The Maman family:'we all love the king'
A Jewish family of Moroccan origin bumped into the king of Morocco while he was on holiday in Florida. The king invited them to visit Morocco. Morocco World News (picked up by Barbados News) reports (with thanks: Michelle):
Rabat – “O God, this is our beloved King Mohammed VI,” shouted Eli Maman, a Moroccan Jewish immigrant in Toronto, as he spotted the Monarch and his son, Crown Prince Moulay Hassan, walking in South Beach in Miami, Florida.
The king arrived in Miami coming from Cuba where he went with his little family on vacation. Maman, who came to Miami for the same reason, was also accompanied with his wife and children.
“I was nervous when I approached him,” says Maman to MWN, as he related his unexpected encounter with the king.
A little conversation took place. Eli Maman said to the king: “We all love you and we love our native country Morocco.” The Jewish Moroccan immigrant proudly presented his family and said to the king that one his sons, who studies at the Ahemet Sefardic School in Toronto, was doing a project on the king, the Alaouite Dynasty and Morocco.
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Why are Jews so servile?
ReplyDeleteJews of Morocco are not servile per se. They are just naïve and too credulous about this supposedly benevolence of the King. At the same time, they always show reverence to whom have some charisma.
ReplyDeleteI guess it is part of the Ishmael Ben Elisha HaKohen teaching legacy. Who knows?
These snide comments are worse than wrong, they are politically stupid. Jews in Iran are servile to that horrible regime in order to survive. Jews in America are servile to the Bernie Sanders, Keith Ellison, BDS-infested Democrats in order to maintain their misconceived self-esteem.
ReplyDeleteWere the Jews servile when praising Cyrus the Great, a true friend of the Jewish People? Is any leader who takes seriously the biblical injunction that he who blesses the Jews is also blessed similarly only worthy of Jewish fair-weather friends? Why are so many Jews unable to distinguish friends (Morocco) from enemies (Turkey), Pro-Western Muslims from Islamists, and to stand with our true friends? In Morocco we have a royal family that is profoundly pro-Jewish in word and good works. In what other country in the world are Jewish shrines and cemeteries revered and restored at the King's expense? In what other Muslim-majority country can Israelis travel, not only in security, but with every expectation of warm hospitality?
This situation should not be taken for granted.
ReplyDeleteWho is complaining about Israelis travel without restrictions in Morocco? I am not. No Jewish person will. That's not the point that Ben and I are making. Your response is half baked and gullible at best, because does not deal with the real underlying issue of anti-Semitic ideology in Morocco. Without a doubt Morocco is exemplary, but that does not make the Jews equal in the eyes of average Moroccans.
Using the King's example of benevolence is nonsense. The King is a businessman par excellence, and he needs his former Jewish subjects to visit Morocco and cash up millions, maybe to help the economy and mostly himself, since he is after all "le patron du Maroc". Restoring shrines does not mean a thing in the scheme of Jewish Muslim relations, when just few days ago, mobs burn Israeli flag and effigies against the backdrop of the Jewish Memorial Day. The same stupid shows of hatred and sheer violence were recorded for any IDF/ Hamas clashs or any Arab day like the Quds day or Nakba Day or any day for that matter.
It will take nothing for a disastrous reversal of events, if dire conditions arise, and if the King does not send his tanks to calm things down. Blood will be spilled, and you know very well that it will be Jewish.
You should check my post in this blog for a entry about one celebration where Moroccan Jews were frantically dancing with the picture of the king in support of the Western Sahara annexation to Morocco. I was a little harsh of those "un-servile" Jews, yet critical of the King's rule of his own Moroccan subjects.
Thank you for proving my point about taking Morocco’s exemplary example for granted. You have also given us a fine example of insensitivity and ingratitude, as well. The issue is not about Israelis traveling without restrictions, but rather what thousands of Israelis visiting Morocco, and what hundreds of Jewish sites being restored at the King’s expense, symbolize.
