Quote:
Originally Posted by octothorp
And the 25,000 Jews living in Iran would disagree with your characterization of them as 'showpiece hostages'. While life is far from easy for them, they do have freedom to maintain synagogues and practice their faith, the are allowed their own schools, cemetaries, newspapers, and hospitals. Despite being strongly anti-zionist, the Iranian government has traditionally been very supportive of the Iranian Jewish community.
Despite financial incentives they would receive for emigrating to Israel, less than 200 (less than 1%) have left in the last year. I wouldn't be surprised if the obvious fraud of the most recent election resulted in an uptick in Jewish emigration, though nothing on the scale of the 20% of the Jewish population that left after the Islamic republic was formed.
You're completely right that it's important to separate the reality of the settlement policy from accusations of ethnic cleansing, but it defeats your arguments when you turn around and do exactly the same thing in your description of Iran.
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You still haven't explained why 90% of Iranian Jews no longer live in Iran.
It takes more than slight economic incentives for you to leave your property, home, career, friends, and family behind.
Of the entire muslim/arab world Iran has the highest population of remaining Jews.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_...rom_Arab_lands
Dramatic examples of decreases in Jewish populations:
1948 population Current population
Morocco 250,000 5,000
Iraq 135,000 200
Lybia 38,000 0