Persian Jews have lived in Iran for millennia.  In fact, the Jewish community in Iran is among the oldest in the world.  I personally dislike calling them Persian Jews; I prefer to call them just Persian.  They are just as Persian as any other Persians.  Iran belongs to them just as much as it belongs to every Iranian.

Historically, Judaism has been the second-oldest religion still practiced in Iran after Zoroastrianism, the original Iranian religion before the invasion of the Arabs.  The origin of the Jewish diaspora in Persia is connected to the deportation of the Israelites in 727 B.C. from Samaria to Medea and Persia.  The famous “Cyrus the Great declaration” allowed the Jews who were living in exile by the river of Babylon to return to their homeland, Judea, and Jerusalem to rebuild their Second Temple.  But some who had established themselves economically and socially preferred to remain in Persia and Babylon under the protection of Cyrus the Great.

Israel, we, the children of Cyrus the Great, understand your suffering through the passage of time.  Many of us Iranians suffer and share with you this tragic state of affairs that harms you.  We pray for an eternal peace between you and your neighbors.  We also earnestly hope ways can be found for a peaceful resolution of this destructive impasse.

As it has been said, if you don’t know who the enemy is, you can’t repel him.  One die-hard enemy, Islam, has been hard at work for some 1,400 years to finish off the Jews, completing the work Muhammad passed on to his followers.

Allah’s apostle said, “The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say, ‘O Muslim!  There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him’” (Sahih Bukhari 4:52:177; see also Sahih Bukhari 4:52:176, Sahih Bukhari 4:56:791).

Many of us, the children of Cyrus the Great, also would like to offer our heartfelt best wishes to the Jews at this critical moment in time.  We know that their towns have been hit for years by (made in Iran) Hamas rockets and missiles.  Although it is hard to see innocent civilians die, we believe that Israel is only defending itself.  That should not be too hard to understand.

I urge the Jews to make a distinction between the regime and the Iranian people.  True Iranians have remained friends of the Jews by belief and deed.  During the shameful Hitlerian campaign to exterminate the Jews, for instance, Iranian missions in Europe, notably the one in France, issued Iranian passports to facilitate the flight of French and other European Jews from the claws of Nazis and their gas chambers – the very gas chambers that the true Muslim, the disgraceful Iranian, former president of the Islamic Republic, Ahmadinejad, denies ever existed.  This historical act of humanity is known as the “Iranian Schindler.”

Regrettably, after Cyrus the Great’s declaration, the people of Israel were unable to settle down for long in their own homeland, to worship their God as they wished, and to live in peace.  They were assaulted once again by the forces of destruction that sent them scurrying for the relative safety of other lands.

Their resilience to follow your destiny is the culmination in thousands of years’ gestation during which the Jewish people, dispersed through much of the world, endured immense degrees and varieties of suffering.  The Nazi murderers and their collaborators capped the crimes committed against the Jewish people by slaughtering six million innocent men, women, and children.

We are grateful that Israel has welcomed Iranian Jews who could no longer tolerate the rule of the oppressive, venomous mullahs.  These mullahs are indeed traitors to the lofty longstanding tradition and values championed by Cyrus the Great and revered by Persians throughout the ages.