point, but you omit Australia, where from the start Jews were always accepted fully. One General Monash was a very distinguished military leader in France in World War One, playing a crucial role overall in the victory [which the Brits ignored].
Isaac Isaacs was our Governor-General and others have been too.
Australia accepted a larger proportion of Holocaust survivors than other countries. Not surprisingly, we are an old loyal ally of the USA.
Barrie: Good on Australia, then. Sorry—I know a little about Australia’s history, but almost nothing about its attitude towards Jews. That is good to know.
I think those Jews are frightened to death of being torn apart by Islamic mobs.