Sunday, December 4, 2016

Jews From Persia to Iran and the Nazi Connection

Nadene Goldfoot                                                          
Cyrus of the Babylonian Empire attacked Israel in 597 BCE to 586 BCE in their their conquest across the Middle East in which he had inherited much of the Assyrian Empire. Darius the Great was the 3rd King, ruling Persia from 550 BCE to 486 BCE.   The Achaemenid Empire during Darius' reign controlled the largest fraction of the world's population of any empire in history. Based on historical demographic estimates, Darius I ruled over approximately 50 million people, or at least 44% of the world's population.
By then the Persian ruler, Cyrus II,  allowed the return of the Jews from their exile to Judah to rebuild their temple in 538 BCE.  For this act, the Jews thought of Cyrus as a Divine agent.   The land continued to be under Persian rule, however, as their province but the Jews were given local autonomy.  The political unity of the Middle East in those days under Persian rule allowed considerable movements of population from one part of this area to move to another. "Cyrus is a king mentioned more than 30 times in the Bible and is identified as Cyrus the Great (also Cyrus II or Cyrus the Elder) who reigned over Persia ...He was born about 580 BCE and died i n 529 BCE. . 
                                                                   
Cyrus
the Babylonian


Darius the Great, Persian
550 BCE-486 BCE

Darius is mentioned in the Biblical books of HaggaiZechariah, and Ezra–Nehemiah." For 2 centuries until about 338 BCE, both the Jews in Exile in Mesopotamia (IRAQ) (conquered by the Arabs in 637 CE) and in the the Jewish homeland of Israel and Judah were under Persian rule.  " Between Cyrus and Darius, an exchange of letters with King Ahasuerus and Artaxerxes is described (chapter 4, verse 7), the grandson of Darius I, during whose reign Ezra and Nehemiah came to Jerusalem. The generous funding of the temple gave Darius and his successors the support of the Jewish priesthood.
Darius is mentioned in the near-contemporary biblical books of Haggai and Zechariah (two of the Twelve Minor Prophets), whose account is also reflected in the later books of Ezra–Nehemiah.
                                     
Artaxerxes was Persia's king from 465 BCE  to 424 BCE. He was the grandson of Darius I. 
"Artaxerxes (Hebrewאַרְתַּחְשַׁשְׂתְּא‎‎, pronounced [artaχʃast]) commissioned Ezra, a Jewish priest (kohen) and scribe, by means of a letter of decree (see Cyrus's edict), to take charge of the ecclesiastical and civil affairs of the Jewish nation. A copy of this decree may be found in Ezra 7:13-28.

Elam is the modern Khuzistan.  The capital is Susa (the Shushan of the Book of Esther).
They were non-Semitic people, children of Shem, defeated by Abraham,
participated in Sennacherib's siege of Jerusalem in 704 BCE.  Part of the
population was transferred to Samaria after 639 BCE.
                                                                         
Hitler, copying Haman in plan to kill ALL Jews

In former President Ahmadinejad's words, "
September 9, 2012
 "Today, interactions in the international arena make it fully evident and clear that the leaders of this small [international Zionist] party make all of its decisions and imposes them on European leaders. [The Zionists] imposed World War I on Europe and today those countries are forced to admit their wrong doings. We are certain that the world will soon be rescued from the hand of the Zionists."

"Why is it that world leaders are still sensitive to and emphasize the Holocaust? Politicians normally don't pay significant attention to history and the past. The reason for the sensitivities is that the Holocaust is the excuse for the establishment of the Zionist regime, and is an active agent [used] in the political environment. The Zionist regime relies on the Holocaust and if it's take away from the regime, the philosophy of its existence disappears and all politics in the international arena which where were based on it will come undone."
                                                                          
Queen Esther was the daughter of Abihail and is the story of how she helped to save the Jews in the time of King Ahasueros.  She had been selected by the Persian king for his wife.  Her uncle Mordecai  was in the king's court, and found out about another court member, 
                                                                                    
Haman telling about plan to kill all Jews

the king's advisor, Haman, who planned on the slaughter of all the Jews in the huge empire.  Esther was told about it by her Uncle Mordecai and she fasted for 3 days, eating nothing but seeds to get the courage to tell her king-husband.  
                                                                                 
Esther accusing Haman 

He loved her and not only arrested Haman but had him hung along with his sons for planning this, something that about to start.  This event in about 330 BCE in the month of Nisan,  has been remember every year since then with the holiday of Purim.  Haman was the world's first Hitler.  
                                                                     
Ancient Persians
The Bible's Book of Esther tells about the Jews' living conditions throughout the 127 Persian provinces of the Persian Empire.  They were thought to be numerous and influential in the capital, Susa (Shushan).  This was from about the 4th century (300s) BCE  onward.  Most Jews congregated in Persia when the area was controlled by Parthia from 250 BCE onward.  Persia was a state in 225 CE under the Sassanid dynasty.  They had authority again that extended over the ancient centers of Jewish settlement in Mesopotamia.

