For the last three weeks, thousands of protesters in more than 30 different provinces throughout Iran have come out to protest against the corruption, negligence and lack of freedoms from a leadership that has rendered their lives unbearable. Their peaceful protests have been met by the regime's thugs, beating, shooting and imprisoning them. Sadly, U.S. and Western news outlets have not covered these widespread rallies, though the painful videos and images of people suffering at the hands of Tehran are littered on social media.

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It's time for America's Jews to speak out and speak loudly in support of innocent citizens in Iran seeking true freedom by regime change in their country. We in the American Jewish community, who have always proudly supported freedom movements from Russia to Poland to South Africa, must also stand with the people of Iran demanding an end to the oppressive rule of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

While my own family fled more than 40 years ago to escape Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's policy of violent anti-Semitism, my heart breaks to see thousands of peace-loving citizens suffering at the hands of a heartless mullah regime that has left them hungry, impoverished and without hope for a better future. Despite the regime's leaders proclaiming their vile genocidal intentions for Jews for decades, the majority of people in Iran do not share their views.

As an Iranian American journalist in contact with other journalists and activists in Iran, they relay messages that the people are fed up with corruption, tyranny, a lack of basic freedoms and the lack of economic opportunities from the current radical Islamic regime. They have taken to the streets in all major cities, and even in smaller towns and areas, to protest the situation and encourage the ouster of their oppressive dictatorship. The evil Iranian regime has cracked down by randomly beating them, killing them, arresting them. Images of the unmerciful brutality against the people of Iran with the use of live ammunition this past week circulated by protesters on social media platforms are chilling. Moreover, for the past several weeks, the Internet has been shut down in various provinces to prevent protesters from exposing the regime's heinous brutality and random killings of citizens on the streets.

The American Jewish community in the last 60-plus years has been very vocal in speaking out not only against anti-Semitism in the world, but against the evils of hate, war and lack of freedoms for non-Jews as well. I call on the American Jewish community, which has long been strong proponents of social causes, equality and freedom movements, to support the people of Iran fighting to get rid of an oppressive regime.

During the Cold War, was it not American Jewry that was among the most vocal against the tyranny of the former Soviet Union towards Jews and opponents of the Soviet Communist regime? Were American Jews not among those who voiced loud support and stood with Polish Solidarity union activists during their protest against the Communist Polish regime? Were American Jews not among the many that stood shoulder to shoulder with Nelson Mandela and his freedom movement against the apartheid system in South Africa? Did Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and other American Jewish activists not march arm in arm with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as part of the civil rights movement? Even today, many Jewish congregations have taken on the cause of tikkun olam – from volunteerism in their own neighborhoods to helping parts of poverty-stricken Africa.

Therefore, it is imperative that this long and proud tradition of support must continue and be carried forward by American Jews for the plight of average Iranian citizens seeking greater freedoms in their country and better economic opportunities, despite the repression they have faced from their oppressive radical Islamic regime. We cannot and must not remain silent and on the sidelines while innocent men, women and even children are beaten and slaughtered in the streets of Iranian cities just for speaking out against a corrupt government that has done nothing to improve their lives, instead spending their country's wealth on funding terrorist groups throughout the Middle East.

Supporting protesters in the streets of Iran who want the ouster of the oppressive Ayatollah regime is not merely to the ultimate benefit of America and Israel's security; more importantly, it is the right and moral thing to do. After all, do we as Jews not read the Torah every year in the book of Deuteronomy (Shoftim) that states "justice, justice shall you pursue"? As a people who for millennia have faced unspeakable violence, hatred, injustice, pogroms and even genocide, we have always spoken out in every part of the globe in support of those who were downtrodden and oppressed.

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Our support of the peace-loving people of Iran would be no different and is essential at this juncture in time. How much longer can we stand idle and not speak up while the regime in Iran not only slaughters and imprisons its own citizens, but whose leaders constantly deny the Holocaust and call for a second annihilation against all Jews worldwide?

We American Jews – Ashkenazi and Mizrahi, conservative and liberal, secular and religious – have a duty to speak with one voice for freedom and in support of those innocents in Iran who want to liberate their own country from a repressive regime. We Jews must today recall the gift of freedom of the ancient Persian king, Cyrus the Great. He granted us freedom from the bondage of Babylonian captivity 2,700 years ago, and, in turn, we must now stand with his descendants, who are seeking international support to free themselves from the yoke of radical Islamic bondage and oppression.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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After arrest warrants were issued and public death threats were made against many of the 300 Iraqi Muslim leaders calling for their government to make peace with Israel at a conference held in late September in Iraq's Kurdistan region, Jewish activists of Iraqi origin are voicing support for those in Iraq who seek peace with Israel.

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"It is depressing that the conference participants have been bullied in this way," said Lyn Julius, a Jewish activist of Iraqi descent and co-founder of Harif, an association of Jews from the Middle East and North Africa based in the United Kingdom. "They were very brave to have taken part in the first place but may have underestimated the risks they were taking."

