Media reports indicate that today there remain only two Jews in Afghanistan – and they are not on good terms. Both Yitzhak Levy, the older of the two, and Zevulun Siman-Tov live in Kabul. Naftali Cohen, an Israeli who made aliyah in 1975 from Afghanistan, spoke with Siman-Tov recently, “he is a businessman who has freedom of movement in to and out of Afghanistan… he prefers the business life there over Israel…” Both Siman-Tov and Levy have family in Israel.
In an interview with Arutz Sheva yesterday Naftali Cohen described his recollections of the land of his birth and his thoughts about the warfare it is soon to face. Cohen immigrated with the last wave of Afghani Jews, from the period of 1975 to 1982, at the age of 17. As military forces of the Western world are massing for what appears to be a crippling attack against the Taliban in Afghanistan, Cohen says that he has mixed emotions. On the one hand he, like many Afghani expatriates, has sympathy for those Afghani Moslems with whom he had friendly relations. Known for their fundamentalist brand of Islam, the Afghanis are divided into two groups, Sunnis and Shi’ites. According to Naftali, he encountered anti-Semitism primarily from the Shi’ite sector of the populace, who “hate the Jews more than the Sunnis do.”
One thing he is sure about, however, is that the invasion of Afghanistan by US ground troops will not be easy. Look at the Soviets, “entering into Afghanistan is to stay there for years, they will suffer greatly from the Afghanis,” says Cohen. Air strikes, on the other hand, will cause great suffering to the Afghani populace, while the Islamist terrorists have many inaccessible hiding places.
In an interview with Arutz Sheva yesterday Naftali Cohen described his recollections of the land of his birth and his thoughts about the warfare it is soon to face. Cohen immigrated with the last wave of Afghani Jews, from the period of 1975 to 1982, at the age of 17. As military forces of the Western world are massing for what appears to be a crippling attack against the Taliban in Afghanistan, Cohen says that he has mixed emotions. On the one hand he, like many Afghani expatriates, has sympathy for those Afghani Moslems with whom he had friendly relations. Known for their fundamentalist brand of Islam, the Afghanis are divided into two groups, Sunnis and Shi’ites. According to Naftali, he encountered anti-Semitism primarily from the Shi’ite sector of the populace, who “hate the Jews more than the Sunnis do.”
One thing he is sure about, however, is that the invasion of Afghanistan by US ground troops will not be easy. Look at the Soviets, “entering into Afghanistan is to stay there for years, they will suffer greatly from the Afghanis,” says Cohen. Air strikes, on the other hand, will cause great suffering to the Afghani populace, while the Islamist terrorists have many inaccessible hiding places.