Lessons of Handshake (E)
LESSONS OF HANDSHAKE
The funeral of Pope John Paul II, on April 8, 2005, brought together the single largest gathering of heads of state in human history. The Pope had shaken many hands on many lands.
Owing to a nation-by-nation alphabetical protocol-seating at Pope John Paul's funeral, Moshe Katzav, President of Israel, found himself next to Mohammad Khatami, President of Iran, and guess what (!!!) : they were both born in the 1940's, just two years apart, in the same town, in IRAN: Yazd.
Photo: Katzav next to Khatami and King Abdullah of Jordan (back)
'Katsav said he and Khatami conversed about Yazd. "The two of us were born in the same region in Iran, two years apart," Katsav was quoted as saying, he spoke in his native Farsi to Khatami about their common city of birth. "The president of Iran extended his hand to me, I shook it and told him in Farsi, 'May peace be upon you,"' Katsav said.
[But] returning to Iran, Khatami denied shaking Katsav's hand. "These allegations are false like other allegations made by Israeli media and I have not had any meeting with any one from the Zionist regime," the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Khatami as saying. The Pope shook the hands of many.'
Yazd (or Yezd), is one of the most ancient and historic cities in human history, capital of Yazd Province in Iran and a centre of Zoroastrian culture, the religion and philosophy based on the teachings ascribed to the Iranian prophet Zoroaster (or Zarathustra), arguably the most influential monotheistic religion in history.
The Achaemenid Empire was a dynasty in the ancient Persian Empire with high cultural and economical achievements during its highest power. Cyrus the Great (Old Persian: Kuruš, modern Persian: Kourosh; ca. 576 or 590 BC — July 529 BC), also known as Cyrus II of Persia and Cyrus the Elder, was the founder of the Persian Empire under the Achaemenid dynasty. As the ruler of the Persians, from approximately 559 BC, he conquered the Medes and unified the two separate Iranian kingdoms. He then expanded beyond the Iranian plateau, conquering most of Southwest Asia to create the largest empire the world had yet seen. He is perhaps most remembered for restoring the exiled Jews to Jerusalem. In the Bible (Tanakh), he is known as simply Koresh. A good example of his religious policy is his treatment of the Jews in Babylon. The Bible records that a remnant of the Jewish population returned to the Promised Land from Babylon, following an edict from Cyrus to rebuild the temple. This edict is fully reproduced in the Book of Ezra. As a result of Cyrus' policies, the Jews honored him as a dignified and righteous king. He is the only Gentile ( goy) to be designated as a messiah, a divinely-appointed king, in the Tanakh.
http://rosetta.reltech.org/ECanon/search.php?qry=Ezra+1-2
The Persian Empire, which had lasted for 200 years, finally collapsed with the invasion of Alexander in the fourth century BC. The Parthians, who were of Iranian origin, ended the rule of Alexander's successors in the second century BC. They considered themselves heirs to the Achaemenid Empire and chose Zoroastrianism as the official religion. Today, following centuries of islamisation started by the prophet Mohammed then millitarisation and dictatorships, Zoroastrians account for about 0.07 percent, Jews for about 0.05 percent, Muslims over 99 percent of the population. About 5,000 individuals out of the 30,000 Zoroastrians residing in Iran live in Yazd province, in the cities of Yazd, Taft and Ardakan.
Recent photo Zoroastrian Temple in Yazd:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Ateshkadeh_yazd.jpg
Images of Zoroastrianism in Iran, today:
The Achaemenid Empire was a dynasty in the ancient Persian Empire with high cultural and economical achievements during its highest power. Cyrus the Great (Old Persian: Kuruš, modern Persian: Kourosh; ca. 576 or 590 BC — July 529 BC), also known as Cyrus II of Persia and Cyrus the Elder, was the founder of the Persian Empire under the Achaemenid dynasty. As the ruler of the Persians, from approximately 559 BC, he conquered the Medes and unified the two separate Iranian kingdoms. He then expanded beyond the Iranian plateau, conquering most of Southwest Asia to create the largest empire the world had yet seen. He is perhaps most remembered for restoring the exiled Jews to Jerusalem. In the Bible (Tanakh), he is known as simply Koresh. A good example of his religious policy is his treatment of the Jews in Babylon. The Bible records that a remnant of the Jewish population returned to the Promised Land from Babylon, following an edict from Cyrus to rebuild the temple. This edict is fully reproduced in the Book of Ezra. As a result of Cyrus' policies, the Jews honored him as a dignified and righteous king. He is the only Gentile ( goy) to be designated as a messiah, a divinely-appointed king, in the Tanakh.