The conference, which was held in the city of Erbil, drew widespread condemnation from officials in Iraq's government, who called it an "illegal meeting." According to the Iraq News Agency, some Iraqi authorities also announced that they would arrest all 300 participants once they had been identified.

Likewise, an arrest warrant was issued for Wisam al-Hardan, leader of the "Sons of Iraq Awakening" movement, who had demanded that Iraq join the Abraham Accords and, at the conference, also encouraged establishing full diplomatic relations with Israel. Following widespread public condemnation in Iraq, al-Hardan later issued a recorded apology and withdrew his support for the event.

Moreover, arrest warrants were issued against other conference speakers, including former Iraqi politician Mithal Al-Alusi, and a senior Iraqi Culture Ministry official named Sahar al-Tai. Later, Al-Alusi, who has long called for peace between Iraq and Israel, claimed not to have attended the conference at all. Additionally, several other conference participants also backtracked from their earlier pro-peace statements.

Iraq has officially been at war with Israel since Israel's establishment in 1948, and the country's decades-old laws call for the immediate arrest and imprisonment of anyone dealing with Israelis or having any ties to Israel.

After 1948, members of Iraq's Jewish community, which once numbered 150,000-strong, were stripped of their citizenship, had their assets confiscated by the government and were forcibly expelled from the country. The majority of Iraqi Jews resettled in Israel, though some immigrated to Europe and North America. Today, experts estimate that only a handful of Jews still live in Iraq.

'Develop business for the benefit of all sides'

Linda Menuhin, an Israeli peace activist of Iraqi background who spoke via Zoom to the Iraqi activists at the Erbil conference, said many attendees are now recanting their statements of peace with Israel out of fear of physical harm to themselves or their families from the Iranian regime's militias operating in Iraq.

"I believe that Iran indeed is the biggest challenge on the way because Iraq's regime cannot practice its free sovereignty and has many stakes currently in Iran," said Menuhin, who made a 2013 documentary film, "Shadow in Baghdad," about the abduction and killing of her father, Jacob Abdel Aziz, by Iraqi officials in the 1970s.

Nevertheless, she said she remains optimistic about the prospects of peace in the future between Iraq and Israel.

"I do believe there is hope for peace in the future due to the fact that millions are yearning to release themselves from Iran's strongholds directly or through its militias," she said. "The young are looking to build a future free of enmity based on good relations with all the neighbors."

Other Iraqi Jewish activists living in the United States and Canada said Israelis and Jews living in the West can help encourage peace with Iraqis by engaging in possible business ventures or beginning a dialogue through social media.

"The best role of the Mizrahi Jews, in this situation, is to establish commercial contacts and develop business for the benefit of all sides," said Sami Sourani, an Iraqi Jewish activist living in Canada.

Indeed, one Jewish nonprofit group based in San Francisco, "Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa" (JIMENA), has long been educating groups in the United States and throughout the world about the plight of nearly 850,000 Jewish refugees who fled or were expelled from the Arab and Islamic countries during the 20th century.

JIMENA's leadership recently released a statement applauding the Erbil conference and calling for future similar events to be done with caution to protect peace advocates in Arab countries.

"Because of JIMENA's outreach work in North Africa and the Middle East, we know there is a desire among so many diverse communities throughout the region for rebuilding and establishing new relationships with Jewish communities in Israel and abroad," stated JIMENA in their released statement. "But this work must be done with the utmost precaution and sensitivity to the safety and well-being of those brave souls seeking a peaceful path forward."

'The future lies in working together'

Joseph Samuels, a 90-year-old Iraqi Jewish activist and speaker for JIMENA who now lives in Los Angeles, said more is needed to be done to educate the new generation of Iraqis and other Arabs about the plight of Jews who suffered because of persecution they faced in their former Muslim homelands.

"I honestly believe that if the younger generation of Iraqis were to learn in their own Arabic language what horrible things were done to Jews of Iraq and how the Jewish expulsion was a disaster for Iraq, it could possibly help to change their hearts and minds to seek peace," he said.

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Interestingly, Samuels said his memoirs Beyond the Rivers of Babylon, which was published last year, is currently being translated into Arabic by a professional translator living in Iraq who is a Shiite Muslim.

"The man translating my book is a great person, and I know there are many other Iraqis who also have no hate for Jews," said Samuels. "I think my book in Arabic will educate many Arabs about my horrible experience in escaping Iraq and having to rebuild my new life. I would also love the chance to speak to them through Arabic language media and tell them we Jews harbor no hate for them, even after all the persecution we faced in Iraq."

For their part, Iraqi Jewish activists said that while the Erbil conference may have had negative consequences for those attending it, it was a productive first step for Iraqis to consider the prospects of peace with Israelis.

"The great thing about the Iraqi conference is that it did not want to turn the clock back and for Jews to 'return' to Iraq," said Julius. "It recognized that Israel is here to stay, that the vast majority of Iraqi Jews are now Israelis and that the future lies in working together with them."

