By Daniel Ullrich, Threedots
By GARY BAUMGARTEN
The Iranian leadership can’t stomach saying the word “Israel.” Instead, they refer to Israel as the “Zionist state.”
They do this for two reasons.
First, they don’t want to acknowledge even the existence of the state of Israel. Secondly, if they call Israel the Zionist, rather than the Jewish state, they hope they can avoid being labeled antisemites.
But the proof of the regime’s tolerance for Jews is in, not the pudding, but in the books.
The Aladdin Project, which seeks to build bridges between Jews and Muslims, says that, in the last International Book Fair in Tehran, there were, on display,160 volumes that were strongly antisemitic in content.
The books weren’t all just published last year. They date back to 2005. But their inclusion in the fair symbolizes the regime’s intolerance for religious tolerance.
And yes, among the tones on display, the long-ago discredited and still often referred to by those who wish to justify blood libel against Jews Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
There were more contemporary offerings too, the Aladdin Project notes, like the spiffy Death of a Myth: Views of President Ahmadinejad on the Holocaust. Published by the office of the Iranian Education ministry, this “text book” is being disseminated into schools across the land. To indoctrinate the young minds of Iran into President Mahmoud Ahmdinejad’s revisionist “history” into a Holocaust that he labels a myth.
The Aladdin Project says it took care to only list those books that were particularly egregious in their antisemitism. Many others that had significant antisemitic content were excluded from the list.
Next time someone tries to tell you that Ahmadinejad and the Supreme Leader didn’t really mean to say that Israel should be eliminated from the face of the Earth, that the people who translated the Farsi were either mistaken, unschooled in the language or had a hidden agenda, remember this report.
–
Gary Baumgarten is news and programing director at the Paltalk News Networkwhere you can talk to him at 5 PM New York time Monday-Friday.
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Comments
When, oh when, will mankind give up these insane wars perpetrated in the name of some non-existent deity?
;-(
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Regarding the books in Tehran, do you believe that anti-Israel Books should be banned--or burned? Does the Aladdin Project also look into anti Palestinian publications in Israel?
The fact is that the Farsi was incorrectly translated and that the original translation (in the NY Times) did not contain this bogus reference to wiping Israel off of the map. That point notwithstanding, no one should take Achmadinishad seriously. He's a clown who draws the negative attention away from the true leaders--the mullahs.
Much as I think it's dangerous for the term "anti-Semitism" to be used loosely, it's hard for me to ignore this kind of evidence. The wars will end when this ends. I wouldn't count on it too soon.
Next?
Similarly, through (to mid 1980s) the first 35 years of Israel in Palestine, USraeli governments and media virtually never publicly used the word "Palestinian" because of course it would mean there was/is a place called Palestine.
" There is no Palestine. There was no Palestine. There can therefore be no Palestinians, " is still a common theme in some pro-Zionist arguments attempting to prove that militant Zionists expropriation of Palestinian lands could never have happened because there are no Palestinians, no land named Palestine.
R
For your information, anti Semitism has flourished in the Arab countries since the 1920's when there were anti-Jewish pogroms and Jews were forced out of their native countries and actually pushed into Palestine lands. In the beginning of the last century there were almost 1 million Jews in various Arab countries and virtually all of them have been forced out and dispossessed of lands and belongings by the Arab countries.
But of course, the anti Semitism will persist here in OS, disguised as anti-Zionism.
Also your claim that “Protocols of The Wise Men of Zion” may be accurate but there are to many people saying this without reminding the public about how it was used for indoctrination purposes. Perhaps I’ll get to that soon if no one else does.
Jews Against Zionism|
Jews Against Zionism is a group for Jews and others opposed to the Zionist movement and ideology, and to its impact on both Palestinians and Jews. ...
www.jewsagainstzionism.org/
Are Palestinians Semites? Who , what is Semites? Are Ashkenazim Jews Semite?
I really don't see much of a resolution on the cards - it'll take generations of peaceful co-existance (if that is even possible) before the entrenched hatreds that have been bred into the current generation can be amelorated.