Israel's President and Defense Minister are Iranian born people.

Freerepublic ^ | 27th Dec, 2003 | Freedom44

[F14 Pilot]

Moshe Katsav, Iranian-Israeli--President of Israel

Shaul Mofaz, Iranian-Israeli-- Israeli Defense Minister

Israel offered aid and condolences to the people of Iran touched by the tragedy on friday.

[F14 Pilot]

http://www.us-israel.org

[F14 Pilot]

Ping~!

[McGavin999]

Thanks for posting that. I knew the Defense Minister was Iranian but I didn't know that the President was as well.

[LoudRepublicangirl]

I was unaware of this. Thank you for continually keeping us informed. And you would think that Israel offering to help would show the world what Israel is made of.

[Don326]

Yes. So Iran makes worldwide announcements that the only country they will not accept aid from is Israel. Israel had definitely offered. Remember our 444 hostages! Why should the US be sending help either?

[LoudRepublicangirl]

We had that many hostages held in Iran? I thought it was something like 58. I think they were held for over 400 days. I could be wrong. It was so long ago. Anyway, I look at it like this: These 20,000 people who have perished can't harm me and neither can the other thousands who are injured or homeless, freezing in the winter with no way to stay warm except with the tents, blankets, fuel for campfires and food that our government is sending them. As I lay down in my warm bed with my central heat in my home I don't begrudge these miserable people anything like that. These people are not refusing Israel's help, it's their raghead mullah leaders who are being jerks. I am not going to hold it against them. I praise Israel for seeing past the hostility and offering the help even if it was refused.

[F14 Pilot]

LOL, man it is history and they were 52 hostages held for 444 days.
That generation took our people hostage is now forming the Moderate part of their government, most of them sent to prisons. I am no great fan of their regime but all I want you to know is that there are many big differences between regular Iranians and their regime.
Moreover, most of them are Pro-America, Pro-Bush, secular and well-educated people with a history of more than 3000 years old.

[blackie]

Bump!

[EggsAckley]

bump for later

[PhilDragoo]

A little regime change and poof--another ally where an enemy once conspired against us.

The Iranian regime is repressive--the Iranian people are onto it, and the people of the world are wising up.

Tick tick tick tick. . . .

[Criminal Number 18F]

Thanks once again for a worthwhile thread/ping.

Interesting thought -- under the ancien régime Israel and Iran were very close indeed. The ayatollahs have their issues with Israel over the muslim-solidarity-with-Palestinians thing, but I wonder if what really drove their rejection of Israel's open-hearted gesture is their association of Israel with the Shah?

I know that everytime Reza Pahlavi has an op-ed in a paper or speaks publicly, they go haywire. While it's entertaining to see the ayatollahs melt down, it's probably not productive, and Reza has been invisible this year.

I don't get a sense that the Iranian public wants the Shah's son to return and rule, but I do get a sense that many Iranians, especially the nation's educated and cosmopolitan young, think that the nation had it better under the Shah.

As far as Iranian Jews are concerned, they have been there for milennia. The ancient Persian leader Cyrus freed them from slavery in present-day Iraq when he conquered it. Many of them left in 1979 but many stayed. For twenty years the mullahs seemed to leave them alone but in 1999 they started with arrests of Jews in Shiraz and charging them with espionage for the USA. (I wish we had 1/10 as many spies in Iran as the damned ayatollahs had arrested).

After a trial that was a mockery of justice (conducted in secret... the prosecutor also was the judge), most of the Jews, and some of their Muslim "accomplices," were sentenced to long terms in prison. They ran out of appeals in 2001.

Iran is the only Muslim country, except for Western, secular, Turkey, that tolerates a significant Jewish minority, but since the Shiraz trials they're running scared... even before that, the ayatollahs would periodically grab and jail one (or even execute him) as an object lesson.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[StilettoRaksha]

Bump.

[F14 Pilot]

Thanks for sharing your comments with us!

[windchime]

Interesting! Thanks.

[F14 Pilot]

You are welcome.