As we approach International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Friday (January 27) the need to memorialize the horrors of Auschwitz should be self-evident. Yet this year, the Iranian regime's continued determination to realize its nuclear ambitions underscores the necessity to turn the motto 'Never Again' into action. The memory of the Holocaust should be at the forefront of the minds of world leaders who today must keep nuclear weapons out of Iran's reach. Even those statesmen who dismiss Iran's calls for Israel's destruction as little more than jingoistic rhetoric must regard Tehran's fanatical Holocaust denial as reason enough to thwart their nuclear armament.
It is undoubtedly a credit to European and other Western leaders that they recently slapped an unprecedented oil embargo on Iran in the most serious attempt yet to bring Tehran's nuclear plans to heel. Yet there are still those who question the severity of the Iranian threat and even regard Western determination to deny Iran atomic capability as rank hypocrisy, given the nuclear capacity on both sides of the Atlantic. For those still in doubt as to the seriousness of the nuclear threat, International Holocaust Memorial Day should serve as a timely reminder.
There can be no other country as determined to whitewash the crimes of Nazi Germany as Iran. The depth of Iranian Holocaust rejection is clear. President Ahmadinejad has repeatedly denied the Holocaust, calling it a "big lie" in August of last year. There is apparent consensus on the issue in the higher echelons of the Iranian leadership. Ahmadinejad used a trip to Germany (where Holocaust denial is a crime) in 2007 to pointedly announce that he "cannot confirm or deny" the Holocaust. Infamously, in December 2006, the Iranian regime arranged an academic smoke-screen for deniers, organizing a conference "to review the global vision of the Holocaust."
On the face of it, Iran's Holocaust obsession makes little sense, given that it is a county both untouched and untainted by the horrors of Hitler. Yet, it should be a wake-up call to those who would give Iran a free pass. By denying that the darkest chapter in human history ever happened, Ahmadinejad and his cronies understand that they are leaving a chink of light for such depravity to return.
This is exactly why Iranian vows to destroy Israel are so deeply worrying. Supreme Leader Khamenei declared in 2010 that "Israel is a cancerous tumour," which must be "cut out," while at the same time, Defense Minister Vahidi referred to the "Zionist regime" and "the countdown to its extinction."
There are of course those who continue to rubbish these repeated calls for Israel's elimination. Writing recently in Foreign Policy, Harvard academic Stephen Walt dismissed the prospect of an Iranian nuclear strike a "bizarre fantasy." Even if a pathological fixation on Israel's destruction is not enough to stir Walt and his ilk, the combustible mixture of nuclear armament and Iran's peculiar obsession with the Holocaust should be serious cause for concern. Let us not forget that it was the ashes of the Holocaust upon which the concept of universal human rights was codified under the auspices of the United Nations. To deny the Holocaust is to rip away those very foundations. To pretend that the evils of the concentration camps never happened is to deny the horrific consequences of allowing racial, national or religious 'purity' to trample upon equality and freedom. Placed alongside an already deplorable human rights record and a passionate ideological opposition towards Israel and the West, Holocaust denial can only pave the way for further Iranian abuses at home or abroad.
Accepting the dire lessons of the Holocaust has rightly become a litmus test of human decency. A country such as Iran which refuses to even recognize that there are any lessons to be learnt must never be permitted nuclear weapons. The pledge 'Never Again' is as relevant as it has ever been. Only continued international determination to stop Iran's nuclear march in its tracks will ensure that it does not become an empty slogan.
Ilie Wacs and Deborah Strobin: The Liberation of the Shanghai Jewish Ghetto
Georgette Bennett, Ph.D.: Writing Jews Out of History: The Sounds of Silence
Rajan Menon: Iran, the West, and the Lessons of the Great War
For the record yes the Holocaust happened and six million Jews probably more were victims of Nazi death camps as well as smaller numbers of Gypsies, Slav's, Homosexuals and Communist.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/NonJewishVictims.html
Who Were the Five Million Non-Jewish Holocaust Victims?
