Posted on 07/24/2003 3:39:01 AM PDT by geros
The report sent by the correspondent for the Lebanese paper “Al Mustakabel” stationed in Iraq lit the imagination on fire. In a long report, complete with names, places, details and fascinating descriptions, the journalist informed his readers about the secret activities of Israel and the United States in Iraq after Saddam. “Iraq is witnessing widespread activity of the Jewish Agency and the Mossad,” it said in the introduction, “each one in its own area, but both of them together under the supervision of Minister Ehud Olmert.”
This report, written by an Iraqi journalist by the name of Tala Issam Al Amari, is not a rare creation in the Iraq of today. Since the fall of Baghdad, and the nonstop statements concerning a warm peace with the renewed Iraq, Jewish property that will be returned, and the flow of tourists and oil to Haifa, Iraqis have begun expressing a concern that Israel will try to gain control over their economy and property. The practical result is a wave of speeches in mosques, flyers in the streets and publications in Iraqi newspapers warning against the reaching hands of Israelis and Jews. The warnings are peppered with loaded words like “occupation” and “invasion” which are taken, intentionally, from the Israeli- Palestinian context.
In this story there is no small amount of paranoia, the cultivation of virulent theories, and a few drops of anti-Semitism. There is an intentional blurring of distinctions between Jew, Zionists and Israelis, and a great reliance on the ignorance of the public. Up until now, despite the fact that the campaign against the Jews has been going on for several weeks, not a single document showing that a house or piece of land has been sold to Jews has been presented. Everything is a rumor, and rumors spread easily and for free.
The publication in “Al Mustakabel” this past Tuesday was not the first in connection with the Israeli Mossad. A month ago the Iraqi paper “Al Hilal” reported that Meir Dagan’s people had begun establishing Mossad stations in different cities in Iraq. At the same time rumors were rife according to which a hotel in eastern Baghdad was serving as a base for Jewish agents who had come to purchase Iraqi houses and land.
The rumor mongers made a point of noting that the hotel in question was owned by Kurds, and in doing so settled accounts with that rebellious minority in the northern part of the country. The purchasers were referred to as “anonymous”, though some, it was said, were Kurds, who represent wealthy Jews who pay several times the actual value of the house. These are rumors that can evolve into confiscations, ostracization and banning. This fact was well known to the heads of the Iraqi construction company “Al Katan” which specializes in the reconstruction of buildings and which recently forged a working relationship with the American market. “We don’t work with the Mossad or the CIA”, said the company leaders.
In Baghdad flyers were also distributed, signed by “a self-respecting Iraqi citizen”, which warns the public against selling property to Jews. “My Muslim brothers!!!” wrote the concerned citizen, ”Don’t sell your houses at any price. Don’t give up this dear land, no matter who the purchaser, because Jews are behind the thing.” Another notice urged citizens not to seek medical treatment at the Shomri hospital in Baghdad, because Jewish doctors work there. “The Jews,” it said, “want to buy houses and to control our media and trade.”
The rumor-mill continued to work, and in Iraq the theory is prevalent that most of the American soldiers who were part of the invasion force were Jews whose true mission was to control Iraqi property. In the Friday sermon in a Shiite mosque in Baghdad the Sheikh Tahar Ibrahim Shomri warned: “Jews are buying property, houses, stores and fields, in order to act with us as they have in Palestine. Be cautious and do not be quick to sell. The country and the land are dear.”
The Sunni Imam, Mahmud Halaf, in the great mosque named after Ibd Al Kadar Kalani, acted as though he was revealing secret information to the believers. “The Jews are entering Iraq one at a time,” the Sheikh taught, “civilians and military personnel are identifying targets and buying property, factories and companies, and the Iraqi people work for them as wage laborers, agents and pimps. It is forbidden to sell land to Jews, and it is forbidden for an Iraqi to work with Jews in this way.”
A short while later a religious decree, or fatwa, was issued permitting the killing of Jews. Religious leader Ayatollah Kazzam Husseini Hairi signed the fatwa. Iranian influence is evident in the fatwa, for Hairi operates from the Iranian city of Kum. Hairi forbade his Iraqi brethren from selling houses or land to Jews, and ruled that it is permitted to “spill the blood” of Jews who attempt from now on to acquire houses or land in Iraq. The fatwa joins the notices of the Sunni faction from Musul that warned against selling land to Jews several days earlier.
In part this campaign is fueled by headlines that appeared in Israel about the possibility of normalizing relations between Baghdad and Jerusalem. The excited Israeli, who was educated from the time he went to boot camp to storm a target without restraint, did not give Iraq even 100 days of grace before talking about peace and normalization. Jews from Iraq began speaking about the return of property; politicians in Israel began speaking about the smell of Iraqi oil. No one paid attention to the fact that according to international treaty and law the land of Iraq is under occupation, and that before cooking up plans like these it is best to ask the intended bride.
Having said that it must remember that the US did (re)build Germany and Japan after the war. Both countries now have strong functioning democratic governments, whatever that's worth.
That's rich. I wonder what the percentage of Jews in the US Armed Services is.
Expressed as a fraction, it's diddly/squat.
I think the only way to "nation build" is to wipe out Islam in its entirety, and I don't even know if that is possible, or if we want to commit ourselves to it.
Oy Vey!
Genocide.
It probably has quite a bit to do with Jewish families stressing education so strongly. This provides their kids with more options come the age of 18.
There is nothing that the U.S. can do to lead the M.E. away from being enraged and delusional. They are by nature easily enraged and total self-delusion is just 'who they are.' We delude ourselves to believe we can impose true 'democratic religious freedom' on Iraq.
Out propagandizing like the good muslim you are, I see :).
Funny, but your views on the middle east seem much less restrained on LibertyForum:
They are really hitting a high stride now are they not?Yep! That is why Iran is rushing to get a nuclear weapon. If they don't have one, they may as well just surrender and hand over their natural resources immediately, and save a lot of bother. -- BlackVeil 07/13/03
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