The Babylonian Talmud, which was redacted here under Persian rule, shows a vigorous Jewish life in Persia proper, and the Persian Queen Shushan Dukht was of Jewish birth.  Was this our Queen Esther (Hadassah?) Or Another Jewish queen?   "Shushandukht was the wife of Yazdegerd I and mother of Bahram V. She was the daughter of a Jewish exilarch.  (So was Esther). She also established Jewish colonies in the cities of Shush (Susa) and Shooshtar. The existence of a Jewish queen enhanced the life of Persian Jews and during this period Jewish Exilarchshad regular attendance to the Shah's court.  Some authors such as Ernst Herzfeld have speculated that the tomb of Esther and Mordecai in the city of Hamedan might be the tomb of Shushandukht. (wikipedia)"  They just hate to come out and say that Persia once had a Jewish Queen Esther. Obviously  in Persian she was  called Shushan Dukht.  
                                                                      
Zoroaster 1,000 BCE to 6oo BCE-records not sure
Zoroaster (active 1st millennium B.C.) was a prophet of ancient Iran and the founder of the Iranian national religion. Zoroastrianism is ranked with Judaism, Christianity, and Islam among the higher religions originating in the Middle East. The most characteristic aspect of Zoroaster's faith is belief in dualism. He conceived of two primeval powers active in the universe, Good and Evil. Our world is the scene of their conflict and admixture. The outcome of this conflict, upon which depends the destiny of man, is decided as much by man's choice as by any other factor.

The conditions of Jewish life was good, but there were later fierce religious persecutions under Zoroastrian influence which ended in the attempt to suppress Jewish observances un Yezdegerd II from 438 to 457. "Before Islamization of Iran, which was followed by the Muslim invasion,  Zoroastrianism was the primary religion of the nation." 

 "As Persians expanded their empire, .Zoroastrianism was introduced to Greek historians such as HermodorusHermippusXanthosEudoxus and Aristotle; each giving a different date regarding the life of Zoroaster but naturally believed him to be a Persian prophet and called him "Master of the magi."   There was more persecution in 468 under Firuz from 459 to 486. after the alleged murder of 2 magi by the Jews in the the capital Isfahan (which started as a Jewish city).  

When Kavadh I (485-531) adopted and imposed the communistic practices of the Zendicism, Persian Jews joined in the revolt led by Mar Zutra II in 513 to 520.

Mohammad was born and lived from 570 to 632. 
                                                                                 
 The Arab conquest of Persia in 641 to 642 introduced a new tolerant attitude with certain reservations.  The Jews of Persian flourished under the Eastern Caliphate of Baghdad.  They were controlled by the exilarch (leaders of the Diaspora Jewish community in Babylon following the deportation of King Jeconiah/Jehoiachin of Judah(597 BCE) who reigned for 3 months and 10 days at age 18.  Then he capitulated to Nebuchadnezzar and was taken to exile in Babylonia and kept in a detention cell until 561 when he ws released.  Official Babylonian records relating to his captivity have been recovered.   His court was also taken into Babylonian exile after the first fall of Jerusalem in 597 BCE and augmented after the further deportations following the destruction of the kingdom of Judah in 587 BCE. The people in exile were called golah (Jeremiah 28:629:1) or galut (Jeremiah 29:22).
                                                                      
The Jews paid intellectual allegiance to the Gaonim (intellectual or well educated leaders) were had strong influence with the people.  Persia was like a nursery of sectrian movements.  Out of it came Abu Issa al-Isfahani in 700, leader who started Karaism.  Thus, Karaism had a strong hold in Persia from the 8th century on, and some of its most influential leaders were Benjamin Nahavendi.   Karaites are a Jewish sect that rejected the Oral Law.  We have the Written Law AND the Oral Law.  Why didn't they?  They had messianic hopes that were aroused by the local conditions like the Arab conquest of Persia in 640, and the fall of the Umayyad dynasty in 750, and the urge toward social justice and asceticism.  They interpreted the Bible literally and tried to see a code of life without referencing the Oral Law.  For 2 centuries, many groups were rejecting the Oral Law.