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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After a visit to Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in late July, Khosrow Beitollahi, a former Iranian air force pilot and activist against Iran's current regime, said he was devastated to learn of the magnitude of the Nazi genocide but also inspired by the spirit of the Jewish people to rebuild new lives in their ancestral homeland.

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Beitollahi is one of the hundreds of Iranian non-Jewish activists in the US – a number that is growing – who are openly supporting Israel because of their desire to help rebuild Iran's neglected and devastated landscape under the current ruling Islamic regime.

"This current criminal regime in Iran has created a failed state because it cannot provide basic water, electricity and food resources for the country's population of 80 million," said Beitollahi, 70, who lives in Los Angeles. "This regime will soon collapse and we the patriots of Iran have a responsibility to reach out to Israel, our only true friend in the region for their help to avoid a major humanitarian catastrophe for the people of Iran."

Beitollahi was one of six Iranian dissidents from the US who visited Israel last month on a tour organized by the Southern California-based Institute for Voices of Liberty.

"We did not go to Israel as representatives of the people of Iran," said Beitollahi, who was involved in a failed 1980 attempt to bomb the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's home in Iran. "We went as Iranian patriots who have seen the mullah regime destroy our beloved Iran for 42 years and want the help of Israeli experts in water, agriculture, technology and other areas to rebuild Iran when this evil regime collapses soon."

The iVOL trip was not the first of its kind. In 2016, the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs hosted a symposium in which 15-20 Iranian regime opposition activists from the US and Europe met with Israeli security experts to discuss the aftermath of the Iran nuclear deal. At the time, the JCPA event in Israel was not widely publicized over concerns that some Iranian attendees could be targeted for potential attacks by Iranian regime agents operating in Europe.

Ahmad Batebi, an Iranian non-Jewish activist and journalist who also visited Israel with iVOL, was inundated with positive and Israel-supportive messages on social media platforms from Iranians inside and outside of Iran after he posted photos of himself in Israel.

"I was brought to tears by the countless messages of love and a desire for peace with the Israeli people coming from my compatriots in Iran who know that they've been lied to by the Islamic republic about Israel for decades," said Batebi, a former political prisoner who now lives in Washington, D.C.

Batebi said he and like-minded Iranian opposition activists would like to continue building new bonds with Israelis in Israel and in the US through a series of cultural events.

"I would love to see a night of poetry recitals between Israelis and Iranians here or in Israel – or perhaps Israeli and Iranian musicians performing together," said Batebi. "Every act of open friendship between Iranians and Israelis helps bring the two people together and strengthens this ancient bond."

Indeed, support for Israel among many Iranian Americans and Iranians within Iran is strong. During the Israel-Hamas war this past May, thousands of Iranians worldwide posted messages of support for Israel on social media outlets. One Iran-based account identified as "Mamadou Archives" hosted a live session on May 13 with more than 25,000 participants – primarily Iranians – who sent out nearly 100,000 tweets in seven hours.

For some Iranian-American opposition activists, supporting Israel is not a new phenomenon.

"For the last decade I have been fighting tooth and nail on the Iranian and international fronts to prove that Israel is 'not the enemy of Iran,' but the enemy of the regime in Iran," said Dr. Reza Parchizadeh, a political theorist based in Maryland. "I've made many proposals for friendship and cooperation between the two countries, and in the meantime borne the brunt of all those who stood in the way of 'normalization.'"

With the largest Iranian-American ex-pat community-based in California, activists said they would like to begin building bonds with Israelis and American pro-Israel groups on a local level.

One such Los Angeles-based Iranian non-profit, the "Normal Life Council," has been inspired by Iranian judoka Saeid Mollaei, who won a silver medal at the recent Tokyo Olympics and dedicated it to the people of Israel.

"We would love to co-host with a local Israeli group an exhibition judo or wrestling event here in Los Angeles between Iranian athletes like Mollaei and Israeli athletes to show the people of Iran that there's nothing wrong with competing against Israelis," said Ali Ebrahimzadeh, head of the Normal Life Council.

Saeed Deihimi, an Iranian-American pianist and music teacher at the popular World of Music school in Los Angeles, said his group would welcome the opportunity to have joint Iranian-Israeli concerts.

"For the past 40 years, the Iranian-Jewish community has almost singlehandedly kept the music of Iran alive by encouraging their kids to learn Persian instruments and funding Iranian musicians or singers by bringing them to their parties," said Deihimi, who is not Jewish. "I know many of my students and their families would jump at the chance to help fund and organize musical concerts that promote friendship between Israelis and Iranians."

Arielle Mokhtarzadeh, who serves on the board of the Iranian-Jewish non-profit 30 Years After in Los Angeles, explained that Iranian-American Jews "exist in the gray space between Iran and Israel."

"We have the unique ability to translate and transform relationships between non-Jewish Iranians and Israelis," Mokhtarzadeh said. "Our existence as part of one group makes us a great asset to the other."

