Well, the cartoon war just won't go away.
"An Iranian newspaper says it is going to hold a competition for cartoons on the Holocaust to test whether the West will apply the same principles of freedom of expression to the Nazi genocide against Jews as it did to the caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed."
It is not as if anyone should be surprised. At the time of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, there were close to 100,000 Jews living in that country. Today, less than 30,000 remain. The remainder fled to Israel or the United States. Whether they remain their by choice or because they can't leave is not clear to me. (I can't imagine what life is like for those that remain in a country whose President and media claim that the Holocaust never happened.)
But there is nothing surprising about this (disgusting) move by Iran. It is a cartoon war. You do this, we'll do that.
Nor is there anything surprising about Iran targeting the Jews. None of the papers involved in publishing the original cartoons are owned by Jews. In fact, France Noir is owned by an Egyptian Christian. But Iran doesn't really want to antogonize Europe lest Iranian oil be boycotted. So they blame the Jews. Once again, history repeats itself.
Sooner or later, someone will ask if I regret the post where I referred to the anti-Arab cartoons as Hate speech and my answer is "No." That was hate and this is hate too. There is no satire here, no lampooning based on current events. The Europeans increasingly resent their Arab populations and the Iranians (and the Syrians and the...well you get the idea) hate the Jews. As I pointed out several times, European communities passed laws making public Holocaust denial a crime, but chose to have a very narrow definition of who was protected and under what circumstances. That selective definition opened up a kettle of fish and we are now treated to the reek that comes from that.
Iran and Syria and other Arab countries have always posted anti-Semitic cartoons. Nothing new here. The only new factor is that now they can claim some justification.
I always knew that the Arabs hated me and all my people. I also have a lot of skepticism that Europe cared one wit, one iota, for my well-being. "The enemy of my enemy" cares nothing for me. The anti-Arab cartooons were not pro-Israel or pro-Jewish. Some in the European press may even carry them, under the guise of "equal time."
Does anyone remember when cartoons were funny?