Israel: Iranians Are Not Your Enemy

by Amil Imani

Persian Jews have lived in Iran for millennia.  In fact, the Jewish community in Iran is among the oldest in the world.  I personally dislike calling them Persian Jews; I prefer to call them just Persian.  They are just as Persian as any other Persians.  Iran belongs to them just as much as it belongs to every Iranian.

Historically, Judaism has been the second-oldest religion still practiced in Iran after Zoroastrianism, the original Iranian religion before the invasion of the Arabs.  The origin of the Jewish diaspora in Persia is connected to the deportation of the Israelites in 727 B.C. from Samaria to Medea and Persia.  The famous “Cyrus the Great declaration” allowed the Jews who were living in exile by the river of Babylon to return to their homeland, Judea and Jerusalem, to rebuild their Second Temple.  However, some who had established themselves economically and socially preferred to remain in Persia and Babylon under the protection of Cyrus the Great.

Israel, we, the children of Cyrus the Great, understand your suffering through the passage of time.  Many of us Iranians suffer and share with you this tragic state of affairs that harms you.  We pray for an eternal peace between you and your neighbors.  We also earnestly hope ways can be found for a peaceful resolution of this destructive impasse.

As it has been said, if you don’t know who the enemy is, you can’t repel him.  One die-hard enemy, Islam, has been hard at work for some 1,400 years to finish off the Jews, completing the work Muhammad passed on to his followers.

Allah’s Apostle said, “The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say, ‘O Muslim!  There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him'” (Sahih Bukhari 4:52:177; see also Sahih Bukhari 4:52:176, Sahih Bukhari 4:56:791).

Many of us, the children of Cyrus the Great, also would like to offer our heartfelt best wishes to the Jews at this critical moment in time.  We know that their towns have been hit for years by (made in Iran) Hamas rockets and missiles.  Although it is hard to see innocent civilians die, we believe that Israel is only defending itself.  That should not be too hard to understand.

I urge the Jews to make a distinction between the regime and the Iranian people.  True Iranians have remained friends of the Jews by belief and deed. During the shameful Hitlerian campaign to exterminate the Jews, for instance, Iranian missions in Europe, notably the one in France, issued Iranian passports to facilitate the flight of French and other European Jews from the claws of Nazis and their gas chambers – the very gas chambers that the true Muslim, the disgraceful Iranian, former president of the Islamic Republic, Ahmadinejad, denies ever existed.  This historical act of humanity is known as the “Iranian Schindler.”

Regrettably, after Cyrus the Great’s declaration, the people of Israel were unable to settle down for long in their own homeland, to worship their God as they wished, and to live in peace.  They were assaulted once again by the forces of destruction that sent them scurrying for the relative safety of other lands.

Their resilience to follow their destiny is the culmination of thousands of years’ gestation during which the Jewish people, dispersed through much of the world, endured immense degrees and varieties of suffering.  The Nazi murderers and their collaborators capped the crimes committed against the Jewish people by slaughtering six million innocent men, women, and children.

We are grateful that Israel has welcomed Iranian Jews who could no longer tolerate the rule of the oppressive, venomous mullahs.  These mullahs are indeed traitors to the lofty, longstanding tradition and values championed by Cyrus the Great and revered by Persians throughout the ages.

We applaud the Jews for affording millions of Israeli Arabs opportunities denied to them in many other lands.

Many Iranians never forget Israel’s fair treatment of the Bahá’ís in Israel.  This is yet another testimony to the Jews’ ability and willingness to live in harmony with any and all people.

Today, the Iranian people carry on the work that the dissidents in the Soviet Union had to do at one time – and are suffering the same kind of oppression, imprisonment, and intimidation.  Many prisoners in Iran are staging a hunger strike and are close to their deaths.  We thank all human rights activists around the globe who frequently mention the Iranian people’s plight.

Americans often lack a deep understanding of the internal dynamics of exile and expatriate politics, and some groups get a bad reputation, often unfairly. I think that if the Iranian expatriate community is going to lobby for American support for this kind of move, they must provide emissaries to the American administration who can educate its members on the nature of the exile groups and their goals. Historically, American politicians have supported dictators and radical Marxists (the MEK).

Fourteen hundred years of suffering under Islam is far too long for any people, although the Jews hold the record for that misfortune.  The Jews have at long last returned to their homeland, even though they are still encircled by the vicious Arab Islamists who would like nothing better than to drown every one of them in the sea, the way Islamists forced Zoroastrian people out of the country and the remaining few to the edges of an inhospitable desert.

Regardless of how loudly and frequently agents of the Islamic Republic bray to eliminate Israel and wish to chase the U.S. to its corner of the world, Iran’s problems will remain, and the Iranian people will continue to suffer.  The Iranian people must stand resolute and not allow these end-of-the-worlder, homicidal, suicidal men of Allah and their gang of frauds to take them on a ride to certain death.

First published in the American Thinker.