Southern California's Iranian Jews have in the last few years undertaken a number of cultural and social events which have welcomed members of the non-Jewish Iranian community.

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In September 2019, Iranian Rabbi Ruben Malekan organized the community's first-ever Selichot prayer service at Temple Beth El in West Hollywood which incorporated traditional Persian instruments. The event featured Malekan singing Hebrew prayers in Persian melodies while the internationally known non-Jewish Iranian grandmaster, Manoochehr Sadeghi, played the Santur instrument, a Persian hammered dulcimer.

"This was really a spiritual event and not as much a religious one where we welcomed Iranians of all faiths to join us in a sense of brotherhood," said Malekan. "As Iranian Jews we have a deep love for both Iran and Israel, so I see no reason why we should not do more similar music events to bring both of these people together in friendship."

Beitollahi emphasized the long-term importance of building these new bridges.

"This Islamic regime in Iran will collapse – it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when," he said, "and we need to have our relationships in place with Israelis to help the people of Iran immediately rebuild the nation the day after the mullahs are ousted."

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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Mainstream American and international media have barely been covering the peaceful mass protests taking place across Iran. Men, women and children in many major Iranian cities have taken to the streets to call for an end to the radical Islamic regime that has failed to provide them with basic drinking water, electricity, food, employment opportunities and freedom to live normal lives.

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The radical Islamic regime in Iran has responded to these protesters with brute force and bullets. As Jews in the United States, who have always championed civil rights at home and advocated for human-rights causes worldwide, we now have the duty to speak up for the suffering people of Iran who – after 42 years of living under the brutal totalitarian ayatollah-led regime – are crying out for help. As Jews, we also have an ancient friendship with the people of Iran that dates back to the time of their nation's founder, Cyrus the Great, who freed them from Babylonian captivity in 539 B.C. Today, we as America's Jews, must continue this proud tradition of standing with those in Iran who seek freedom from the oppressive regime holding them hostage.

While I was born in Iran, my family fled the anti-Semitic nightmare of the ayatollah-led regime 41 years ago. Many in my Iranian-Jewish community who fled during the last four decades were embraced by Southern California's Ashkenazi-Jewish community.

As a young child who attended Ashkenazi Hebrew schools, I discovered that American Jews have always championed, "Tikkum Olam" – the Jewish concept of healing the world, or advancing social-justice causes and supporting movements for freedom throughout the world. The American-Jewish community in the last 60 plus years has been very vocal in speaking out not only against global antisemitism but against the evils of hate, war and lack of freedom.

During the Cold War, was it not American Jews who were among the most vocal against the tyranny of the former Soviet Union and championed the cause of Soviet Jewry? Weren't American Jews among those who proudly voiced support for and stood with Polish Solidarity union activists during their protest against the communist Polish regime in the late 1980s?

Weren't American Jews among those who stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Nelson Mandela and his freedom movement against the oppressive apartheid system in South Africa? Didn't Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and other American-Jewish activists not march arm-in-arm with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and champion the Civil Rights Movement during the 1960s? And even today, many American-Jewish congregations and organizations have proudly taken on issues of oppression that the Uyghurs face in China, the genocide that occurred in Sudan's Darfur region and racial bigotry in many US cities.

Today, I call on the American-Jewish community, which has long been a strong proponent of social-justice causes, equality and freedom movements, to support the noble people of Iran who are fighting to rid themselves of an oppressive, radical, Islamic regime. This cause for social justice and human rights in Iran is not a politically left or right issue; it's an issue of basic human freedom and survival.

People in Iran today are protesting for better lives, free of the intolerant dictatorship that has been ruling them for 42 years. They want decent living wages, fresh running water, electricity, job opportunities, education for their children, proper health care and not to have their private lives infringed upon by Islamic laws. They want to live normal lives, without the fear of being beaten, shot, imprisoned or even killed by the regime's thugs.

We, as Jews, are a people who for millennia have faced unspeakable violence, hatred, injustice, pogroms and even genocide. As a result, we have always spoken out in every part of the world in support of those who were downtrodden and oppressed. Today, our support for the peace-loving people of Iran should be no different. How much longer can we stand idle and not speak up while the regime in Iran not only slaughters and imprisons its own citizens, but whose leaders constantly deny the Holocaust and call for a second annihilation of our people in Israel?

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More importantly, for Jews and non-Jews who love peace and abhor war, standing in solidarity with the people of Iran protesting today is a moral and just cause to support, because when those people eventually do overthrow their oppressive leaders, unnecessary conflict between nations will be avoided.

We, as American Jews – Ashkenazi and Mizrahi, conservative and liberal, secular and religious – have a duty to speak with one voice for freedom and in support of those innocents in Iran who want to liberate their country from a repressive regime. We, as American Jews, must today recall the gift of freedom that Cyrus the Great granted us from the bondage of Babylonian captivity, and stand with his descendants in Iran who are seeking international support to extricate themselves from their own yoke of radical-Islamic bondage and oppression.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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More than a week into Hamas' latest offensive of rocket attacks against Israel, which ended early Friday with an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire, a growing number of non-Jewish Iranian activists, journalists and individuals in Iran and outside the country had become vocal in their support for the people of Israel.

