INTERNATIONAL — As the Jewish Holocaust Remembrance Day approaches, Jewish communities around the world call on Iranian leadership to keep its long overdue promise to recognize the Jewish Holocaust. For decades the administration of IRI has refrained from describing the events of 1939-1945 as Holocaust by playing the diplomacy techniques.
Last year, Iran’s president Mahmud Ahmadinejad at his annual Remembrance address replaced the phrase “Jewish Holocaust” by a more distant “Let’s Wipe Out Zionist State” statement, which provoked significant anger among Jewish community of Iran and around the world.
Lack of diplomatic relations between the two states has been holding back the dialogue for years. Iran ties diplomatic relations with Israel to the full dismantlement of Israeli state which has found no sympathy among Jews to date.
Touching on the subject last Monday, US President Barack Obama voiced harsh criticism over Mahmud Ahmadinejad’s word game: “The cause of justice requires that Iran recognizes the Holocaust. It is embarrassing to hear euphemisms every year and see lack of Iranian leadership’s commitment to face its past… well… actually, Germany’s past in this case. Anyway, ducking the truth and hiding behind euphemisms does not make leader of a great nation look decent.”
Experts agree that Iran is slowly but surely moving toward coming to terms with… Germany’s past. “Let’s just look at the dynamics,” says Robert Brooks, Ph.D. in denial studies at Holocaust Museum in Tel-Aviv, “a few years ago Iran spoke about ‘killing every Jew in every part of the world’. Today he has compromised to a more moderate ‘let’s wipe out Israel’. I believe we are just a few years away from ‘let’s just kills a couple of Jews’ breakthrough.”
Head of the Holocaust Museum in Israel has a special view on the subject: “I don’t quite blame Iran for the denial policy. It’s a matter of regional geopolitical competition – since Turkey denies the Armenian Genocide, which by the way, we ironically happen to deny, as well, Iran needs its own thing to deny. So Ahmadinejad chose to think big, although initially we repeatedly urged him to look into lack of evidence of the Bosnian slaughters.”
In the meanwhile, Iranian official sources have leaked to Washington Post that Ahmadinejad is ready to gradually start the recognition process in exchange for looser grip over nuclear program. Anonymous official reports: “Our leader is willing to recognize 1 million Jewish victims by the end of 2011, in exchange for one approved nuclear reactor. If the processes goes smooth, we are prepared to recognize more essential bits of the Holocaust through the next 5 years till all the economic sanctions are lifted from Iran.”
As April 28 approaches, Jewish Diaspora is voicing a robust call on the leader of Iran to live up to the historic justice and pronounce “Holocaust” at annual address to Jews or at least refrain from calls for new Jewish pogroms.