Naiem Giladi
Dear Ben,
There is a great article online (nigh on 10 years) by Naiem Giladi entitled “The Jews of Iraq.” Giladi (now deceased) was a former Zionist. In that article he testifies in his own hand to having thrown grenades at innocent Jews in Iraq in order to convince them that the state was out to get them.
Note: We located the article here:
http://www.inminds.com/jews-of-iraq.html
I highly recommend the article and I was intending to clip out relevant paragraphs and send them to you apropos of the incident in Pittsburgh. Unfortunately I am traveling now and cannot clip the paragraphs for you as hoped.
As you may remember, I also live in Pittsburgh and I consider you to be my friend as well. Although in fact people may have actually been murdered, having traveled close to the area and having been alerted via phone, I felt it had the ring of a well-practiced drill.
Irrespective, I wasn’t in the synagogue, so I can’t provide you with better info. Obviously the event was the only conversation on the street. As I had lunch with friends in a local restaurant during the alert, I can only say that many people were scared out of their wits and huddling indoors. That said, the orthodox community seemed largely unfazed (good for them), strolling casually to and from their services.
—Anonymous