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Whether via social media messages or by demonstrating alongside pro-Israel supporters in the United States and Canada, non-Jewish Iranians also expressed support for peaceful co-existence between Israelis and Palestinians.

"I'm not saying Israel is a perfect country, but I support Israel because it's the only country in the Middle East that provides equal rights and opportunities to Jews, Christians and Muslims alike," said Ahmad Batebi, an Iranian non-Jewish activist and journalist. "As Iranians, our hearts break whenever we see the death of an innocent Palestinian or Israeli child. But we know that Israel does not intentionally seek to harm these children and only a sick terrorist group like Hamas uses them as human shields."

Batebi was one of thousands of Iranian Americans worldwide who posted messages of support for Israel on social-media outlets such as Twitter using the hashtag "I Stand With Israel" or "Hamas Terrorists."

Despite the Iranian regime's heavy filtering of Twitter and other Western social-media sites, many inside Iran sent their own messages supporting Israelis. One particular account identified as "Mamadou Archives" and shown to be based in Iran hosted a live session on May 13 with more than 25,000 participants – primarily Iranians – that sent out nearly 100,000 tweets during the course of seven hours.

Batebi and many other anti-regime activists said they were frustrated with the Iranian nation's wealth being handed over to Palestinian terrorists in Gaza and elsewhere in the Middle East for decades while average people in Iran have suffered economically.

"For 40 years, the Palestinians have taken Iranian money but never thanked us; they still express hate for Iranians and even supported Saddam [Hussein] during the Iran-Iraq war [in the 1980s]!" said Batebi, who lives in Washington, DC. "Enough is enough! The money that could be used to put food in the mouths of Iran's children shouldn't be given to these Palestinian murderers and terrorists."

One recurring message from anti-regime activists in social media was their extreme anger at the Iranian regime for spending the county's wealth on funding Hamas rockets instead of on coronavirus vaccines. Iran is currently among the nations of the world with the highest rates of deaths from the virus.

"Are you seeing the Iranian people's vaccine money exploding over the skies of Tel Aviv tonight?" asked one Iranian opposition activist in a Farsi tweet.

At the same time, various Iranian opposition activists within Iran also boldly sent out video messages in support of Israel while hiding their faces. Any public displays of support for Israel in Iran are punishable by long prison terms or even execution, according to the regime's laws. Yet those who follow Iranian internal affairs said the current situation is reaching a boiling point for many who are willing to take the risks and defy the regime's authorities by speaking out.

'They do not represent us by any stretch of imagination'

"The Iranian people have long chanted in their protests, 'Neither Gaza, nor Lebanon. My life is only for Iran!' and 'Syria and Palestine are the cause of our problems!' because the Islamic Republic has spent untold billions to support terrorist groups like Hamas," said Cameron Khansarinia, policy director of the "National Union for Democracy in Iran," an anti-regime nonprofit group based in Washington, DC.

Mariam Memarsadeghi, a non-Jewish Iranian opposition activist in Mayland, said the vast majority of Iranians in Iran do not believe the Iranian regime's 42-year, anti-Israel propaganda because they see Israel as a beacon of freedom, peace and economic opportunities in the region they desire for themselves.

"The affinity the regime in Iran has expressed for the people of Gaza and Lebanon is seen by many people in Iran as a big lie that the regime uses to maintain their stranglehold on the population in Iran and the people see right through it," she said.

Dr. Reza Behrouz, a non-Jewish Iranian activist and neurologist in San Antonio, said many Iranian Americans have been especially vocal about supporting the Jewish state right now because a few Iranian organizations purporting to represent all Iranians in the United States have in recent years been spewing anti-Israel and anti-Semitic messages they strongly oppose.

"These organizations and people are very well known to the larger Iranian-American community, and there are justifiable speculations that they work on behalf of the Islamic regime [in Iran]," said Behrouz. "We have nothing to do with them, and they do not represent us by any stretch of the imagination."

Indeed, one organization – the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) – has been accused of ties with the Iranian regime, including cooperation between the organization's founder Trita Parsi and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. Last year, three Republican senators – Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Braun of Indiana – said that the NIAC violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) by "amplifying regime propaganda in the US."

The NIAC signed on to a letter urging the Biden administration to press Israel to halt "the illegal and forced displacement of Palestinian residents from Sheikh Jarrah [in eastern Jerusalem], which precipitated the dangerous escalation of violence between Israelis and Palestinians."

"We condemn without reservation the violence from Israel's armed forces, armed Palestinian groups like Hamas, and mob attacks that have targeted civilians along sectarian lines," said NIAC.

'Israel is the good we do not have in the Middle East'

Other non-Jewish Iranian activists outside of Iran said they supported Israel because of its culture of promoting tolerance and the long-standing friendships they have enjoyed with Jews, which were first developed by the ancient Persian king Cyrus the Great.

