[Note by Tom Gross]

IRANIAN TV SHOW DENIES THE HOLOCAUST

Whilst some Iranian diplomats were backtracking over Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calls last week for Israel to be “wiped off the map,” on Friday Iranian TV’s Sahar-1 broadcast “Holocaust.” The Iranian production starring Lebanese actors (who had been recruited by Hizbullah) said the Jewish Holocaust was a total fabrication.

The show claimed that gas chambers were built long before World War Two to fight the plague and not to exterminate Jews. The plot involves a French-Jewish historian who tries to combat the “Big Lie” of the 6 million and is murdered by Mossad agents who proceed to hunt his secretary to Beirut. Following the death of the historian one of his pupils continues to teach the “truth”.

Also shown on Iranian TV, on Al-Am station, is a “documentary” which claims that the Protocols of the Elders of Zion accurately describe a real plot by the Jewish people to rule the world.

AHMADINEJAD: “2 OR 3 HANGINGS” COULD SOLVE STOCK EXCHANGE PROBLEMS

The Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the latest cabinet meeting in Teheran that “if we were permitted to hang two or three persons, the problems with the stock exchange would be solved for ever,” according to the Teheran-based newspaper Ruznet.

The cabinet meeting was aimed at addressing the rapidly deteriorating situation at the Teheran stock exchange.

Frustrated with the inability of his economic advisers and experts to come up with any solution, Ahmadinejad said the only way out of the current stock exchange and financial market problems was to “frighten” speculators by hanging two or three of them.

In June, on the eve of the Presidential election, Ahmadinejad said that “stock exchange activities are a kind of gambling and we are against them”. Gambling is banned by Islamic law.

“THE MOST EVIL MAN IN THE WORLD”

Following the genocidal remarks by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last week that Israel should be “wiped off the map,” Israel has received surprisingly strong support from around the world.

China has become the latest country to condemn Ahmadinejad’s comments.

While the Arab governments have been largely silent, the Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman, Namik Tan, said of the Iranian remarks: “Turkey believes that regional conflicts can only be solved through dialogue and peaceful methods.”

The Vatican also called the Iranian President’s statement “particularly serious and unacceptable.” They made this remark despite the fact that the Iranian government had warned the Vatican not to join in the wave of international criticism, and threatened that such action would endanger freedom of worship for Catholics in Iran.

In a two-page spread, the U.K tabloid, The Sun, called Ahmadinejad “the most evil man in the world.”

In the dispatch on this list titled “Grenade found hidden under a baby (& CIA trained Palestinian terrorists)” (October 27, 2005), it was noted that the Washington Post had made no mention of Ahmadinejad’s comments. In fact, The Washington Post did mention the comments, but only as a news brief. The Post gave much less prominence to the calls for Israel’s destruction than other mainstream newspapers, such as USA Today and The Washington Times.

AHMADINEJAD STANDS BY HIS COMMENTS, “FIRES AMBASSADORS”

Despite the criticism, Ahmadinejad has stood by his call for Israel to be “wiped off the map”. He said of his critics: “They are free to talk but their words do not have any validity. It is natural that if a phrase [wiping off the map] is right and just it will provoke a reaction.”

He added that his comments were “the exact words of the Iranian people” and said of the United States and Israel: “They think that the entire world should obey them.”

According to Iran Focus, a non-profit news service provider that focuses on events in Iran, following his speech last week Ahmadinejad fired his country’s ambassadors to Britain, France and Germany and ordered 18 other envoys to be recalled to Tehran. He was angered by what he saw as the ambassadors’ meek reaction to the global condemnation of his speech. (I cannot verify this item from sources other than a number of blogs.)

“IT’S NOT EVERY DAY THAT ALL 15 MEMBERS OF UN SECURITY COUNCIL RALLY TO ISRAEL’S DEFENSE”

The Jerusalem Post, in its editorial of October 30, 2005, commented that: “It is not every day that all 15 members of the United Nations Security Council rally to Israel’s defense. The wider context of the unanimous vote on Friday condemning Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s calls to “wipe Israel off the map,” however, must be concern that condemnations, in this case, are not enough...

