German intel says Iran 'massively promotes antisemitism, Israel hatred'
Neo-Nazi politician met with Iran's chief proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon.
By BENJAMIN WEINTHALIranians burn an effigy in the likeness of U.S. President Donald Trump during a protest marking the annual al-Quds Day (Jerusalem Day) on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan in Tehran, Iran June 8, 2018(photo credit: TASNIM NEWS AGENCY)
Iran’s clerical regime is a leading sponsor of Jew-hatred, the domestic intelligence agency for the city-state of Berlin disclosed June 25 in a report on antisemitism.“Antisemitism and hatred of Israel were also massively promoted by the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the intelligence officials wrote. “The leader of the Iranian Revolution Ayatollah Khomeini already described Israel as the ‘little Satan’ and openly called for the destruction of Israel. Antisemitism has been part of Iran’s state ideology ever since [the founding of the Islamic Republic] and is regularly fueled by statements by state representatives.”The Jerusalem Post reviewed the 49-page document that chronicles the various forms of antisemitism in Germany.The US government has gone further in its classification of Iranian state-sponsored antisemitism. In January, the US special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, Elan Carr, said at a US Commission on International Religious Freedom hearing titled Global Efforts to Combat Antisemitism: “Iran is not only the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, it is the world’s chief trafficker in antisemitism. The Islamic Republic of Iran has pushed antisemitic dogma throughout the Middle East and throughout the Muslim world beyond the Middle East.”US administrations under both president Barack Obama and President Donald Trump have classified Iran’s regime as the world’s worst state sponsor of terrorism.The Berlin report noted that German right-wing extremist politician Udo Voigt, who is considered a neo-Nazi, demonstrated support for Iran’s regime.“In his function as a former MEP [member of the European Parliament] for NPD [National Democratic Party], Voigt, for example, regularly showed solidarity with the Iranian regime,” the report said.“In addition, he maintained official contacts with the Lebanese Hezbollah, which… is classified by the European Union as a terrorist organization,” the intelligence document added. “In 2018 and 2019, he traveled to Lebanon with other European right-wing extremists for official meetings with representatives of Hezbollah. In his statements on the meetings, Hezbollah is described as a ‘key factor’ in the Middle East.”The “development of modern antisemitism is also associated with the strengthening of Islamist movements,” the report said. “From the 1970s onward, Islamist thinking became particularly attractive, particularly in the Arab nation-states. After the concepts of nationalism, pan-Arabism and even socialism had failed, it was relatively easy for Islamists to propagate the superiority of an ‘Islamic’ social system. The strengthening of Islamist movements was also promoted by the Iranian revolution in 1979, as a result of which Iran established itself as a state carrier of Islamist ideology.”Germany’s Foreign Ministry reversed its previous position that the Iranian regime’s calls to exterminate the Jewish state were “anti-Israel rhetoric,” saying that Tehran’s language is antisemitic, the Post reported in the second week of June.
Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Commander Maj.-Gen. Hossein Salami urged the “elimination” of the Jewish state, pro-Syrian regime news outlet Al-Masdar News reported in June.When the Post asked German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas about Salami’s statements, the Foreign Ministry said: “Such statements are absolutely unacceptable. We strongly condemn calling for the annihilation of Israel, legitimizing terrorism and spreading antisemitic content.”