"The one thing I know about Iranians is their love for peace and co-existence – the Islamic regime's revolutionary destructive slogans or actions are not generally in the Iranian blood," said Mina Bai, a non-Jewish Iranian journalist based in Norway.

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Dr. Danial Jafari, president of Iranian-Americans for Liberty, a nonprofit advocacy group opposed to the Iranian regime and based in Washington, DC, said many Iranians have sympathy for Israelis facing Hamas rockets because they, too, experienced the horrors of Iraqi missiles attacks on Iranian cities during the Iran-Iraq War from Sept. 22, 1980 to Aug. 20, 1988.

"Iranians understand that no government should tolerate an act of war and must do everything in their power to protect its citizens," said Jafari, a non-Jewish physician living in New York. "This is not a hard decision to make for those of us who woke up in the dark of the night rushing down the stairs, grabbing our loved ones by an arm to seek shelter."

At the same time, other non-Jewish Iranian activists outside of Iran said they joined Jewish pro-Israel groups in recent public demonstrations in support of Israel. One such activist was Salman Sima, an Iranian Muslim anti-regime activist in Canada.

Sima posted a message on Twitter about being attacked along with a Jewish man by pro-Palestinian militants on May 16 during a pro-Israel rally in Toronto. Despite the growing rate of anti-Semitism and anti-Israel demonstrations in Canada, Sima said he would continue to voice support for Israel.

"Israel alone is all the good we do not have in the Middle East today," he said. "In short, Israel is at the forefront of the fight against Islamism and radicalism, so we must therefore stand with the Israelis."

For their part, Iranian-Jewish activists in Southern California said they were not surprised by the growing number of Iranians in Iran and elsewhere in the world voicing support for Israel.

Said George Haroonian, an Iranian-Jewish activist based in Los Angeles: "Ordinary Iranians see much more of a benefit in friendship and support with Israel and Israeli people as natural allies of Iranian people than supporting an Islamic terrorist organization that is indiscriminately attacking civilians."

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org

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Now that Israel has established a "warm peace" with Bahrain and the UAE, perhaps it is the best time for these same American Jewish organizations and their leaders to begin an educational campaign in the Arab language media about the 850,000 Jewish refugees who were forced to flee or were expelled from Islamic lands during the 20th century.

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Sharing the stories of the Mizrahi Jewish refugees with the Arab media and the Arab world may not only strengthen the peace Israel has established with these two Arab nations by showing Israel's Middle Eastern roots, but also educate and enlighten the Arab masses about the Jewish refugees from the Middle East after 1948. As a Mizrahi journalist, I believe that sharing the Mizrahi refugees' story with the Arab and Islamic world today, when the tides of peace are upon us, is one of the most important things we can do to as Jews living in diaspora to ensure this new peace is solidified and maintained for years to come.

For more than 70 years the American Ashkenazi community's leadership has horribly failed to educate Jews in America about the plight of 850,000 Jewish refugees who fled or were forced out of the Arab countries and Iran during the last century. American Ashkenazi leaders have ignored the painful stories of Mizrahi Jews facing imprisonment, torture, executions, pogroms, forced exile and asset confiscations in the various Islamic countries they lived in after 1948. Likewise, the American Ashkenazi leaders have also failed to raise the issue of these Mizrahi refugees within the larger American and international dialogue when it has come to discussing the issues of the Middle East conflict.

Moreover, Israel for decades had itself failed to share the narrative of the Mizrahi refugees from the Islamic countries even though more than 50 percent of the Israeli population is of Mizrahi background today. For decades, these failures in discussing the Mizrahi refugees' painful experiences have allowed the Palestinians and many Arab leaders to spew their false narrative that the Jews of Israel are "foreign colonialists from Europe" who have no true roots in the Middle East roots.

Additionally, Jewish leaders' failure to discuss the Mizrahi refugees has resulted in the suffering of Mizrahi Jews never being widely known or shared with the Arab populations and the larger world. Instead, the Arabs and the rest of the world have, ad nauseum, heard the Palestinian side of the story regarding the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. In essence, once the correct larger historical context of what happened to both Jewish Mizrahi refugees and Palestinians is properly presented to the Arab world, then this may enlighten many moderate Arabs to better understand the Jewish perspective on this issue. It may also instil empathy among them for the Mizrahi Jews' situation and strengthen the concept that Israel is the Jewish homeland which is not going anywhere.

The following are just a few of the major advantages of exposing the Arab world through their media to the stories of the 850,000 Jewish refugees who were forced to flee or expelled from the Islamic nations during the 20th century:

The Palestinians' false narrative about the Jews being "European colonialists" who have no genuine roots or claims to the Land of Israel and Middle East will fall apart when the plight of 850,000 Mizrahi Jews is shared with them. The stories of the hundreds of thousands of Jews living in most of the Middle Eastern nations, including Israel, for centuries will automatically debunk the "colonialist" argument.