In fact according to the Jewish virtual library the Holocaust is about 11 million victims.
While Europe over the centuries conducted anti-Jewish pogroms, The Islamic nations of Persia and the Ottoman Empire provided Jewish safe havens. Iran and Turkey both have significant Jewish populations today. These communities do not seem to be in a hurry to leave.
While it is important to remember the victims, It would be a misuse of their memory to invoke the crimes against them to commit crimes against others.
Saddam Hussein allowed the vultures of IAE to turn his pockets out, he ended up in prison and eventually in his grave and his country was ruined, undermined, destroyed and was pushed back into the Stone Age for decades.
Ahmedinejad should not make the same mistake. Iranians should have their freedom of choice and restore some balance to the region where Israel remains the sole rogue state.
There are other countries which are real threats, and they have not signed the NPT( India, Pakistan, Israel, North Korea, ) but Iran has and abides by the international law. So why talk about sanctions and bullying of only Iran
Israel has arrogantly disobeyed 62 security council resolutions. Why no sanctions, no bombing, no regime change. The US has double standard, one for its friends and one for its foes. A dishonest and immoral policy
wow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVVNcPJZWBo&feature=related
But that line doesn't make sense, and the sanctions will not achieve their goals. Iran is far from isolated and its friends – like India – will stand by the oil-producing nation until the US either backs down or acknowledges the real matter at hand. That matter is the American dollar and its role as the global reserve currency.
The short version of the story is that a 1970s deal cemented the US dollar as the only currency to buy and sell crude oil, and from that monopoly on the all-important oil trade the US dollar slowly but surely became the reserve currency for global trades in most commodities and goods. Massive demand for US dollars ensued, pushing the dollar's value up, up, and away. In addition, countries stored their excess US dollars savings in US Treasuries, giving the US government a vast pool of credit from which to draw.
If the US dollar loses its position as the global reserve currency, the consequences for America are dire. A major portion of the dollar's valuation stems from its lock on the oil industry – if that monopoly fades, so will the the dollar.
They would therefore remain technically compliant with the NPT while being within a couple of months of deploying and using a nuclear weapon.
People in the Middle East are repressed by their own governments and feeling unjustly treated by the outside world. This combination makes this region a ticking bomb.
No country boldly talks about the 27,000 warheads that the world possesses. Out of these, 95% are in Russia and the U.S.
Is it not unfair that two nations can amass and monopolise nuclear terrorism.
If they are sincere, they must come forward and cut the arsenals to 1,000 each, or even 500.
Then urge the world to ban nuclear weapons. In addition.....and most scientist now agree, if six nukes are set off in relatively the same location it could be the end of the earth as we know it....now lets see the USA has 12,000, Soviets 5,000, china....., Israel, France, UK, India Pakistan, aw you get it
Israeli cemeteries are filled with Jews (aka "ilk," according to you) who "shed blood" fighting their very real enemies. They died protecting the many non-Jews in Israel as well. (Consider knocking off the nasty "goyim" reference)
Iran’s nuclear efforts are claimed civilian only with little or no contrary evidence. Israel is a nuclear power, hasn’t submitted to inspections or non-proliferation guarantees. Wars of so-called “self-defense”; an endless expansionist occupation, indiscriminate & banned weapons against civilians, assassinations, thousands imprisoned, economic & cultural racism & discrimination, theft & destruction of water resources & Palestinian Olives, their national identity; after all this hypocrisy the world is expected to recognize the Jewish Holocaust above others, ignore treatment of civilians by Israel, & attack Iran, creating another potential holocaust?
Agents of Israel in the US (the Lobby) have unprecedented power & funding to influence (subvert) our political processes & foreign policy to Israel’s supposed advantage. “Aid” between $5-10 billion annually when ALL is counted is expected as their birth-right; not to mention constantly creating fear & paranoia toward Iran to involve the US in yet another war of choice. More war is NOT acceptable policy!
