Roger Cohen spars with Iranian Jewish expats
Jewish Telegraphic Agency / Tom Tugend
17-Mar-2009 (38 comments)

There was no clean knockout when New York Times columnist Roger Cohen faced off against some 400 Iranian Jews and Bahais in Los Angeles, but spectators were treated to some vigorous rhetorical sparring and nimble footwork. Cohen, a British-born Jewish journalist, wrote a column last month from Iran titled “What Iran’s Jews Say” claiming that Jews in the Islamic Republic were “living, working and worshiping in relative tranquility.” Despite Holocaust denials and rants by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad about wiping Israel off the map, Cohen wrote from Esfahan, “as a Jew, I have seldom been treated with such consistent warmth as in Iran.”

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Kaveh Nouraee

Amazing

by Kaveh Nouraee on Tue Mar 17, 2009 01:18 PM PDT

That this guy couldn't or wouldn't see how he was played like a cheap violin.

Our culture has mastered the art of putting on a show in front of company, especially khareji.


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Artificial Intelligence

This Guy Cohen is a complete retard

by Artificial Intelligence on Tue Mar 17, 2009 12:53 PM PDT

Whoever says the following:

"Quote: Iran, he said, is the most democratic state in the Middle East
outside Israel, and its leadership opposes the Taliban and al-Qaida."

Can not possibly be normal. Fisrt, Turkey is the most democratic after Israel and Iraq would come 3rd before anyone else. After Iraq, Lebanon would be No. 4 . Notwithstanding, To say that IRI is a "democracy" says it all about this leftist ahmagh. 


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default

Cohen is a brilliant journalist

by mehrnaz (not verified) on Tue Mar 17, 2009 12:21 PM PDT

Thank you jj for posting.

"Roger Cohen (born August 2, 1955, in London) is a columnist for The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune (a publication of The New York Times). His columns focus on international politics and relations. Cohen is a graduate of Balliol College at Oxford University, having been prior to that at Westminster School. He has won numerous awards and honors for his books and for his foreign correspondence, such as the Peter Weitz Prize for Dispatches from Europe, the Arthur F. Burns Prize, and the Joe Alex Morris lectureship at Harvard University ...." ha ha .. it seems he has robbed some folks the wrong way or something!! With in-house 'journalists' on this website supplying us with regular news and views who needs a journalist anywhere else?! Particularly journalists of such low standing!!

The position some Bahaies have adopted in slandering a Jewish Journalist who has reported on the objective conditions of Jews in Iran, is regrettable, very curious and worth noting. What has a truthful campaign against persecution got to do with slandering a journalist who is challenging false accusations of persecutions of Jews in Iran, accusations which are hostile and politically motivated?


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Mehdi Mazloom

Read these quote and judge for yourself.

by Mehdi Mazloom on Tue Mar 17, 2009 12:07 PM PDT

Please follow these quote and judge them for what they stand.

RC replies: Cohen said, though he paid an Iranian agency $150 a day for the
services of a translator, who acknowledged that he would have to file a
report on Cohen’s doings with the authorities.  SAY AGAIN?

And this

Quote: Iran, he said, is the most democratic state in the Middle East
outside Israel, and its leadership opposes the Taliban and al-Qaida.

So, where a true democratic state, expects the local translator to spy and report a visiting journalist's every move, or words said or heard with local citizens to the government?.

Also, if many of the Islamic regime in Iran, themselves declare that Islam and democracy (at least the western style) are incompatible institution, how a Jew like him, whom had never lived in Iran, nor had visited this country before, is more authoritative on Jews life in Iran, more then Jews themselves who lived in Iran for almost 2000 years.


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default

Its a case of certainity

by alborzi (not verified) on Tue Mar 17, 2009 11:30 AM PDT

There is no question that life in Iran has changed.
But it has changed for everyone and all you have to do find a Shahi and he can tell you.
There is also no question that Ahmadinejad's views are not even popular with the regime.
However, its a case of who shouts loudest and can get themselves on the news.
Iranian Jews even travel to Israel (not directly,
but Iran does not hinder). The Iranians call Israeli radio all the time.
To even claim antisemitism is preposterous, yet just like Shahis, they are certain of their cause.


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default

Oostad: Why are you afraid

by sickofiri (not verified) on Tue Mar 17, 2009 10:10 AM PDT

Oostad: Why are you afraid of the unified front of Iranians of all stripes against the IRI?

So, the Bahai's are asking for it, eh? Good to know, next time, the leaders of IRI call for a world without so and so, the world should respond in kind.


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default

Incredible lack of

by lkj (not verified) on Tue Mar 17, 2009 09:50 AM PDT

Incredible lack of journalist standard. He is obviously given a visa to Iran because he is anti-Israel. Nothing objective can be deduced from his sychophantic analysis of the so called "pragmatism" of the IRI.

He is obviously not an informed journalists who has done his homework. He would get a B minus if he attended my university.

Why doesn't Mr. Cohen have the guts to talk to the families of those who were assassinated abroad, Frouhar? why doesn't he ever mention Rafsanjani who has an arrest warrant for killing jews in Argentina? The man thinks he has a noble agenda but he is contriubting to embolden the stance of the hardliner fascists ruling Iran. With friends like Mr. Cohen who needs enemies.


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Ostaad

What were the Bahis doing there?

by Ostaad on Tue Mar 17, 2009 01:32 PM PDT

Why did the Bahais who have all the tools to pbulicize their inhumane treatment by the IRI regime make such a big mistake of doubling up with some Zionists in attacking another Jew who dared say something they did not like?

It seems to me the Bahais are feeding the IRI regime's henchmen enough excuses to harass them even further. 

It is strange these people are accusing Roger Cohen of being naive!


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