When the Arab populations learn of the calamity 850,000 Jewish refugees faced at the hands of Arab nations and how they were forced out of their homes and had their lives turned upside down, this may create more empathy for the people of Israel, over half of whom, as mentioned, are Mizrahi. This empathy will allow many Arabs to realize that the Palestinians were not the only victims after the 1948 war and that the Jews too have legitimate grievances that must be addressed and remedied in a final peace plan.

Many of the Arab countries today are essentially tribal societies that share common traditions and cultural norms with one another. When the Arabs learn of the massive Jewish populations that lived for centuries in the Arab and Islamic lands prior to their forced exiles after 1948, then they may feel a closer bond with Mizrahi Jews living in Israel today, who share their language, foods, music, art and culture. This commonality the Arabs will feel and learn about with Mizrahi Israelis will only strengthen their ties with Israel in the long term and solidify the peace between both groups.

Arab populations should learn about the 850,000 Jewish refugees from the Islamic lands after 1948 and how these refugees ultimately worked hard and pulled themselves up from that great calamity. This may help moderate Arabs to encourage or educate their Palestinian brethren that after 72 years it is time to give up the "refugee" mentalities and leave their refugee camps to build better lives for themselves. Their argument will be "look at the Jews, they were refugees from the Arab lands but they moved beyond the victim mentality and built new lives for themselves. You too can now do the same!"

Much of the Arab and Islamic world today does not know of the glorious history and successes of the Jews living in Islamic countries in the past centuries. They are for the most part in the dark about how Jews and Muslims in many of the Arab and Islamic countries lived side by side in relative peace at various points in time. When Arab populations are exposed to this past history of co-existence and tolerance their ancestry had with the Jews, then they may be more willing to accept the Jews living in Israel as one of their peaceful neighbors in the region.

Creating peace and peace treaties may be a challenging first step between Israel and its Arab neighbors, but maintaining that peace by educating the Arabs about the 850,000 Jewish refugees from the Islamic countries will be the key to a stable future in the Middle East. I call on American Ashkenazi leaders who have long had relationships with the leaders in the Arab countries to launch an educational campaign about Mizrahi Jews in the Arabic language media in these nations. Why not bring in Mizrahi speakers from Israel, America and Europe to share their histories and experiences? Why not build new blocks of commonality and friendship between Jews and Arab by sharing the Mizrahi Jews' history in the Middle East? Why not give moderate Arabs who want to help bring the Palestinians to the peace table, valuable information about the experiences from the Mizrahi Jews who gave up the victim mentality of being refugees and built a thriving new state for themselves?

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And interestingly enough, the American Jewish community does not have to look too far to create content about the Jewish refugees from the Islamic world, because the San Francisco-based non-profit "Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa" (JIMENA) has been gathering and sharing the hundreds of stories and the history of the Mizrahi Jewish community for nearly two decades. JIMENA's hard work in sharing the Mizrahi experiences as refugees during the 20th century has even inspired the largest pro-Israel organization in America – "Christians United For Israel" (CUFI) – to create its own documentary film about the Mizrahi Jews.

CUFI's film, titled the "Mizrahi Project," offers personal stories from Mizrahi refugees which has not only helped educate Christians Zionists, but also opened the eyes to millions of individuals worldwide about the Jews from the Islamic nation after being posted on YouTube. I had the special honor of being one of the Mizrahi individuals featured in the film, and over the years I have personally received positive feedback from many Iranians and Arabs worldwide about the plight of the Mizrahi refugees. For too long American's Mizrahi Jews have been ignored and sidelined by the larger Ashkenazi community. With this new peace in the Middle East it's time to include the Mizrahi Jews and share the experiences of the 850,000 Jewish refugees from the Islamic countries in order to strengthen this new Middle East peace.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org

The post The Abraham Accords and forgotten Mizrahi refugees appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

As the world grapples with controlling this pandemic, all of humanity has a responsibility to denounce the Iranian regime's vile attempts to blame Jews for COVID-19 and publicly pressure all those spreading such disgusting anti-Semitism.

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Blaming Jews for starting or spreading diseases is a tradition that began in Europe in the Middle Ages, when Jews were blamed for spreading the Black Plague which killed hundreds of thousands of people. These false and baseless charges led to thousands of Jews being killed by ignorant, angry mobs. Today, the Iranian regime's leaders, thugs and state-run media personalities carry on that same shameful tradition by blaming the Jews for creating and spreading COVID-19.

Perhaps the most obvious display of the Iranian regime's anti-Semitism with regard to COVID-19 come from the regime's state-run English language television news network PressTV. The network's website articles and various programs have not only blamed the "Zionists" for creating COVID-19, but one of the network's online articles references a 2017 article which claims that "America's Jews are driving America's wars."

Other recent PressTV programs have falsely claimed COVID-19 was "created by the Zionists as a form of biological warfare against Iran." The deep-rooted hate for Jews and the Jewish state has even come from PressTV reporter Roshan Salih, who tweeted earlier this month: "I'd rather take my chances with the virus than consume an Israeli vaccine."

