A bizarre yet deadly serious — and perennial — anti-Israel campaign is underway: Iran’s “Holocaust Cartoon Contest.” It fortifies the well-worn trope in the Arab world and among anti-Israel activists that the Israel is the new Nazism.
The contest was started as a response to the Danish cartoon controversy of 2008. The organizers said the West was “hypocritical” in its support of free speech, allowing cartoons denigrating Mohammed, but not accepting anti-Semitic cartoons.
Hypocrisy? There was none, but an understanding of freedom of speech is required — something lacking among many of the good people of the Islamic Republic.
Yes, the West condemns anti-Semitism, including this very cartoon contest. Yet: AreIran’s embassies under attack? Are Persian foods being thrown out of shops? That is what happened in the Middle East after Jyllands-Posten printed the Mohammed cartoons.
Are Israelis around the world threatening Iranian outposts in reaction to Iran’s tasteless, mean-spirited contest?
Aye, there’s the rub. Free speech is about the right to speak without fear of molestation. The West implements this right. Iran denies it. This is what has escaped the contest organizers.
The real hypocrisy rests in Iran’s nonsensical contest rationale: “We do not mean to approve or deny the Holocaust . . . Moreover, why should the oppressed people of Palestine pay the price for the Holocaust?” said contest secretary Masud Shojai-Tabatabai.
Shojai-Tabatabai is unwilling to say the Holocaust happened, but, if it did, it’s not the Palestinians’ fault. Classic both-sides-of-your-mouth. Classic hypocrisy.
A reminder: Holocaust Contest Iran is the country to which America just transferred a billion dollars. A country whose supreme leader has openly espoused the kind of hate exemplified in this contest. The real cartoon here is America’s Iran policy.
Copyright © 2016 by the Intermountain Jewish News