"Sardari was in charge of the Iranian consular office in Paris in 1941. There was a sizeable community of Iranian Jews in Paris when Adolf Hitler invaded and occupied the city. Leaning on the national socialist perception that Germans were Aryans, Nazi Germany and Iran had an agreement which protected all Iranian citizens against German acts of aggression, Sardari was able to protect Iranian Jews, whose families had been present in Iran since the time of the Persian Empire. (Cyrus the Great personally ordered the Jews of Babylonia to be freed from Babylonian slavery.) He very strongly argued this point to the Germans and specifically ascertained that the Iranian Jews were protected under these statutes. The Nazis grudgingly agreed and accordingly, many Persian Jews were saved from harassment and eventually deportation by the Nazi regime.
But Sardari went further. Once he realized the full nature of Nazi ambitions, he began issuing hundreds of Iranian passports for non-Iranian Jews to save them from prosecution. To safeguard his plan, he did not ask for permission, and felt that support by the Iranian leadership was implied. His actions were later confirmed and applauded by the government of Iran.[3]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdol_Hossein_Sardari
Any attempt at comparison, is an assault and insult to Holocaust victims, Holocaust survivors and the 4,000 year old Jewish community in Iran.
"Jews 'part of Iran'
Esther, the biblical Jewish queen who saved her people from persecution in the fifth century B.C., is reputed to be buried in Hamadan, in western Iran. The grave of the Old Testament prophet Daniel lies in southwestern Iran.
In Esfahan, an Iranian city fabled for its intricate Persian tile work, the first Persian Jews were settled under the reign of Cyrus. The ancient city was once known as Dar-Al-Yahud (''House of the Jews'' in Farsi), and as late as the 19th century it was the home of 100,000 Jews, according to Elias Haronian, head of Esfahan's Jewish community.
Today, the city is a repository of Jewish lore. It has a cemetery with Jewish graves 2,000 years old, stunning synagogues and Jewish mausoleums with tiles to rival those of the mosques - but a population of only 1,500 Jews."
http://www.sephardicstudies.org/iran.html
What kind of slander is that? HuffingtonPost carries liability for publishing defamatory lines like that.
i am pretty sure had someone used the same word, hasbara with their reading material would have been asking boring questions: who's ilk, what do you mean, explain etc
May be it's your friends that would like to use it?
Is there any justification for Iran attitude toward Israel, being hundred miles away without mutual borders, or to that effect Turkey who suddenly became the darling of the Arab world by sanctioning the Gaza Flotilla and threatening Israel…..
The only explanation I can come up with that both dictatorial leaders are in love with power and itching to imitate Hitler.
"Lightbown also discusses DIME: “Evidence of the use of depleted uranium against Gaza is tenuous and Goldstone merely recorded in paragraph 907 that it had received allegations which it had not further investigated. Much of this evidence came from Action des citoyens pour le désarmement nucléaire (ACDN: Citizens Action for Nuclear Disarmament). Their report of July 2009 hypothesizes that the GBU-39 bunker-buster bomb is packed with 75 kilogram of depleted uranium. The US delivery of 1,000 of these bombs to Israel arrived in early December 2008 shortly before the start of the war. Boeing's patent on the weapon mentions depleted uranium.
In April 2009 Jean-François Fechino from ACDN was part of a four-person team which went to Gaza for the Arab Commission for Human Rights . Samples that the team brought back were analysed by a specialist laboratory which identified carcinogens: depleted uranium, caesium, asbestos dust, tungsten and aluminium oxide. Thorium oxide was also found, which is radioactive, as are depleted uranium and caesium. The analysis also identified phosphates and copper, along with volatile organic compounds (VOCs) which are a health hazard, especially to children, asthmatics and elders."
http://www.countercurrents.org/cook150411.htm