Posted on 12/28/2022 1:19:15 AM PST by nickcarraway
President praises Mohammed V, who made North African country into a safe haven from Nazi persecution during World War II, thanks current monarch for supporting community, education
President Isaac Herzog thanked Morocco’s King Mohammed VI in a letter on Tuesday for his country’s provision of a “safe haven” for Jews during the Holocaust.
The letter — marking two years since Morocco normalized ties with Israel — was the first occasion an Israeli state official has paid tribute to the Holocaust-era actions of Morocco’s monarch at the time, according to the presidency.
Herzog expressed Israel’s gratitude to the king “and the people of Morocco who, for generations, have acted to protect the security, welfare and cultural heritage of the kingdom’s Jewish community.”
(Excerpt) Read more at timesofisrael.com ...
An unusually nice story in this day and age of antisemitism.
It is a genuine example of man’s potential to be compassionate and it was no small feat. Mohammed V took his role as Commander of the Faithful seriously. He viewed his role as ruler to include all “people of the book,” meaning everyone belonging to the Abrahamic faiths — Jews, Christians and Muslims. He bravely and publicly declined to assist in the persecution of his own Jewish citizens, offering openly a sanctuary for them and full citizenship protections. It is long passed time to recognize this humble ruler’s heroic actions and his call to protect God’s people. The result saved more than 250,000 jews.
On the uglier side what the documentary on the Nazi death squads and what the Ukraine people did to the jews.
Great story. Thanks.
In recent years, they’ve had some issues with Islamic terrorism, but the king has crushed it when it pops up. He has also been working hard to make Morocco a tourist destination. We were in Tangier, and the Berber people in that area were very friendly. I think the Berbers moderate any tendency they might otherwise have toward anti-western terrorist tendencies. With its close proximity to Spain, Tangier is also a very international city, with as much European influence as there is from Islam.
I really enjoyed visiting there.
Morroco's brand of Islam is mainly the Shafi'i school of Sunni Islam, the smallest and most tolerant (or least intolerant) main branch of Sunni. The Shafi'i are that elusive moderate brand of Islam the media always gush about, but they are a majority only in Morocco, the UAE and Brunei. They are also a significant minority in a handful of other places in the Maghreb, Qatar and southwest Asia, including Indonesia and Bangladesh.
King Mohammed VI also invited American troops to “visit” his country at the height of World War II. Some of the opening scenes of the epic movie Patton document the visit.
I wouldn’t call it a “visit” at first. The Western Task Force landed before daybreak on 8 November 1942, at three points in Morocco: Safi (Operation Blackstone), Fedala (Operation Brushwood, the largest landing with 19,000 men), and Mehdiya-Port Lyautey (Operation Goalpost). Because it was hoped that the French would not resist, there were no preliminary bombardments. This proved to be a costly error as French defenses took a toll on American landing forces.
The other two fronts near Oran and Algeris (both in Algeria) received somewhat more resistance from the Vichy forces. The entire operation cost the allies about 1100 men dead, most of the British casualties (516 of 574) took place on the HMS Avenger when she was sunk by a German U-Boat just west of Gibraltar when the operations were largely wrapped up.
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