http://rosetta.reltech.org/ECanon/search.php?qry=Ezra+1-2
The Persian Empire, which had lasted for 200 years, finally collapsed with the invasion of Alexander in the fourth century BC. The Parthians, who were of Iranian origin, ended the rule of Alexander's successors in the second century BC. They considered themselves heirs to the Achaemenid Empire and chose Zoroastrianism as the official religion. Today, following centuries of islamisation started by the prophet Mohammed then millitarisation and dictatorships, Zoroastrians account for about 0.07 percent, Jews for about 0.05 percent, Muslims over 99 percent of the population. About 5,000 individuals out of the 30,000 Zoroastrians residing in Iran live in Yazd province, in the cities of Yazd, Taft and Ardakan.
Recent photo Zoroastrian Temple in Yazd:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Ateshkadeh_yazd.jpg
Images of Zoroastrianism in Iran, today:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/05/middle_east_zoroastrians_in_iran/html/1.stm
The so called "World's First Charter of Human Rights", the "Cyrus Cylinder" held today in the British Museum and a copy at the United Nations Security Council, was created by Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Persian Empire:
Text of the Cyrus Cylinder (translated):
http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/History/hakhamaneshian/Cyrus-the-great/cyrus_cylinder_complete.htm
The so called "World's First Charter of Human Rights", the "Cyrus Cylinder" held today in the British Museum and a copy at the United Nations Security Council, was created by Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Persian Empire:
Text of the Cyrus Cylinder (translated):
http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/History/hakhamaneshian/Cyrus-the-great/cyrus_cylinder_complete.htm
Image of the Cyrus Cylinder:
http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/compass/ixbin/goto?id=OBJ4931
http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/compass/ixbin/goto?id=OBJ4931
Xenophon's historical text on the life of Cyrus the Great:
http://www.iranchamber.com/history/xenophon/cyropaedia_xenophon_book1.php
Shirin Ebadi - Nobel Peace Prize 2003 lecture:
http://www.iranchamber.com/history/xenophon/cyropaedia_xenophon_book1.php
Shirin Ebadi - Nobel Peace Prize 2003 lecture:
"I am an Iranian. A descendent of Cyrus The Great. The very emperor who proclaimed at the pinnacle of power 2500 years ago that "... he would not reign over the people if they did not wish it." And [he] promised not to force any person to change his religion and faith and guaranteed freedom for all. The Charter of Cyrus The Great is one of the most important documents that should be studied in the history of human rights." -
http://nobelprize.org/cgi-bin/print?from=/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2003/ebadi-lecture-e.html
Faravahar believed to be a depiction of a Farvashi, or Guardian Spirit, is one of the best known symbols of the Zoroastrian religion:
http://nobelprize.org/cgi-bin/print?from=/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2003/ebadi-lecture-e.html
Faravahar believed to be a depiction of a Farvashi, or Guardian Spirit, is one of the best known symbols of the Zoroastrian religion:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/Faravahar.png
derived from the winged sun symbol of ancient Egypt:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/Winged_sun_sharpe.png
Nazi Germany used a similar symbol.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/mauth13.html
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called Israel a "cancerous tumor" that "must be wiped out from the world" - Ahmadinejad. Iran's now president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has recently written a letter to Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany , in which he calls "Zionism the greatest enemy of mankind", here it is:
derived from the winged sun symbol of ancient Egypt:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/Winged_sun_sharpe.png
Nazi Germany used a similar symbol.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/mauth13.html
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called Israel a "cancerous tumor" that "must be wiped out from the world" - Ahmadinejad. Iran's now president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has recently written a letter to Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany , in which he calls "Zionism the greatest enemy of mankind", here it is:
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8506060558
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Another handshake lesson, from Hungary's most recent history
Interestingly, Yazd has only one sister town today, called Jászberény (yaas-be-reign), in the center of Europe, in Hungary. Jászberény is believed to be the burial place of Attila the Hun (405-453) who was the final and most powerful king of the Huns. He reigned over what was then Europe's largest empire and during his rule, Attila was among the direst enemies of the Eastern and Western Roman Empire.
