While I’m waiting for the AP news story about the despicable anti-Semitic remarks made by the VP of Iran during a UN forum against drugs, let’s check out the coverage of AFP, France’s biggest delivery system of news to European media. (No, the AP has not yet covered this speech, though it made the New York Times print edition today.)
Here is the AFP headline and lead. Note the way cover is immediately provided for the fig leaf of blaming Zionism.
Iran VP says Jewish law book to blame for drugs trade
The teachings of the Jewish book of law, the Talmud, are a driving force behind the international drug trade, Iranian First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi said in comments reported Wednesday.Rahimi’s remarks, at an international anti-drug conference in Tehran attended by many foreign diplomats Tuesday, were a rare diatribe by an Iranian official targeting the Jewish faith, rather than the state of Israel.
Mahmoud Ahmedinejad gave an anti-Semitic speech at the UN, but because he used the word “Zionists,” the media gave it a pass. They tsk-tsk at his Holocaust denial, but don’t put two and two together to equal Jew-hater.
When even Helen Thomas’ former employer notices the blatant anti-Semitism, you’d think the AP would step up and report on it. (You gotta love this part of the UPI story.)
The New York Times described the speech delivered by Iranian Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi at the U.N. international drug trade conference in Tehran Tuesday as “baldly anti-Semitic,” shocking some of the European diplomats attending the conference. None of the diplomats, however, walked out of the meeting.
Why would they? Israel wasn’t speaking.