Benjamin of Tudela in the end of the 12th century found many flourishing Jewish communities in this area which had recently been disturbed through the messianic movement of Menahem ben Solomon alias  DAVID ALROY.  His movement had begun before 1121 among the "Mountain Jews" in NE Caucasia when the nomadic Kipehaks from the steppes of the Black Sea had invaded their communities.  The Jews were suffering from poverty.  They had been contemplating that this was the time to conquer Palestine after the Crusades.  First his father led the movement who proclaimed David to be the Messiah because he was very intelligent and strong.  David was defeated in battle so he transferred the revolt to the mountains of Kurdistan and tried to take the city of Amadia but was killed by assassins in about 1135 or 1160.  Some of his followers were in Azerbaijan and were called Menahemites.  Benjamin Disraeli wrote a fictitious novel based on him called THE WONDROUS TALE OF DAVID ALROY..  

Then the Mongol invasion occurred and they ruled from the 13th to 15th centuries.  During this time the life of the Jews was good and then bad.  Persian independence returned in 1499 under the Safavid dynasty.  

The Shiite form of Islam then dominated and was highly intolerant in theory and in practice.  The Jews were treated worse than in other parts of the Moslem world.  All types of restrictions were being enforced.

By the 17th century there were many persecutions and forced conversions, especially  in Isfahan.  Things improved under NADIR SHAH (1736-1747).  He was aiming to creating a new religious blend or synthesis.  He settled a Jewish community at his new capital, MESHED where they had been excluded from living there.  When he died, Shiite intolerance returned in strength.  However, an intellectual life persisted in the Jewish communities, expressed in their literature and in the Judeo-Persian dialect.  

Medieval conditions of intolerance continued in Persia and in 1839, all of the people of Meshed were forcibly converted to Islam but kept secret their continued practice of Judaism, just like the Anusim of Spain and Portugal. They called it JEDID AL-ISLAM.   Persian Jewry were the most depressed of the world's Jewish communities in this 19th century.  sometimes they had diplomatic interventions by the Western Jewry.  Promises of making life more tolerable for them  by the next shahs were  overlooked.  

Even by 1898 the Jews did not dare return openly to Judaism even though equality of political rights was introduced into Persia under the Shah, the social and economic status of Jews didn't change. 
                                                                                  
Jerusalem's Musllim leader in 1930's, Haj Amin al-Husseini in Germany
conspiring to kill the Jews in Palestine and elsewhere. 

"In 1935 the Iranian government requested those countries which it had diplomatic relations with, to call Persia "Iran," which is the name of the country in Persian.  The suggestion for the change is said to have come from the Iranian ambassador to Germany, who came under the influence of the Nazis.

By the 1960s and 1970s many Jews moved from their many provinces to Teheran. Jews began to emigrate in large numbers after 1948 when Israel was born.  Jews were not persecuted after the KHOMEINI REVOLUTION in 1978, but many felt uncomfortable under their strict Islamic regime and they left for Israel and the west.  The population fell from 80,000 in 1978 down to 20,000 in 1989.  
                                                                    
Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
1941 to 11 February 1979

1979 saw an Iranian Revolution.  The Shah Pahlavi was overthrown and the Ayalollahs took over.  
                                             
                                         
Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ruhollah Khomeini
3 Dec 1979 to 3 June 1989
Ruled 9 years 182 days
President Hassan Rouhani working with Russia
President Rouhani of Iran
2013 to Present

Iran's President since August 3, 2013 has been Hassan Rouhnani.
                         

Ayatollah Ali  Khamenei
the real power in Iran.
4 June 1989 to Present
Ruled 27 years 180 days so far
Khamenei’s Islamic fatwa has evolved into a potential deal-breaker.

But addressing the IAEA’s concerns does not necessarily mean a full public confession. Reaching a deal may require finding a compromise solution that allows Iran to continue denying that it ran a secret Manhattan Project while granting the IAEA enough information to satisfy the nuclear watchdog agency that it understands the nature of Iran’s past program.
 
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
2005 to 2013
Ahmadinejad repeatedly demonizes the state of Israel and openly calls for its destruction at every opportunity. Most notoriously, he described Israel as a "fake regime" that "must be wiped off the map."He termed Zionists "the most detested people in all humanity" and called the extermination of six million Jews during World War II "a myth," claiming that Jews have played up Nazi atrocities during the Holocaust in a bid to extort sympathy for Israel from European governments.Ahmadinejad's virulently anti-Israel and anti-Semitic rhetoric and Holocaust denial are often matched by other Iranian leaders, and the Iranian regime itself has continued to sponsor anti-Zionism conferences and pseudo-academic lectures and exhibits questioning the fact of the Holocaust.The wave of the Islamic revolution will soon reach the entire world.


                                                                        

  During an Iranian election protest, Neda Agha Soltan, 26
was shot and killed by  Basij, a paramilitary organization.   "A student of philosophy, (though not politically influenced, but rather supporting the supporters of Mousavi) Neda was participating in the protests, accompanied by her music teacher and was walking back to her car when she was fatally shot in the chest. 

