"I was scared in Iran as a Jew"

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) -- Greeted by joyous relatives and a crowd of reporters, about 40 Iranian Jews landed in Israel on Tuesday, leaving behind their lives in the Islamic republic for new homes in the Jewish state.

Family members screamed in delight and threw candy at the newcomers as they emerged into the airport reception hall after a long bureaucratic procedure. No details about their route of exit from Iran were given.

"I feel so good," said Yosef, 16. He and his brother Michael arrived with their parents and a sister and were greeted by their grandparents, who went to Israel six years ago.

"I just saw all of my family. You can't put that into words," Yosef said. The brothers declined to give their family name to protect relatives still in Iran.

The new arrivals were sponsored by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, a charity that funnels millions of dollars from evangelical donors each year.

Michael, 15, said he told all his friends where he was going, and they wanted to come along.

"I was scared in Iran as a Jew," he said.

I find the AP just despicable. They know better than Michael, who was just there.

Iran's Jewish community of about 25,000 people is protected by the country's constitution...

Yes, Iran is really a good country (we shouldn't take out their nukes), they have a constitution (has this reporter ever read it?) and the Jews are protected. So Michael was obviously wrong to feel afraid.

And check out the rest of that sentence about "Iran's Jewish community"

... and remains the largest in the Muslim Middle East.

That's funny, only 25,000 and it's the largest Jewish community in the Muslim Middle East? Hmmm, how could that be? Why so few Jews, when Jews have been all over the Middle East for ages? I guess that's another truth disappearing into the black hole that Dhimmedia has become.

It's estimated that in 1945 more than 870,000 Jews were living throughout the Middle East and North Africa. According to Palestine Facts,

Many of the Jews resided in communities with a continuous Jewish existence for 2,500 years or more.

Every time a Palestinian sneezes, we have to hear about their history as "refugees." But there's never any context; hardly ever is it mentioned that Syria hosts ten camps of four generations of Palestinian "refugees," that Lebanon has a dozen camps and Jordan, ten. And no one ever asks why, since Israel relinquished the Gaza strip in 2005, are there still eight refugee camps there? Neither Fatah nor Hamas (nor the nearly half a million Palestinians in the Gaza camps) seem to have any interest in anything but maintaining the status quo that everyone agrees is so appalling.

These so-called refugees are big business for the UNRWA. If there were no refugees, that UN Agency would go out of business, and I guess the people who work there don't want to see that happen. Their latest "Emergency Appeal" seeks $238 million. Oh and a "consoldiated appeal" - that is, from various UN agencies and NGOs - seeks $462 million.

Millions upon millions upon billions. No one keeps track, no one asks about it, there is no accountability, no transparency and no change - other than to up the aid every year, year after year, for 60 years now. The Holocaust is such old news that people have never even heard of Auschwitz, but everyone everywhere knows about the poorpalestinian refugees. Dhimmedia, the UN and the Arabs - including both actual countries and the supranational terror organizations - are all invested in maintaining this status quo, each for reasons of their own benefit.

In the meantime, all you need to know is that Iran hosts the largest Jewish community in the Muslim (that is, nearly infidel-free) Middle East... and they have constitutional protection.

So if Ahmadinejad's secret police carry them all off in the middle of the night, Gd forbid, we can call an Iranian lawyer and go to court? Maybe not. The Iranian constitution calls for "fulfilling the ideological mission of jihad in God's way" and the judicial system requires "full ideological conformity."

Article 4: All civil, penal financial, economic, administrative, cultural, military, political, and other laws and regulations must be based on Islamic criteria. This principle applies absolutely and generally to all articles of the Constitution as well as to all other laws and regulations, and the wise persons of the Guardian Council are judges in this matter.

B"H, Michael was lucky to get out of Iran. And he's lucky there is still an Israel to go to.

Comments

[Ralph Kostant]

Excellent post, Anne. I have linked your column at my thematically related story at http://hedgehogcentral.blogspot.com/2007/12/iraqi-christians-crowd-churches-for.html.

[Jordan]

I just find it sad that so many Jews display so much hate to the world. The facts are that Jews are treated as well in Iran as non Jews are inside your country. Yes things are not perfect and yes things could be much better. But the Jews still in Iran are not forced to stay, they choose to stay. While Israel is busy fighting everyone around them, isn't it time to stop picking new fights? Some less educated people will try to point to the president of Iran saying he wanted to wipe Israel off the map. I am just glad that so many more educated people are now pointing out that this statement was a mistranslation, and he never said those things. For some reason the leaders of Israel want to keep fighting. I just hope that at some point the people of Israel will demand peace.