This anti-Semitism spewing from PressTV should come as no surprise to anyone, as this Iranian regime propaganda outlet has in past years regularly featured anti-Jewish commentary from notorious American neo-Nazis and White Supremacists such as David Duke and the late William Pierce. PressTV has also provided a platform for notorious American and European Holocaust deniers such the late Roger Garaudy, who claimed the Nazi genocide was a false narrative created by "international Jewry to extort money from the world."

But the Iranian regime's anti-Semitism regarding COVID-19 has come not only come its propaganda outlets but also from their clerics, who have been preaching hate for the Jews to large groups of people in Iran. One example came just a few weeks ago when an unnamed younger Iranian ayatollah was caught on video addressing an angry mob of Iranians in the city of Qom. The mob was upset that their holy shrines had been shut down by the regime due to the COVID-19 outbreak. In the video, which was circulated on social media, the Iranian ayatollah calls on the angry mob "not to follow the World Health Organization, because they are a bunch of infidels and Jews!"

At the same time, a controversy recently arose in Iran several weeks ago when the notorious anti-Semitic and Holocaust-denying Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi claimed during an interview with a regime newspaper that it was not forbidden to buy or use a potential COVID-19 vaccine made by the Zionists "if there are no other vaccines available." Later the same day, Shirazi vehemently denied making any such statement.

While many may be shocked at the anti-Semitism spewing from the Iranian regime during this COVID-19 crisis, it comes as no surprise to those familiar with this regime. For nearly 30 years the Iranian regime's propaganda machine has been parading the country's only Jewish member of Parliament, or other token Iranian Jewish leaders, in front of Western TV cameras, claiming that the regime "loves the Jews" and that they "live great lives in Iran." All lies; the regime's laws are vehemently anti-Semitic, and the regime's anti-Jewish actions have been on full display for the world to witness.

Moreover, the Iranian regime every year publishes a 500-page Farsi-language version of the infamous "Protocols of the Elders of Zion." This unlovely, anti-Semitic book is circulated worldwide by the regime through their various embassies and consulates. Additionally, this radical Shi'ite Islamic regime has a sick, unending obsession with promoting Holocaust denial through conferences, cartoon competitions and financially supporting notorious Holocaust deniers.

Here are just a few of the Iranian regime's most well-known anti-Semitic actions:

• Between 1979 and 1999 the regime formally executed 20 Jews, including, in 1979, Habib Elghanian, Iran's Jewish community leader, on false charges of spying for Israel and America.
• Between 1994 and 1997, 12 Jews that were trying to flee Iran via Pakistan were arrested by the Iranian secret police and have not been heard from since. The regime has refused to discuss their fate.
• In 1999-2000, 13 Jews from the Iranian city of Shiraz were arrested and falsely charged with spying for Israel. They faced imminent execution by the regime. Ultimately a rigorous international media campaign waged by Iranian Jewish activists in America and American Jewish groups halted the executions. The 13 were imprisoned and later released.
• In November 2012 Toobah Nehdaran, a married 57-year-old Jewish woman, was strangled and stabbed to death, and her body mutilated in a ritual manner by thugs who had broken into her home located inside the Jewish ghetto within the Iranian city of Isfahan. Nehdaran's gruesome murder was never investigated by Iranian authorities and suspects were never arrested in connection with the murder.
• In December 2017, two synagogues located in the Iranian city of Shiraz were vandalized by unknown assailants who left a total of five Torah scrolls and numerous prayer books damaged or destroyed. Likewise, tzedakah charity boxes were also stolen from the synagogues. The incident was never investigated by the regime's authorities and no arrests were made in connection with the crime.
• On Feb. 28, 2019, three antique Torah scrolls were stolen by unknown thieves from the centuries-old Ezra Yagoub synagogue located inside Tehran's Jewish ghetto. The crime was never investigated by the regime, no suspects were ever arrested and no state-run media even reported on the crime.
• Late last month Iranian regime thugs from the Basij militia publicly threatened to tear down the ancient burial site of Queen Esther and Mordechai in the Iranian city of Hamedan in retaliation for US President Donald Trump's "deal of the century."

Sadly, the Iranian regime's anti-Semitism with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic is just the latest episode in a long and disgusting history of Jew-hatred. This ayatollahs' regime and its leadership have resorted to blaming and attacking the Jews and the Jewish state for the pandemic instead of admitting their own corruption, negligence, and total incompetence.

Since the election of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in 2013, many American Jews were fooled into believing he and this regime were "moderates." But with the Iranian regime's numerous displays of anti-Semitism during the COVID-19 pandemic, American Jewry must finally wake up and denounce this regime's Jew-hatred. The American Jewish community must launch a campaign to pressure governments worldwide to cut all economic and diplomatic ties with this vile regime over its blatant anti-Semitism.

We must not remain silent when anti-Semitism arises anywhere in the world, especially from this evil regime which has unceasingly pursued a second genocide of the Jewish people for the past 41 years.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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