Israel Matzav

Iran marks Holocaust Memorial Day with denial cartoons

Israel's Channel 2 television reported this week that Iranian television marked Holocaust Memorial Day this week by playing Holocaust denying cartoons.

The cartoons show Jews fabricating stories about the Nazis’ atrocities and 6 million Jewish deaths, and then exploiting the Holocaust to enrich themselves and displace the Arabs from Palestine.

One of the cartoons was documented in 2010.

Let's go to the videotape.



Jonathan Tobin argues that showing anti-Semitic cartoons ought to undermine international confidence in Iran's intentions with respect to its nuclear program.

The cartoons are important not just because they are offensive, but because they reflect the mindset of the Iranian government. Anyone who thinks the ayatollahs can be trusted with a nuclear weapon or with even a peaceful nuclear energy program — which may be the “compromise” that Tehran will agree to in order to allow the West to back away from a confrontation over the issue — needs to understand that the hatred for Jews and Israel is integral to the ideology of the regime and its ultimate goals.

The purpose of the cartoons and other forms of anti-Semitic propaganda promoted by Iran is to demonize Jews and to justify their destruction. Iran is not Nazi Germany, but Iran’s efforts to portray Jews as subhuman creatures who sucked money from Europe and land from the Arabs are strikingly similarly to the propaganda that was used to prepare the way for the Holocaust.

Iran’s defenders, such as German Nobel laureate and SS veteran Gunter Grass, depict it as an innocent victim of potential Israeli aggression. But he and other European detractors of Israel who pose as advocates of “human rights” seem remarkably indifferent to the fact that Tehran has become, along with other Muslim capitals, one of the leading exporters of vile anti-Semitic propaganda to the West. The more one learns about the way Iran’s government promotes Jew-hatred the less convincing arguments that claim the ayatollahs are not interested in a war of annihilation against Israel and the Jews sound.

Indeed. But given that the world sat silent 70 years ago as one third of World Jewry was wiped out by the Nazis, is there any reason that any of us should believe that the World won't let it happen again?

Labels: Holocaust denial, Iranian nuclear threat

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:23 PM