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Monday
May 14, 2001

DARING to criticize Israel

I found it very interesting that Mr. Bakhtiar would try so hard to defend his beloved Israel ["Did Tel Aviv pay Salman Rushdie, too?"] in response to John Mohammadi's excellent piece on the Khobar case ["Ghost of Khobar"]. Did we offend your Jewish sensibilities Mr. Bakhtiar? You must forgive us for DARING to criticize Israel in any way, shape, or form, or to even remotely suggest that Israel is even remotely capable of anything barbaric, destructive, or terroristic.

It's time to take the gloves off.

For 20 years now, Israel and politically active Jews worldwide (but especially in the United States) have gone to extraordinary lengths to villify, isolate, and malign Iran and Iranians. US sanctions against Iran were single-handedly the work of Edgar Bronfman (president of "World Jewish Congress"), who in 1995 called then President Bill Clinton and demanded that the United States take action to prevent Conoco from proceeding with an oil exploration contract they had signed with Iran.

The so-called Iran Libya Sanctions Act followed the year after and was the brainchild of a one Alfonse D'Amato, who was likely poked and prodded by Jewish lobbyists and his own New York constituency. More recently, Israel has been lobbying hard to prevent the World Bank from resuming lending to Iran. The World Bank is planning on lending $247M to Iran next year for a variety of development projects (all of them non-military, of course). But of course even this is too much for the Israelis.

In a recent meeting with the President of World Bank, Shimon Peres told him, "They [Iranians] make the blood of every Jew in the world boil, and it is a sin to help them" (as quoated in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz). Why would Peres say something like that to the World Bank President?? Yes you guessed it, Dean of World Bank is also a Jew. But fortunately, and in fact this was his response to Peres, the decision to lend is ultimately not his. It's up to the Board of Directors.

These are all things on the behind-the-scenes diplomatic front. There are people in power in Israel today who have openly talked about "bombing Tehran". The point is: I am sick and tired of my country being constantly attacked and villified by these fascist Israeli lobbyists and their supporters.

The point is: I would NOT AT ALL put it past Israel to bomb an American military base if it served their ends of implicating Iran. The Israelis every day prove that international laws and human rights don't apply to them in their relentless massacre and oppression of the Palestinian people, so what's another bomb?

The point is: I WILL defend my country and culture even if it means being labelled anti-Semite. So be it.

The point is: Mr. Bakhtiar, if you want to read an "Israeli-friendly" publication, you're in the WRONG place jack. Go read the New York Times.

Nariman Neyshapouri

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