A Shah’s Son at the Western Wall

It is an amazing thing to see the photographs of the son of a Persian king, with a yarmulke, leaning in prayer at the Western Wall — and to see his tweet quoting Cyrus as saying “all the kingdoms of the earth the Lord God of the Heavens delivered to me and ordered him to build a house which is in Judea.” He is quoting from the Book of Ezra. It was Cyrus who in ancient days ended the Babylonian Captivity and sent the Jews home. That is what happened this morning as Reza Pahlavi — the son of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last shah of Iran, for now — visited Israel’s capital. The exiled royal reflects that “the Iranian and Jewish people have ancient bonds dating back to Cyrus the Great and Queen Esther,” who both reigned at Susa. Some Jews believe that the rebuilder of Jerusalem was himself a descendant of the heroine who vanquished Haman, celebrated annually at Purim.Our Benny Avni contrasts Mr. Pahlavi’s visit with the rogue regime that ousted his father and keeps the ancient cities of Tehran, Shiraz, and Isfahan under its thumb. The Ayatollah’s henchmen celebrated on Friday al-Quds day, which Mr. Avni notes “is designed to express rage against Jewish control over the city of Jerusalem.” This when the Islamic Republic is engaged in repression at home and nuclear brinkmanship and the sowing of discord abroad. The crown prince writes that he wants “the people of Israel to know that the Islamic Republic does not represent the Iranian people,” but rather are usurpers of the Imperial State of Iran. The Pahlavi restoration, he intimates, would transform Iran to an ally from an antagonist. In Israel, he marked Holocaust Memorial Day and learned from the Jewish state’s water experts, who could, if given the chance, quench his native land’s thirst. Mr. Biden, attached to the Iran nuclear deal conceived by President Obama, would do well to attend the example of the scion of the House of Pahlavi and forcefully reject what the crown prince calls the Islamist regime’s “genocidal anti-Israel and antisemitic policies.” Not to mention its complicity in Russia’s mauling of Ukraine, opposition to America everywhere from the Middle East to Latin America, and oppression of women. It was President Truman, who knew his Bible, who is reported to have exclaimed “I am Cyrus” to a Jewish audience in New York after his presidency. He was referring to that moment — that act of courage — when he overrode the objections of Secretary of State Marshall and swung behind the creation of a Jewish state. He set aside his earlier prejudices to do what only Cyrus had done before. It is an affecting thing to hear that name again.

A Shah’s Son at the Western Wall

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