My Letter in Today's New York Times

I have a letter in the New York Times this morning:

To the Editor:

Roger Cohen seeks to negate any analogy between Iran and Nazi Germany or, for that matter, any totalitarian state. So be it.

But Iran is Iran, and any presentation of its Jews as free people rather than an oppressed minority is still wishful thinking.

Yisrael Medad
Shiloh, Israel

and there are these others, including one from my friend, Josh:

To the Editor:

Re “Iran, the Jews and Germany,” by Roger Cohen (column, The New York Times on the Web, March 2):

As a Jewish American, I have mixed feelings about Mr. Cohen’s columns on Iran. Iranians as a whole are respectful of Jews. But anti-Zionist fervor and policy have existed in Iran’s government since 1979, making Jews fearful of being attacked, resulting in counterthreats and more fear.

But I believe that we have a common bond with the people of Iran in that we all wish for a just two-state solution. (I know Iranians are very sympathetic to the Palestinian plight, but under the shah they were friendlier toward Israel, and I believe this carries over to the present.)

In the United States, we have elected a man who, I hope, will work toward reconciliation. I hope that in their elections in June, Iranians will voice that they would like to be more constructive toward the Israel-Palestine conflict. It would be a win-win situation, as this would improve both Iran’s relations with the world and its economy.

Alan Rotnemer
Rockville, Md.

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To the Editor:

As a Persian Jew whose family was sentenced to death by the Islamic Republic of Iran as “corrupters on earth” and “agents of Zionism,” I was amused by Roger Cohen’s vision of Iranian treatment of its Jewish population.

Perhaps Mr. Cohen should have interviewed the Persian Jews living in exile in Los Angeles, who would have told him not to assume that the Jews left in Iran can honestly complain about their status. If Iran is such a haven, why has the Jewish population of Iran only declined from the Safavid period, to 100,000 at the time of the Islamic Revolution to only 25,000 today?

Mr. Cohen could have asked my dad why Jews were called “ritually unclean” (a comment also reserved for stray dogs). He could talk to my grandfather about the pogroms that took place in Tehran and other cities when Jews walked on the same side of the street as a Muslim, or talk to the Jews of the city of Mashad who had to remain hidden as Jews for decades after being forced to convert to Islam.

Just because the Persians were not as efficient in killing or exiling their Jews as others were or just because there are a few synagogues left in Iran doesn’t mean that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad does not mean it when he says that Israel should be wiped off the map, or that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei didn’t mean it when he said that Israel is a “cancerous tumor of a state” that “should be removed from the region.”

David Simantob
Los Angeles

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To the Editor:

Roger Cohen claims that “Hamas and Hezbollah have evolved into broad political movements,” and therefore “it is essential to think again about them.”

While both organizations have so-called political wings, both openly state that their ultimate goal remains the destruction of the State of Israel. Since that is the case, the real danger to Israel would be if either Hamas or Hezbollah, both Iranian proxies, were the recipient of a nuclear weapon.

With the centrifuges churning in Iran, it is only a matter of time before a regime committed to Israel’s annihilation has a bomb. Now isn’t the time to “think again,” but rather to prevent, by any means necessary, any of the branches of this latest axis of evil from acquiring such a weapon.

Josh Hasten
Jerusalem