Iran media: Israel 'cancerous' and a 'virus' after burning of Esther tomb
The regime's media has now adopted so many conspiracies about Israel and Jews that it doesn’t know which one to believe.
By SETH J. FRANTZMANAn Iranian Officer of Revolutionary Guards, with Israel flag drawn on his boots, is seen during graduation ceremony, held for the military cadets in a military academy, in Tehran, Iran June 30, 2018(photo credit: TASNIM NEWS AGENCY/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS)
Iranian media slammed Israel on “Quds (Jerusalem) Day,” calling the Jewish state a “cancerous gland” and Zionism a “virus,” a clear attempt to link Israel to the pandemic and also to use historic antisemitic tropes against the Jewish state. The article was found on Fars News as part of a piece claiming that there was a conspiracy afoot after the attempted burning of the tomb of Esther and Mordechai in Iran.The article claimed that the burning of the tomb was “fake news” and that it was part of a “Saudi international media plot with Voice of America and the Zionist media.” Iran’s regime media has now adopted so many conspiracies about Israel and Jews that it doesn’t know which one to believe. It now argues that the “Zionists” are working with the Saudis to control “international media.”Ayatollah Khamenei tweeted on Saturday night that the “Zionism regime has proven it doesn’t abide by any treaty.” He then accused Israel of brutality, “trampling on moral norms” and of massacring women and children. He called Israel a “rapid, predatory dog.”This is a way to dehumanize Israel, as part of the regime’s attempt to try to portray Israel as both a dog and a virus. This has parallels with historic antisemitism where Jews were accused of being vermin-like and accused of spreading disease. Iran has long pretended it is a tolerant regime and Jews are able to live in Iran, while the regime's narrative portrayed other countries in the region as antisemitic. But the language Iran’s regime uses to discuss Israel is language that has clear meanings to the people expected to read it in the original.For Iran’s “Quds Day,” a day the regime reserves every year to distract from its own failures by pretending to take up the Palestinian cause, the ayatollah slammed Israel for oppressing Palestinians and said Iran would “fight against the Zionist regime” and continue its “resistance.”Iran’s obsession with Israel corrupts every element of the regime. Its sports councils seek to prevent Iranian athletes from participating in matches with Israelis. A new article at Tasnim media looks at a review of a plan to deal with the “hostile actions of the Zionist regime” via sport and to confront the “evil nature of the Zionist regime in sports.” But it appears that Iran was on the verge of letting a law lapse that prevents its athletes from competing with Israelis.Iran’s regime propagandists complained on Quds Day that the world media didn’t give them enough attention, claiming Arabic, Hebrew and Western media had marginalized their special day. In asserting that the media ignored them, Iranian media also took credit for the Covid1948 hashtag, meant to connect the virus with the 1948 war, which one commentator said shows how Israel would not survive another 25 years.