Plain and simple, Israel is under the greatest threat of her life now with the beleaguered IRAN DEAL of which President elect Donald Trump will try to alter.   "During the U.S. election campaign, Trump, a Republican, called last year's nuclear pact a "disaster" and "the worst deal ever negotiated". He has also said it would be hard to overturn an agreement enshrined in a U.N. resolution."  Under Obama's directions, Iran will be ready to have atomic weapons in a few years.  Yet, "

On January 16, 2016, the International Atomic Energy Agency verified that Iran has completed the necessary steps under the Iran deal that will ensure Iran's nuclear program is and remains exclusively peaceful.

Believing this is like believing in Santa Claus.  Israel doesn't believe it and neither do i, knowing the ongoing historic relationship with Persia-Iran.  The one time it was good was when Shah  Pahlavi was in power.  
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu even went to Washington DC to speak with the Senators about his fears for his country and the rest of the world, and many just refused to even attend his speech about it.  They didn't want to be confused with their closed minds.  They have already lifted the important sanctions and have given them a lot of money that will be used to back terrorism against Israel.  "Before the nuclear agreement, Netanyahu, a conservative, strained relations with the White House by addressing the U.S. Congress in 2015 and cautioning against agreeing to the pact."
"The problem isn't so much that Iran will break the deal, but that Iran will keep it because it just can walk in within a decade, and even less ... to industrial-scale enrichment of uranium to make the core of an arsenal of nuclear weapons," Netanyahu told the forum."  When Netanyahu spoke with Kerry about the Iran fears, Kerry just threw back his problem with Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria.  That's not listening.  That's being defensive about his role as Secretary of State.  

As Israel had feared, Iran doesn't follow rules laid down.  They've already broken the rules.  
"The ink isn’t even dry on President Obama’s nuclear agreement and Iran is already breaking rules,” Sen. David Perdue (R., Ga.) said on Thursday. “This should not come as a surprise to anyone since Iran has cheated on every deal.”  "Lawmakers are accusing Iran of violating the recent nuclear deal due to the Islamic Republic’s test firing of a ballistic missile, which is likely at odds with international agreements barring such activity.  "This latest violation of international law demonstrates Tehran’s continued willingness to ignore its obligations,” the lawmakers wrote."
The big question is, Why is Obama ignoring the facts that Iran has been cheating? "The Institute for Science and International Security has learned that Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization (AEOI) recently made an attempt to purchase tons of controlled carbon fiber from a country. This attempt occurred after Implementation Day of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)."

Resource: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germany%E2%80%93Iran_relations
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Reza_Pahlavi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Neda_Agha-Soltan#Biography
https://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/foreign-policy/iran-deal
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSKBN13T0TQ
http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/documents/world/full-text-of-the-iran-nuclear-deal/1651/
http://freebeacon.com/national-security/congressmen-iran-is-already-violating-nuclear-deal/
http://www.newsweek.com/why-obama-ignoring-iran-cheating-nuke-deal-479689
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/mahmoud_ahmadinejad.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoroastrians_in_Iran
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darius_I
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artaxerxes_I_of_Persia
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/iran-nuclear-deal-ayatollah-fatwa-complication-119244



  



2 comments:

  1. The Senate is about to begin debating a bill to extend expiring sanctions on Iran. The House of Representatives passed this bill overwhelmingly before Thanksgiving.



    In a statement announcing this legislation, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (CA-36) explained:



    “The Iran Sanctions Act was enacted to curb Tehran’s support for terrorism and its very dangerous weapons proliferation. It should remain in place until the regime stops exporting terror and threatening us and our allies with deadly weapons.”



    President Obama has not asked Congress to extend the authorization and the Iranian regime lashed out over the House's action. But the renewal of these sanctions doesn't violate the terms of Obama's deal with Tehran and President-elect Trump must have every tool available to force Iran to comply with its commitments once he takes office.

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  2. McConnell Promises Action

    Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell promised this morning that the Senate would act quickly on the Iran Sanctions Extension Act, which passed the House earlier this week on a 419-to-1 vote. Speaking on the Senate floor, Leader McConnell said, "Sometime this session we will also take up . . . the Iran Sanctions Extension Act which passed the House overwhelmingly."

    McConnell added, "This bipartisan bill, which provides the basis for any sanctions which may be re-imposed on Iran, is critical given the belligerent behavior exhibited by Tehran since the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. I expect we'll pass it on an overwhelming bipartisan basis here too."

    Senator Ben Cardin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, echoed McConnell's call for action. When it comes to holding Iran accountable for its "non-nuclear nefarious actions," Cardin said, "Congress is prepared to take a stronger role."

    Call your senators at 202-224-3121. Urge them to support the Iran Sanctions Extension Act.

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