Thatcher refused to protect Iran Jews in 1979 revolution, files say
Documents show former U.K. premier thought a intervention could make the Jews' position less secure.
By The Associated Press Tags: Iran Jewish World Israel newsFormer British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher rebuffed appeals from former U.S. President Jimmy Carter to assure the safety of Iranian Jews in the wake of 1979's Islamic Revolution, files allowed for release said on Saturday.
In May of 1979, according to the files, which go online on Saturday on the Thatcher Foundation Web site, Carter appealed Thatcher for "urgent private representations" to Iranian authorities to assure the safety of Iranian Jews.
Thatcher refused, saying the British Embassy did not believe Jews faced organized persecution, and that intervention "could indeed make their position less secure."
The papers also showed that the former British premier had also refused a more demonstrative response to the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979, saying it would do more harm than good.
The files cover the first eight months of Thatcher's 11 years as prime minister, giving glimpses of her embarking on an ambitious domestic agenda to revive the economy and curb the unions, and engaging with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on Nov. 4.
They were made public by the Thatcher Foundation under rules that allow for keeping documents secret for 30 years.
On Nov. 14, Mr. Carter asked in a cable for "the strongest possible remonstration or action" to pressure Iran, suggesting that Britain consider reducing the number of diplomatic staff in the country.
Thatcher responded a week later that Britain had withdrawn some staff, "but we have not hitherto believed it wise to make a political point of any reduction, partly because we doubt whether the Iranians would be much impressed and partly because of the risk of retaliatory action against those remaining."
Thatcher had met Mr. Carter twice in 1977, before she was elected, and the U.S. president came away displeased, though according to previously released papers, he mellowed by the time Thatcher became prime minister, agreeing with National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski's view that she was "a cooler, wiser, more pragmatic person now than the opposition leader you met in May 1977 or the dogmatic lady who visited you in Washington that fall."
The newly released files - 23,198 pages from Thatcher's personal and political files - show touches of "the Iron Lady" even before she became Britain's first female prime minister in 1979.
In 1977, in a reply to a consultant, she wrote: "I have already come to the conclusion that I shall have to take most of the major decisions myself."
That steeliness revealed itself in trivial matters too, such as putting her image on commemorative teacups. "No (underlined) permission to be given at all on any grounds of any kind," she replied to the adviser who suggested it.
(She apparently softened with time: A limited-edition Royal Worcester crockery set appeared in 1989.)
Many of the papers go online Saturday at the Thatcher Foundation Web site and many of them duplicate official government documents in the National Archives. Chris Collins, editor of the Web site, hopes that all 1 million pages, both from the National Archives and her personal files, could be digitized and many of them put online.
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Meaning that she figured Jews were a rather small (less than 0.2%) of Iran's total population and would thus escape notice of the mullahs and their sub-goondas. Up to a point she was correct--when the mullahs could no longer use alternate diversions (to hide their own misdeeds), they would then turn on the Jews; probably Thatcher assumed she would be out of power by then (in this case correctly). It is also true that Hindus (40,000 out of total population of around 20 million) in Afghanistan did escape notice of Taliban until December 1999 (hijacking of Indian Airlines IC-814 to Qandahar by Pakistani goondas) due to small numbers; afterwards, restrictions were imposed on them that they had to identify themselves by symbol and pay extra taxes.
Yes, people who criticize Israel may not be anti-Semitic. People who demonize Israel ARE antisemitic
Clearly Carter here had more concern for these Persian Jews than the almighty conservative anti-terrorist Thatcherites would tell us. You should be grateful!
As an Iranian and a woman all I can say is you are a liar. In that destination they would never have to change cloth to anything local since there was no difference in clothing.Try a little harder next time.That was a cheap shot on your part.
He just doesn't like Jews.
The Iranian Jews that escaped the Khomeini regime that were learning Hebrew in my ulpan class (1983) described in detail their exodus. One girl brought in her last clothing to show the class. She bought a train ticket from Tehran and got on and off to buy local outfits. She then boarded the train with a new ticket in local costume. She did this repeatedly until she approached her final destination close to the mountains bordering Turkey, so that she would appear not to have come from Tehran. The smugglers took everything, even their shoes. Her father died of exposure and exhaustion and was buried in a shallow grave. Over 80% of my ulpan class (of new immigrants) were from Iran, each with a story more shocking that the last.
Your pathological hatred of Jews,Israel & AIPAC and your need to find Jewish conspiacies under every rock has driven you to rewrite the Thatcher story. No where in it is there a mention of AIPAC or any other Jewish group requesting Carter to intervene. Mr Carter has always maintained that he is a humanitarian (and his defenders against charges of antisemitism always define him as such)and it is clear that his motivation was purely humanitarian,rightfully fearing for the safety of Iran's Jews under Khomeini & the mullahs. So bent on claiming some AIPAC conspiracy, you missed the entire point of the story. It was not about who Carter should have gone to, but about Thatcher's response to the request.Your postings might even be interesting if they weren't so obviously driven by a deep hate.
This demonstrates that people who criticize Israel are not antisemitic.
We call it "hahamim balaila". "Wise at night".
Asking a country which the Iranian revolutionaries blamed for the military coup that imposed the Shah they had just deposed to represent the Jews in Iran is a typical example of AIPAC's understanding of the world and why the United States is hated by many in the moslem world. Carter would have been better going to the French Prime Minister and asking that the French government ask for assurances that Iranian Jews would be safe. Bearing in mind the hospitality that the French Government had given the Ayatollah Khomeini. In this case Thatcher was right.