martillo@mit-athena.ARPA (Joaquim Martillo) (12/31/84)
David Esan and Eliyahu Teitz are in some sense both correct about the status of Jews in Muslim countries. If a Jew was citizen of a European nation (say France), if he had the money to totally insulate himself from contact with all but the most Europeanized of Muslims, and if he was living in city under complete European domination (say Damascus), then life was pretty good. For all the other Jews in the Muslim world (about 98%), the Jewish situation sucked. In large parts of Yemen, Libya and Iran almost genocidal conditions prevailed from the early 19th century to founding of the state of Israel. Noone should be surprised that about the only facet of European Zionism which was attractive to oriental Jews was the opportunity to give the Muslims the ass-kicking which they deserved.