Editor's Letter

The Wrong Context

s

o it's Israel's fault that the Iranian president
called for the Jewish state, "this stain of dis-
grace,' to "vanish from the center of the
Islamic world"?
"The tensions between Iran and Israel will cease
with Israel's fulfillment of its humanitarian and inter-
national obligations:' a suburban
Detroit imam wrote in an essay
about the "World Without
Zionism" conference keynoted by
President Moumoud Ahmadinejad
of the Islamic Republic of Iran in
Tehran on Oct. 25.
The president's statement
Robert A. Sklar "reflects the growing frustration of
billions of people who are weary of
Ed itor
Israel's refusal to fulfill its legal
obligations to the Arabs," wrote Imam Mohammad
All Elahi of the Islamic House of Wisdom in
Dearborn Heights.
"Iran's provocative words:' the imam wrote,"offer a
basis for a real dialogue and lasting peace. We must
deal with Israel honestly and stop walking on
eggshells."
In the essay "Place Anti-Israel Remarks In Context','
published by the Detroit News on Nov. 5, the imam
weaves a disingenuous argument. He ignores the pro-
posed 1947 U.N. partition of Palestine and wants us
to believe that "Israel was created by war and expul-
sion of the Palestinian people."
He cites Jews in Iran's parliament, but how many
truly feel free? That minimal role is no reason to con-
tend the Iranian president's speech wasn't hateful to
Jews. Inexplicably, the imam said the speech was
merely a slap at Israel's "unjust" political system. He
amazingly described Israel's crackdown on
Palestinians during their intifada as "racist" while dis-
missing the Iranian president's call for religious geno-
cide as "a few angry words."
The imam's column should unnerve every Jew. Iran
— which is Persian, not Arab — is a repressive
regime built on a foundation of radical Islam, which
fuels terrorist groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon. Iran's
aim to acquire nuclear capability is a potential lethal
threat to Israel, its Arab neighbors and the West. Iran
also funds Islamic Jihad, the Palestinian terrorist
group. Nowhere in his essay does the imam condemn
the horror and grief of Palestinian terror against
Israel. The ancestral homeland for Jews continues to
fend off Palestinian-provoked and Iran-financed sui-
cide bombings.
"Israel must end the property confiscation of eth-
nic groups considered 'inferior' to Jews': the imam
wrote. "Israel must stop instigating violent conflicts in
the Muslim world. Israel must return the occupied
territories back to their original owners."
The violent conflicts he's referring to, in Iraq or
elsewhere, were not Israel's doing. And giving all of
the West Bank to the Palestinians would uproot large
Jewish neighborhoods and leave no buffer.
In letters to local newspapers, the local presidents
of the Jewish Community Council and the American

N

November 17 2005

Jewish Committee brand the imam's column a blatant
attempt to rationalize the Iranian president's call to
destroy Israel.
"A peacemaker," AJCommittee President Andrew
Doctoroff wrote, "would not whitewash a demand for
mass murder by calling it a quip. A person seeking
constructive dialogue would not compare Iran's
oppressive regime to the freedom-loving principles of
the U.S. Declaration of Independence, which Iran
rejects in its own homeland and seeks to destroy in
ours."
Recently, the AJCommittee condemned vandalism
and bigotry aimed at the imam's mosque. It also has
interacted with the imam and his mosque. "Our inter-
actions with Imam Elahi had led us to believe that he
would consider and respect the complexity of the
issues in the Middle Ease,' Doctoroff said.

1

Nowhere does the imam condemn

the horror and grief of Palestinian

terrorism against Israel.

I've previously zinged the JCCouncil for taking too
long to denounce Jew baiting, but this time President
Wendy Wagenheim acted quickly to deem the imam's
column the "ugly head" of anti-Semitism.
Our communal leaders must continue to be ever
vigilant and strong willed to avoid hollow outreach
with people whose actions insult Jewish interests.
President Ahmadinejad imagined a world without
America or Zionism. By saying "the refugees must
return to their homes:' he almost declared war against
Israel. A full "right of return" would doom Israel's
large Jewish majority.
Yet Imam Elahi didn't see it that way even though
many world leaders rejected President Ahmadinejad's
virulent anti-Israel message. The Middle East "peace
and prosperity" that the imam says he seeks won't
arise until Israel is accepted as a partner by its neigh-
bors, like the Palestinians, and by people of influence
here in the United States, like himself.
I abhor the Palestinian situation, but I blame Arab
leaders solely focused on the goal of the Iranian presi-
dent: the end of Israel. ❑

How do you size up the imam's dismissal
of the Iranian president's hate-filled
message as "a few angry words"?

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0

I—.

cn

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Do local Jewish political watchdog
organizations do enough to expose
and correct Arab propaganda?

E-mail your thoughts to:
letters@thejewishnews.com

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