The Post continued: “Iran is the chief sponsor of Islamic Jihad, the terrorist organization that just murdered five Israelis in Hadera. There is, in addition, no doubt that Iran is involved in the terrorist onslaught that has taken the lives of so many Iraqis, Americans, and others in Iraq.

“If that weren’t enough, Iran has nuclear aspirations and may be only months away from that fateful point of no return, when it would be capable of manufacturing atomic warheads for long-range missiles already in its arsenals. Iran is the quintessential rogue state...”

CRITICISM OF REMARKS IN IRAN TOO

In Iran, former reformist president Mohammad Khatami criticized Ahmadinejad, saying “those words have created hundreds of political and economic problems for us in the world.”

And Rajabali Mazrouei, a prominent reformer and former deputy, said: “Ahmadinejad’s remarks harmed Iran. It was irresponsible and illogical. We can’t be more extremist than Palestinians themselves.”

Morad Veisi, a leading political analyst, said it was the first time that an Iranian head of state was openly calling for the destruction of Israel. “Khomeini was a spiritual leader, not head of government. Ahmadinejad apparently is not even familiar with the world of politics.”

“45,000 IRANIAN SUICIDE BOMBERS LINE UP TO ATTACK ISRAEL”

Extremists, however, were motivated by Ahmadinejad’s remarks. About 300 men and women turned up Sunday at the offices of the Headquarters for Commemorating Martyrs of the Global Islamic Movement to volunteer for suicide bomb attacks against Israel.

A spokesman for the group said it had signed up more than 45,000 volunteers to undergo training for suicide attacks since it began recruiting in June 2004.

“More than 1000 of them have already been trained. Many of them don’t need training since they are already members of the elite Revolutionary Guards and paramilitary Basij forces,” Mohammad Ali Samadi said.

Several senior officials, including presidential adviser Mojtaba Rahmandoust and Parliamentary speaker Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, were at the gathering.

“The Iranian nation wants this regime removed from the world map,” Rahmandoust told the gathering held at a building owned by the “Martyr Foundation.”

ANNAN URGED NOT TO VISIT IRAN

UN Secretary General is due to visit Iran within the next few weeks to meet senior Iranian officials. Since Ahmadinejad’s comments a number of United Nations Security Council’s member states have urged Annan to cancel his visit.

Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Dan Gillerman, said Annan’s visit might give legitimacy to “a nation that demands the destruction of another state.”

American UN ambassador John Bolton urged Annan to “take all factors into account” in deciding whether to make the trip to Iran.

AMAZING LOGIC

The PLO representative to Australia, Ali al-Karzak, has said it was Israel’s membership of the UN that should now be declared illegal since the Jewish state had called for Iran to be suspended from the UN following Ahmadinejad’s call for Israel to be “wiped off the map”.

THE P.A. COLLECTED MONEY FROM IRAN AS RECENTLY AS TWO WEEKS AGO

IDF Brig.-Gen. Yossi Kuperwasser, the head of the Israeli Military Intelligence research department, said on Sunday that the Palestinian Authority is co-operating with Iran. “Two weeks ago Abbas sent his welfare minister, Abu al-Razek, to an event where funds from Iran were distributed to the families of terrorists. The PA sponsored the event,” he said.

HUNDREDS OF MUSLIMS MARCH IN BERLIN AGAINST ISRAEL

Hundreds of protestors demonstrated through the German capital on Saturday as part of Iranian-inspired protests against Israel. The “Al-Quds” demonstration in Berlin drew more than 300 demonstrators.

A counter-demonstration was also staged in Berlin. Among those present was Arash Sarhaadi, an Iranian actor and director, who said “It is no wonder that among Israel’s enemy states there is not a single democracy.”

The yearly “Al-Quds” rally was initiated by Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979.

The equivalent “Al-Quds” march in London, which also took place last weekend, failed to produce a counter-demonstration.

UN DECLARES JANUARY 27 INTERNATIONAL HOLOCAUST DAY

Two hours ago, the UN General Assembly unanimously approved a proposal for January 27 to be world Holocaust Remembrance Day. Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Nazi death camp, was liberated on January 27, 1945.

In doing so, the assembly urged the nations of the world to observe the day so that future generations will be spared acts of genocide.