ReplyDeleteIsrael has full diplomatic relations with Egypt. Are thousands of Israelis heading to Egypt every year? Would they be safe, no less given a Moroccan-style warm welcome, by average Egyptians? Of course not. While President Sisi is charting a more favorable course, the anti-Semitic ideology in Egypt is pervasive and unlikely to change anytime soon.
Morocco, in sharp relief, has a history and culture in which Jews have played a substantial role and a Royal Family that has, out of genuine affection and good business sense--why do you ignore the former and disparage the latter?--cultivated positive relations with the Jewish community. This is the reason Morocco still has a Jewish community and why so many Israelis feel comfortable traveling in the country. These actions also send a message to the next generation to continue building on these relations. Whether looking at the overt or covert history, this has indeed been the case.
Are there Islamists in Morocco who don’t care very much for Jews and Israel? Of course. But to cherry-pick one Youtube video in which Islamists burn an Israeli flag as representative of the views of the vast majority of Moroccans is obviously to push a disgusting fallacy.
While your concern for the spilling for Jewish blood is admirable, your solution of mocking, questioning the motives, and otherwise demeaning our Moroccan friends and your fellow Jews who are loyal to the Moroccan King and his good works, is decidedly not. If you are truly concerned about Moroccan Jews… follow their example by standing with the King and Moroccans (of all backgrounds) who are fighting to prevent their country from succumbing to the wretched fates of Iran and Turkey. And next time there are Jews dancing (as you put it) at a protest to keep the Moroccan Sahara under Moroccan sovereignty, perhaps instead of disparaging your fellow Jews and their Moroccan friends, you will summon the courage to stand with them in the fight against our common enemies… leftists, Islamists, Iran, and the Judenrein Algerian regime.
Sorry, I do not submit nor want to accept your type of war path ideology that everybody needs to rally with the King ("summon the courage to stand with them to fight our common enemies". Enemies??? There we go again, drawing swords of war to fight enemies. Really? Enemies. Iran? Do I sense the perennial Shia -Sunni split here? without the mention of the bloody Syrian and Yemeni daily slaughters. I am not sure about Algeria. I guess they do not allow Jews to visit and Morocco does. Isn't that swell??? Do I sense the ideological split of the western Sahara issue. What do the Jews have to drawn to these perennial Arab state conflicts?
ReplyDeleteI guess Jews who do not adhere to the official ideology are enemies too, right? or labeled Zionists which is more like internal enemies of the state. Look, visiting Jews do not want to fight, they are not on war path because they are not as gullible to that level as yourself. Israeli Moroccan Jews want only to visit the graves of their ancestors, and most likely to savour Harira, eat Chekchouka, and Bastilla and sip on mint tea after a perfectly roasted leg of lamb. That's it. I am not sure why you are taking pride and showing all this grand bravado in mentioning their return as if Morocco granted them access out of love, understanding and doing them a favor in return.
And those few Moroccan still living there, well I am sure they'd better be aligned with the official ideology or else. You know what I mean,and if you do not believe me, take the case of the large Jewish community in Iran (your arch enemy). It is the same old official court media stuff (whether Moroccan or Iranian, let's add Tunisia shall we?) that Jews are free to express themselves and proud to be Moroccan and the whole infantile street smart gullible discourse. Of course, I cannot speak for all Jews of Morocco. But Submit to the will of whatever or else! is a fact, hidden under the fake mantle of acceptance and inclusiveness. If you call that fair rule (democracy is not compatible word to use here, because none exist in the Muslim world), by accepting dissent and alternative viewpoints, well you are not knowledgeable of the history of political dogma in the Muslim world, nor do you really grasp how different and sometimes opposite political viewpoints are held by Jews and sometimes within in the same family.
Your quick and easy response reflects the same war path discourse of "us and them". It is the same thing we hear whether it is coming from Islamists, leftists, would-be or die hard monarchists, real Islamo-fascists and even anti-Semitic moderate Muslims. God helps us.