by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright Dec. 11, 2006
All Rights Reserved.

erman Chancellor Angela Merkel has been very clear about what she thinks about Holocaust denial: It's offensive to every instinct in her body. Her generation of Germans has lived in shame over the deeds of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich, doing everything humanly possible to reconcile perhaps the most despicable act in world history. One thousand years of Jewish history in Germany crashed and burned with the Holocaust, where an estimated 6-million Jews perished in Nazi-related atrocities. Building memorials, legislating laws against anti-Semitism, paying reparations and funding new Jewish immigration from around the world, are just some of the steps Germany has taken to make amends. Yet anti-Semites like Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad flourish, exploiting the Jewish question to provide cover for his radical domestic and foreign policy agenda.

      Hosting a Holocaust deniers' conference in Tehran, Ahmadinejad sought to consolidate his political base, opening the doors to some of the world's most deranged and agenda-driven propagandists. Iran just handed Hamas's radical president Ismail Haniyeh $120 million, half of its pledge to make up for the lost Western aid now that the official Palestinian government no longer recognizes Israel's right to exist. Ahmadinejad believes questioning the Holocaust upends the justification or right for establishing the Jewish State, like former President Jimmy Carter does in his new pro-Palestinian book, “Palestine: Peace or Apartheid.” Carter compares Israel's treatment of Palestinians to South Africa's past racist treatment of blacks. Carter's book refers to the “occupied territories,” forgetting that Palestinians had no claim to land in the West Bank and Gaza until Israel's 1967 war.

      Without Israel's spoils of war, there's would be no “occupied territories,” other than Israel's original borders in which to declare a Palestinian state. Like Carter, Ahamadinejad wants to rewrite history for his specific need to divert world attention away from his illicit uranium enrichment program, garnering support from the Islamic world. If the classic 1962 film “Lawrence of Arabia,” based on the life of T.E. Lawrence, taught anything, it was that Arabs couldn't unite for a common purpose. Since its founding in 1948, only hatred toward Israel has rallied Arabs to a common cause. It's ironic that Ahmadinejad, a non-Arab Persian, manipulates Arab antipathy toward the Jewish State to advance his radical agenda. Sponsoring a Holocaust deniers' conference and a Holocaust cartoon contest has endeared Ahmadinejad to radical Islam, now at war with the U.S. and the West.

      Giving $250 million to Hamas cements Iran's lock as main powerbroker in the Middle East. It's no wonder that Ahmadinejad agrees with the central premise of the Baker-Hamilton commission, placing heavy emphasis on regional diplomacy, especially Iran and Syria. Giving Iran and Syria more leverage in Iraq or elsewhere, consolidates Iran's growing clout. Iran and Syria, with the help of Russia's arms trade, have supplied insurgents and terrorists fighting U.S. occupation. It's payback time for the days when the U.S. paid off Osama bin Laden to fight Russian occupation in Afghanistan. While declaring itself neutral in the Iran-Iraq war, the truth was that the U.S. did everything it could to support Saddam Hussein retaliate against Ayatollah Khomenei, whose followers sacked the U.S. embassy in Nov. 4, 1979, taking 66 diplomatic and civilian hostages for 444 days.

      Iran knows the extent to which the U.S. supported Saddam Hussein in his war with Iran. Believing now, as the Iraq Study Group, that Tehran wishes to help the U.S. reduce violence in Iraq has no basis in reality. Ahamadinejad wants only revenge for past U.S. support of Saddam and current efforts by the U.N. Security Council to stop Iran from enriching and reprocessing uranium to build A-bombs. Staging a Holocaust deniers' conference helps Ahmandinejad strengthen his base and solicit support from Arab-friendly regimes. “If the official versions of the Holocaust is thrown into doubt, then the identity and nature of Israel will be thrown into doubt . . “ said Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, speaking in Tehran to a celebrated group of anti-Semites, including former Ku Klux Klan member David Duke, France's Robert Faurisson and Australian Frederick Toben.

      Iran's disgraceful conduct reminds the world why the U.N. must do its best to stop Iran from building nuclear bombs. Calling for Israel to be “wiped off the map,” also doesn't help Iran persuade the international community that it's responsible enough to use nuclear power, for whatever purpose. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter hasn't helped matters calling Israel an apartheid regime, when Palestinians' elected leaders reject U.N. Resolution 242, recognizing Israel's right to exist. Blaming Israel for building a security fence when besieged with missile attacks and suicide bombers ignores that Palestinians are at war with the Jewish State. Iranians and Holocaust deniers “know perfectly well what happened,” said Wolfgang Benz, head of the Center of Research on Anti-Semitism at Berlin's Technical University, recently vetting the accuracy of the Holocaust.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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