The town was named after the Jász or Jassic people, a nomadic tribe of Iranian descent that settled in the Kingdom of Hungary in the 13th century. They had been chased by the Mongol-Tatars and admitted by the Hungarian king Béla the IVth, hoping that they would assist him in fighting against a Mongol-Tatar invasion. Bela IV is greatly respected in Hungary and commonly known as "the second founder" of the kingdom.
In 1239, Hungarian King Béla IV contacted Pope Gregory IX to request and secure the living conditions for Jews, documented in the 1251 Jewish Privilage Charter - revoked and reinforced by kings for hundreds of years to follow. There is evidence that Jews had been living in Roman controlled towns of Hungary such as Pannonia and Savaria since the 2nd and 3rd centuries, they were either the offspring of tradesmen from Rome or descendants of captured and enslaved Jewish fighters and women servants purchased and brought back by Roman Legion commanders from missions to Judea controlled by the dishonest and cruel Roman Emperor Hadrian, who crushed the Bar Kokhba Revolt (131-135 C.E.), starved, then decimated or enslaved the Jewish population, exiled them even to Africa.
Jews continued to live and at times even thrive and prosper in the area that was to become first the Kingdom of Hungary, centuries later part of the Ottoman Empire, then the Habsburg Empire called Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, until the 20th century. Following the defeat in WWI, there was a short-lived communist regime (crushed) and from 1920 onwards, anti-semitic and racist legislation discriminating against Jews was ratified in Hungary. Right wing domestic political dominance and Hitler's Nazi pressure gradually outweighed attempts to save the country's over 800,000 strong Jewish population and eventually led to stronger anti-Jewish laws. The crime of genocide against the Jews was committed, murdering 600,000 people. Widowed and orphaned, survivors returned home from a concentration camp, from a prisoner of war (POW) camp (as labor batallions joined the troops), or from a ghetto. Death and lifethreat came in many forms and shapes, as did survivals.
Following the defeat of WWII, there began a long-lived communist regime that came to power in 1949, giving hope of an egalitarian life to many leftist Jews, just like 30 years before that. Like the 20,000 Jews, many more Hungarians left around the time of the October 23 uprising 50 years ago. Those who stayed and survived the crackdown years that followed the crushing of this revolution by the Soviet Union, lived through the Kádár János era, into the 60's the 70's and the 80's, that have been referred to by many as the "goulash communism". Since the declaration of the Republic in 1990, democratic Hungary has had 3 presidents.
Earlier this year, on March 15, National Commemoration Day for the crushed Revolution of 1848, there was an uncanny similarity to the handshake issue between the Middle-Eastern presidents when current Hungarian President László Sólyom refused to shake hands with ex-central-bank-deputy János Fekete, a widely respected and internationally quoted financial expert who had worked hard to maintain the country's "red" economic balance in the "black" for many years ("fekete" means "black" in Hungarian).
__________________________________________________
Another handshake lesson, from Hungary's most recent history
Interestingly, Yazd has only one sister town today, called Jászberény (yaas-be-reign), in the center of Europe, in Hungary. Jászberény is believed to be the burial place of Attila the Hun (405-453) who was the final and most powerful king of the Huns. He reigned over what was then Europe's largest empire and during his rule, Attila was among the direst enemies of the Eastern and Western Roman Empire.
The town was named after the Jász or Jassic people, a nomadic tribe of Iranian descent that settled in the Kingdom of Hungary in the 13th century. They had been chased by the Mongol-Tatars and admitted by the Hungarian king Béla the IVth, hoping that they would assist him in fighting against a Mongol-Tatar invasion. Bela IV is greatly respected in Hungary and commonly known as "the second founder" of the kingdom.
