Is it Spring again, do we have a “moderate” in Iran’s new President Rouhani and are we going to see the crumbs he threw our way as cake? Do we in the West want so badly believe that we are on the same page (or even reading the same book) that we can buy Rouhani’s posturing at the UN last week as a “moderate?” Rouhani, in distancing himself from his Holocaust denier predecessor Ahmadinejad, has declared that the Holocaust did indeed take place. However his description of the genocide of six million Jews leaves much to be desired. His interpretation of the Holocaust differs sharply from what we know happened. He acknowledges “many” people were killed by the Nazis (New York Times, September 28
After a presence of over 2,500 years, the ancient Jewish community of Iraq was destroyed in the early 1950’s. A community of less than 6,000 Jews remained until 1967 when it became intolerable and terrifying to stay put. When American forces invaded Iraq in 2003, twenty old Jews were found still living in the country. Their families and community were long gone, settled for the most part, in Israel. The U.S forces also found a trove of 2,700 pieces of Jewish communal artifacts, dating back to 1568. The Babylonian Jews were scholars of the Kaballah and Talmud. It is no surprise that precious documents were found in the flooded basement of Sadaam Hussein’s secret police headquarters in Baghd
