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Politics : Israel to U.S. : Now Deal with Syria and Iran

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To: Sojourner Smith who wrote (293)4/21/2003 12:01:05 AM
From: Emile Vidrine  Read Replies (1) of 22250
 
Zionist terrorism and the emigration of Iraq Jews to Israel
(
So you exaggerated the numbers from 120,000 to 400,000--typical Zionist polemic.)

The Case of Iraq

The Jewish departure from Iraq arguably provides the best case example of the Jewish exodus from the Arab world.

The Jews of Iraq constituted one of the oldest communities of the Jewish Diaspora, dating back over 2500 years to the time of the Babylonian exile. They were well integrated into Iraqi society, and generally prosperous. Yet during 1950 and 1951, more than 120,000 Jews (95% of the Jewish population) left Iraq for Israel via the airlift known as Operation Ezra and Nehemiah. How and why did this mass evacuation occur?



The traditional Zionist view views the exodus as a response to a long history of Arab persecution. This history of persecution culminated in an official policy of oppression and discrimination following the creation of the State of Israel. According to this perspective, the Iraqi Jews were also specifically attracted to Israel by the emotional power of the Zionist idea (Schechtman 1961:8-9; Katz 1973:32-37; Peters 1984:43-46 & 99-104; Yonah 1990:38; Cohen 1991:55; Meron 1995; Gat 1997:1; Meron 1999; Mandel 2001).



The alternative anti-Zionist view highlights the positives of Arab-Jewish history. The Jews of Iraq are depicted as an overwhelmingly prosperous and integrated community. Their exodus is attributed not to anti-Semitism, but rather to a malicious Zionist conspiracy including instances of bomb-throwing aimed at achieving mass Jewish emigration to Israel (Hirst 1977; Wolfsohn 1980; Shiblak 1986; Alcalay 1993:45-51; Bahry 1996:111; Gat 1997:2; Abu Shakrah 2001).
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