The resolution, which was co-sponsored by 104 states, also rejected Holocaust denial and encouraged countries to develop educational programs. It also condemned religious intolerance, incitement, harassment, or violence based on ethnic origin or religious belief.

This resolution is in stark contrast to the call by “moderate” British Muslim leaders on Prime Minister Tony Blair to scrap the UK’s Holocaust Memorial Day and replace it with a more “inclusive” Genocide Day, which “will include the massacres of Palestinians.” (This was reported in the dispatch titled “Blair urged to ditch Holocaust Day; UK government advisor says Holocaust ‘a myth’,” September 12, 2005.)

***

I attach below articles (with summaries first) from the Sunday Times (of London) on the Iranian support for Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The Sunday Times reports that the Palestinian terror group receives financial support from Tehran via Damascus. A suicide bomb by Islamic Jihad in Hadera last week killed five and Israel has launched a counter-offensive against the group.

The second article, from the Wall Street Journal Europe, examines anti-Semitism at the Iranian stand at the Frankfurt book fair. This item is a follow-up to the dispatch “Germany suspends anti-Semitism laws to let Iran sell hate literature at Frankfurt Book Fair” (October 25, 2005), in which journalists were urged to take up this story. (Several senior editors at the Wall Street Journal and the Wall Street Journal Europe are subscribers to this email list.)

-- Tom Gross

 

SUMMARIES

TEHRAN ‘BOUNTY’ FOR ATTACK ON ISRAEL

“Tehran ‘bounty’ for attack on Israel” (By Uzi Mahnaimi, The Sunday Times (of London), October 30, 2005)

Iran has promised a reward of $10,000 (£5,600) to Islamic Jihad if the militant group launches rockets from the West Bank towards Tel Aviv, a senior Palestinian intelligence official said last week. Speaking in his Ramallah office, the official produced a fat wad of $100 notes which he said had been confiscated from a pro-Iranian Islamic Jihad activist.

The money was said to have gone from Iran to Damascus, the Syrian capital, from where Ibrahim Shehadeh, Islamic Jihad’s head of overseas operations, transferred it to the West Bank...

Israeli intelligence officials said that Iran was threatening the country on three fronts: through long-range missiles based in Lebanon; through terrorist networks around the world; and through the new arsenals of the West Bank.

 

“AT THE STAND OF THE IRANIAN PUBLISHERS… THE TEXT THAT INFLUENCED HITLER’S HOLOCAUST FANTASIES LIKE NO OTHER”

“The Booksellers of Tehran” (By Matthias Kuentzel, The Wall Street Journal Europe, October 28, 2005)

Last week at the Frankfurt Book Fair, I happened to find myself in the International Publishers section and was simply astonished. At the stand of the Iranian publishers, in plain view, was the text that influenced Hitler’s Holocaust fantasies like no other: “The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion,” published in English by the Islamic Propagation Organization of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The first page of the tract makes clear that Israel is the target of this new edition. It shows a snake made of triangles, enclosing an area labeled “Greater Israel” that includes large areas of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, parts of Turkey and northern Saudi Arabia. Each triangle, according to the annotation, symbolizes the “Freemason’s Eye,” supposedly a “symbol of Jewry.”

A few steps farther on, the second most important classic of modern anti-Semitism was on display: Henry Ford’s “The International Jew,” in a 200-page abbreviated version, published by the Iranian “Department of Translation and Publication, Islamic Culture and Relations Organization.” It was interesting to read the numerous footnotes that the Iranian publisher had added. For example, Salman Rushdie’s “Satanic Verses” is presented as the latest example of the viciousness of Jewish slanders...

At the heart of the real problem is an Iranian policy that could hardly be more authentically represented than through the “Protocols.” “We present this book,” reads the Iranian foreword, “to expose the real visage of this satanic enemy,” to “burn and wholly destroy . . . this deadly, cancerous tumor.” In Iran this pamphlet provides legitimacy to the longed-for destruction of Israel. Iranian state TV instills a delusional hatred of Jews into millions of viewers with anti-Semitic movie series. And it’s not just all talk. Billions are spent to advance nuclear programs and the Shahab 3 missile, which could deliver a nuclear payload to Israel. In the meantime, the secret services escalate the terror against Israel by supporting Hamas and Hezbollah...