Iranophobia

Historically, like Morocco and Yemen, Persia (Iran) treated Jews worse than did any other Muslim state.
It's Iran which is treating Israel and Jews as "other" - Iran's is an appalling regime that has cruelly - murderously - persecuted Jews, Bahai, and now its own dissidents seeking democracy.
Its President, a rather unstable character by all accounts, who believes in the necessity of the coming of "The Twelfth Imam" (a frightening, apocalyptic scenario), has vowed to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth and is responsible, by proxy, for antisemitic terrorist groups. Unlike the USA and Israel, whose nuclear arsenals are for deterrent purposes, his are likely to be used in anger.
Instead of keeping shtum, Obama should be encouraging the Iranian protesters, like Reagan did Poland's Solidarity movement. Yes, Iran will say such encouragement is the work of the devil, but they say that about the West anyway.

WADR, Yvetta, there are Jewish members of the Iranian parliament. Iranian Jews are treated no better or no worse than their fellow Iranians (which is bad enough, I agree). Ahmadinnerjacket is indeed unstable, but he is not responsible for a mistranslation of what he said about the regime in Jerusalem.
And historically, Moroccan and Yemeni Jews were treated like every other minority in their countries -- and some could argue that they were treated better.

I beg to differ, Moshe; the Jews of those three nations were very badly treated. Jews in Sanaa were forced to be the hereditary sewer cleaners.
The Iranian Jews are well-treated so long as they show no partiality to "the Zionist entity".
And I'm by no means certain that Ahmadinejad was mistranslated.

Iranian Jews are treated worse than their fellow Iranians. Jews are limited to just one MP. Jews can vote for anyone while Muslims aren't legally allowed to vote for Jews. That's just for starters!

The Jews of those three nations were treated no worse than other minorities. If Iranian Jews are being treated so badly -- like, say, the Jews of the Soviet Union were in the 60s-80s -- where's the massive campaign for their emigration? Where's the mass exodus? The number of Jews in Iran has remained stable since the late 1970s.
Now the correct translation of the Farsi of what Ahmadinnerjacket said is "this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time". If you want to do textual analysis with me, then fine. In Farsi, I am reliably told by a speaker of the language who lives in Israel, there is no phrase for "wiped off the face of the earth."
It is open to interpretation what this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time" could mean, and indeed many -- including yours truly -- believe he does want Israel to disappear. But does he mean now, with outside help or does he mean that, with time, it'll do itself in?
As for his beliefs, yes the belief in the 12th Imam is apocalyptic -- and not shared by most Shia, let alone most Muslims -- but it's just as loon as the beliefs of Israel's friends among the Evangelic redneck Christians.

There was a mass exodus. Just before the Revolution there was 100,000 Jews. Now there are just 25,000 left.

Thanks for the input, Rich.

Moshe, he apparently believes the Twelfth Imam business - a bit scary if he gets his finger on the nuclear button and decides to unleash mayhem and violence in order to bring the Twelfth Imam on in.

I find it useful when checking my moral compass to compare speeches made by Shimon Perez and Ayatollah Khameni. Which one I trust with their finger on a nuke is a no-brainer. If I'm going to worry about Israel having nuclear weapons then I may as well worry about Britain, France or the US.

Assuming that Israel does actually have any nukes of course, it's all conjecture.

Rich, the "mass exodus of Jews" in the 1970s wasn't because they were Jewish. A lot of middle-class Iranians left in that period. It's a bit like South Africa after the fall of apartheid. A lot of Jews left then, too. Not because they are Jewish, but because they are white and middle class and they could (they had the economic means). And like Iranian Jews, the vast majority of South African Jews chose to go to the US, or Australia or even the UK -- but not Israel.

Yes, Yvetta, his 12th-er beliefs are worrying, but so are Israel's redneck, swivel-eyed messianic friends in the deep south of America. And then there's Sarah Palin…

I didn't say it was because they were Jewish that they left, although 75,000 leaving out of 100,000 shows that as Jews they were very worried about the situation.

Jews have always had dhimmi status in the religious Muslim world and combined with the explosive anti-Semitism of Ayatollah Khomeini and now the Holocaust denial of Ahmadinejad it cannot be pleasant living there as a Jew.

A colonizing state, indeed an apartheid state, must always have the spectre of the 'bogeyman' over the other side of the hill to silence criticism of its own brutality and illegal policies.
After years of portraying the Palestinian fight for justice as nothing but a simple terror campaign, Israel resorts to the time old tactic of creating an enemy of another sovereign state.
The world is waking up to the Palestinian narrative and the fact that the main obstacle to peace is the continued intransigence of the israeli governement the occupation and the illegal settlements, walls and siege.
Iran has no history of aggression towards other sovereign states. . Unlike Israel, Iran respects international law - in the main - and does not have the legacy of occupation and ethnic cleansing of an indigenous people.

gold.sarah: Apartheid, ethnic cleansing, blah blah blah. Utter nonsense and completely devoid of reality. Go and post your drivel on Press TV where it belongs.

Moshe, the southern Christian Zionists (and I love 'em all, not being one to look a gifthorse in the mouth) don't have nukes!
And be careful what you say about Sarah Palin. She's my heroine: she has to be - so many people have told me I look like her! (It made me run out and buy my very own cute little pink number, but no hunting rifles for this animal-loving vegetarian gal, I assure you!).

Southern Christian loonies may not have nukes, but one of their number was in the White House for 8 years and let's not forget that when it comes to using them, only the Americans have ever dropped a nuke in anger.

George Bush was one of the best friends Israel's ever had. Hiroshima and Nagasaki have never been repeated. Those events are totally irrelevant to the present issue.

George W. Bush was one of the worst presidents the US ever had - if he was in charge (some suspect that Cheney was pulling the strings). And that's what matters, not what his attitude to Israel is.

@Yvetta

'Unlike the USA and Israel, whose nuclear arsenals are for deterrent purposes, his are likely to be used in anger'.

This is exactly the sort of double standards i was talking about. This is also the 'othering' that Haggi Ram details in his book, the sort that believes 'Israel and US' good, so allowed nuclear weapons, Iran, bad so not allowed it. Also when people start praising the foreign policy of George W, then i know i am really in the wrong place.

What gives a country the right to have nuclear weapons but tell another its not allowed them? Its a bit like the US and Britain calling on India and China to address their carbon footprint, when essentially its the mass industrialisation in the West since the 19th Century that has caused it. China and India are only doing now, what many western nations have already done, but far quicker and they are far more successful in gaining economic benefits from these developments.

yvetta

you also mention Iran and proxy states, i guess you mean the training and arming of Hizbullah, this is true, but again, i fail to see how it differs from the US proxy states which are many, the latest addition being the weapons being sold to Taiwan.

LOL. I don't see much international terrorism being sponsored from Taiwan!

Once Israel has got rid of its nukes it will be told it has to reduce its airforce and then its tanks and then its.......

Those who argue about Israel getting rid of its nukes just want Israel to disappear.

@rich

i am not arguing for Israel's disappearance, but how can you expect Iran to give up its nuclear weapons, if indeed it has them, while we know Israel has nuclear weapons, like i keep saying its the double standards. For any doubters of Israel's nuclear weapons, do you remember Vannunu ?