Iranian Jewish community publicly celebrates attacks on Israel

Why Iran’s Jewish community publicly endorsed Iran’s missile and drone attacks on Israel.

By World Israel News Staff

The Jewish community of Iran publicly endorsed Iran’s missile and drone attacks on Israel over the weekend, expressing its “appreciation” for the massive barrage launched on Saturday.

In a Telegram post on Monday from the community’s official profile, representatives of Iranian Jewry announced on behalf of the Islamic republic’s roughly 8,000 remaining Jews their “Appreciation of the hero armed forces of the land of Iran.”

The announcement went on to praise Iran for “punishing the Zionist enemy” for the targeted killing earlier this month of Mohammed Reza Zahedi, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force in an airstrike on a building used by the Iranian embassy in Damascus.

Experts say Iran’s shrinking Jewish population is “held hostage” by the Iranian government, and issued the statement out of fear local Jews could be targeted for “revenge.”

“The small Jewish community in Iran is held hostage to the whims of the regime,” Alireza Nader, a Middle East affairs analyst for the Rand Corporation, told The Jerusalem Post.

“Any time the regime wants revenge against Israel, it eyes Iranian Jews.”

Iran’s Jewish population, which numbered as much as 150,000 prior to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, went into decline in the mid-20th century, as thousands moved to the newly-established Jewish state and to the United States.

Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, the Jewish population of Iran has fallen sharply, with just 8,000-8,500 Jews estimated to remain in the country.

Those who remain live in fear of the fundamentalist Islamic regime, and the possibility of violent reprisals during escalations between Tehran and Israel.

“The Jewish community is so afraid and is panicking and believes the regime will take revenge against them,” said Beni Sabti, an Iranian-born member of the Institute for National Security Studies.

Local Jews, Sabti said, have been forced to attend demonstrations “after the killing of an IRGC general in Syria and they supported the regime.”

“There is a silent pressure and everyone knows their role in this regime and the regime won’t hurt” those who participate in its demonstrations.

“And if you don’t demonstrate, you will be harmed.”