The Nazis built a film set at the Theresienstadt concentration camp to show how well Jews were being treated. Iran's leaders are doing something similar for their Jews, writes Karmel Melamed in The Times of Israel.
Today the Iranian regime’s propaganda machine has carried on this shameful Nazi tradition and again marched forward different leaders of the Jewish community in Iran to “sing the praises” of the regime before the Western news media.
Nowadays the regime’s Jewish mouthpiece is Dr. Ciamak Moreh Sedgh, the only Jewish member of the Iranian parliament who always claims that the Jews are living in “total freedom and face no danger while living in Iran”.
Last month with Iran’s new president Hassan Rouhani visiting New York for his appearance before the United Nations, Moreh Sedgh was also brought along with the Iranian delegation to “praise the Iranian regime for their benevolence to the Jews” and at the same time condemn Israel before Western news media outlets.
Sadly the news media and average Americans are being duped by buying into Iran’s propaganda messages that Jews are supposedly living under the “benevolent” protection and freedom of Iran’s totalitarian Islamic regime. The truth of the matter is that the Iranian regime and its secret police of thugs have a tight grip on the activities of the Jewish community in Iran. If the Jews step out of line, they face serious dangers.
As an Iranian-American journalist, I have been following the Iranian regime’s shameful use of the Jews in Iran to advance their own public image for more than a decade. The Iranian regime is always quick to pull out their token Jewish member of Iran’s Parliament to show that Iran’s Jews have “fair representation” in the government. Yet what the mainstream media does not realize are that comments made by any Jewish leaders in Iran or by Jews in Iran to the Western media lack credibility since these Jews have been hand-picked by the Iranian Intelligence Ministry to parrot what the regime tells them to say. (...)
Sadly the Iranian regime has gone a step further and used the country’s Jewish leadership to advance the regime’s efforts to remove U.S. and international sanctions on Iran. Lastly month Homayoun Sameyah Najaf Abady, a leader of the Jewish community in Iran appeared before BBC news denying that Jews in Iran live in a state of fear and also called on U.S. President Obama to normalize relations with the Iranian regime. Now if that’s not the Iranian regime’s manipulation of the Jews for propaganda purposes, then I really don’t know what is!
Likewise Moreh Sedgh during his public relations tour with Rouhani last month shamefully appeared on a news program with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria and proclaimed everything was “fine for the Jews of Iran who enjoyed the same freedoms and equalities as Muslims”.
Unfortunately, Zakaria who is in no way an objective journalist, miserably failed to ask Moreh Sedgh why Jews in Iran have a second class citizenship status under Iran’s constitution? Or why the Iranian regime for the last 34 years forces Jews to keep their Jewish day schools open on the Sabbath? Or why Jews are being randomly murdered in certain cities in Iran today? Instead Zakaria allowed Moreh Sedgh to spew the one-side propaganda he was told to repeat by the Iranian regime’s leadership.
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The only first class citizens in Iran are the ayatollahs and elite members of the IRG. Khameini controls an empire worth an estimated 93 billion, built on properties "abandoned" at the time of the '79 revolution. Minorities, religious or ethnic, including Jews have it worse than the Persian Muslim majority, no doubt,but it is an odious regime and it will be a sad day when Obama + Co decide to lift the sanctions.
ReplyDeleteit was to be foreseen!
ReplyDeleteTheir propaganda machine is well oiled!
We cannot blame the only Jew for saying what he said. He is fighting for his very existence! Imagine ssying that Jzws were unhappy there?
We Jews cannot do whatever comes into our heads
sultana
Well Egypt has gone back to their ancient protector.
ReplyDeleteThe last time they did that they paid for their armament with the cotton harvests and the Fellah became extremely poor, poorer than what they already were!
sultana
Any Jew living in an Islamic country is a DHIMMI.For those who do not know what a Dhmmi is, here is an attempt at an explanation
ReplyDeleteA dhimmi is a person who will be protected by a ruler as long as he obeys the rules of Islam
SULTANA
Sir,
ReplyDeleteIran in no sence is a perfect model of Democracy, far from it! However your lack of knowledge and blunt prejudice screaming out from your article!!!!
The only religious minorities that are mistreated in Iran (UNFORTUNATELY) are the followers of the Bahaii faith and to an extent the Sunni minorities of the eastern provinces of Balouchistan.
The other minorities are in reletive peace and free to practice their faith.
To prove my point I dare challenge you to name one case of hate attack against Jewish Temples or gatherings!!!??? Also name one instance when any non political Jewish citizen was prevented living the country!?
If you are going to act as an Israeli MOUTHPIECES and PROPAGANDA TOOL; At least have the decency to say who you are!
Muhammad, about a dozen Jews were jailed in Iran on fake charges of spying.
ReplyDeleteMohammed, you are correct that the Baha'is and Baloch are treated worse than the Jews. That doesn't make it right. Sharia law applies in every respect: Jews have fewer rights than Muslims.
ReplyDeleteSome stay for nationalistic reasons and will not leave no matter what. Look at the Haroun in Egypt the Serfaty ElMaleh Azoulay in Morocco, the Jews of Djerba, the Jews of Yemen where it took assassinations and theft of their property to get some of them to leave.
ReplyDeletespeaking of Djerba, France24 in French did a feature on the Jews of Djerba this past week, but I don't think it was on the English version of France24.
ReplyDeleteThey showed one guy who flew an Israeli flag from his home in Jerba.