In 1239, Hungarian King Béla IV contacted Pope Gregory IX to request and secure the living conditions for Jews, documented in the 1251 Jewish Privilage Charter - revoked and reinforced by kings for hundreds of years to follow. There is evidence that Jews had been living in Roman controlled towns of Hungary such as Pannonia and Savaria since the 2nd and 3rd centuries, they were either the offspring of tradesmen from Rome or descendants of captured and enslaved Jewish fighters and women servants purchased and brought back by Roman Legion commanders from missions to Judea controlled by the dishonest and cruel Roman Emperor Hadrian, who crushed the Bar Kokhba Revolt (131-135 C.E.), starved, then decimated or enslaved the Jewish population, exiled them even to Africa.
Jews continued to live and at times even thrive and prosper in the area that was to become first the Kingdom of Hungary, centuries later part of the Ottoman Empire, then the Habsburg Empire called Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, until the 20th century. Following the defeat in WWI, there was a short-lived communist regime (crushed) and from 1920 onwards, anti-semitic and racist legislation discriminating against Jews was ratified in Hungary. Right wing domestic political dominance and Hitler's Nazi pressure gradually outweighed attempts to save the country's over 800,000 strong Jewish population and eventually led to stronger anti-Jewish laws. The crime of genocide against the Jews was committed, murdering 600,000 people. Widowed and orphaned, survivors returned home from a concentration camp, from a prisoner of war (POW) camp (as labor batallions joined the troops), or from a ghetto. Death and lifethreat came in many forms and shapes, as did survivals.
Following the defeat of WWII, there began a long-lived communist regime that came to power in 1949, giving hope of an egalitarian life to many leftist Jews, just like 30 years before that. Like the 20,000 Jews, many more Hungarians left around the time of the October 23 uprising 50 years ago. Those who stayed and survived the crackdown years that followed the crushing of this revolution by the Soviet Union, lived through the Kádár János era, into the 60's the 70's and the 80's, that have been referred to by many as the "goulash communism". Since the declaration of the Republic in 1990, democratic Hungary has had 3 presidents.
Earlier this year, on March 15, National Commemoration Day for the crushed Revolution of 1848, there was an uncanny similarity to the handshake issue between the Middle-Eastern presidents when current Hungarian President László Sólyom refused to shake hands with ex-central-bank-deputy János Fekete, a widely respected and internationally quoted financial expert who had worked hard to maintain the country's "red" economic balance in the "black" for many years ("fekete" means "black" in Hungarian).
Today, Mr. Fekete is still actively working for the benefit of his native land, though well over the age of 80. A tough man, he is a survivor. A survivor on the square: a survivor of WWII, a survivor of murderous anti-semitism, a survivor of slavelabour and of forced war-combat on the minefields of the Eastern-Front and a survivor of communism.
The President's refusal to shake hands with a man who had been through all that and not only survived but excelled for the good of his fellow countrymen sends the worst possible message to millions of people: a big "no" to health and welfare, a "no" to education and tolerance, a "no" to civilization and democracy and a thumb-up-go-ahead-shameless "yes" to anti-semitism, to anarchy, a definite "yes" to violence and social unrest - all this in a year that is supposed to be devoted to solemn remembering.
This outragous incident took place inside the Hungarian Parliament, at a highly monitored and live broadcasted reception, with formal protocols for handing out each one of those many prestigious awards that convey the highest possible recognition of merit by the state in Hungary. Just few weeks before a heated election campaign, the incident created a nationwide public outcry on all levels of society, from butchers to bankers, mostly but not exclusively, condemning the President. Mr. Sólyom ("sólyom" means "hawk" in Hungarian) had previously served for years as a leading judge in Hungary's highest order: its Constitutional Court.
- by Gergely Földvári
- by Gergely Földvári
A brief history of Iran - courtesy of the United Nations:
http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/0/48e8c4842766b8d0c125696c00542b62?Opendocument
For a summary of the history of Jews in Hungary - courtesy of Naftali Kraus:
http://www.porges.net/JewishHistoryOfHungary.html
posted by GREGO @ 18:07
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