Zionists using Holocaust to silence people: chief rabbi

Mehr News Agency - Oct 10, 2007

Chief Rabbi of the Orthodox Jewish Community in Austria, Moishe Arye Friedman, believes that the “Zionist regime is using the Holocaust concept as a tool and weapon to silence people.”

In an interview with the Mehr News Agency here on Saturday, October 6, Friedman said “the root of the world’s problems is the existence of the Zionist regime.”

The chief rabbi was in Iran on an invitation from the Islamic Republic.

Following is an excerpt of the interview:

Q: Would you please explain about your community’s activities?

A: We are in a religious community, and our activities are actually concentrated mainly and truly on exercising the religion only, by being the followers of Prophet Moses. We are actually forbidden from having any activities of political nature. But also similar to the Islamic Republic of Iran, our activities are for human rights, for world peace, resulting from a religious perspective.

Q: Don’t you think that Israel’s behavior in the Middles East, especially its treatment of the Muslims in the occupied territories, would pose threats to Jews in other countries?

A: When we talk about Israel, the catastrophe of Zionism is not only in their state, it is the regime. The Zionist regime is not concentrated only on the so called Israel, the Zionist regime is actually in the most of the world. To march to Jerusalem, we mean of course to physically be in Jerusalem, we have to wipe off the Zionist regime.

The Zionist regime includes the governments all over the world with Zionist Jewish communities. When we say Jewish people we mean Jewish people following Moses which we have around the world. Of course it is very important to distinguish between Jewish people and those Zionist people.

The behavior of some of the countries is very irresponsible. For them there is no difference between the Jews and the Zionists, and this can lead to danger. It is different in the Islamic Republic of Iran, which is going to the root of the problem, to find how it was possible at all that such a regime came about. They went for example to engage with the issue of Holocaust, to have the world free from the Holocaust concept propaganda which is used as a tool for committing crimes against humanity.

There is a lot which has been done by the Islamic Republic of Iran, and especially recently, I think it was in a responsible way. Unfortunately we have to condemn those Arab regimes who are tolerating Israel. And it seems they are not dealing in a responsible way, and are even trying to misinform the public that Zionism is actually representing the Jewish people, in order to protect their interests and to keep their regime, and their population is silent.

Q: What about an abuse of Judaism by Zionists?

A: Zionism is all about to humiliate the faith in God. Not only the Jewish religion, but faith in God in all religions, mainly Islam. They also have a great interest in driving the Christians, the Catholic church, away from their traditional religions.

They are uprooting the religion, trying to reduce historical elements, and at the same time, when there are critics or people who are able to independently research such a theme, they will try everything to arrest them, to harm them, eliminate them, and that is their nature. For that purpose they have always used the Holocaust concept as their tool and weapon to silence people.
Jerusalem should be wiped off from the Zionists.

Q: What does your community do to counter Israel or Zionism?

A: I think in the circumstances in which I came here with my family to Tehran could in practical terms state an example of the activities we make against Zionism, condemning the crimes against humanity.

But we have to deal with the problem by going to the root of the problem. The root of the problem is that the world is actually confronted with the Holocaust based on lies. We will have to get rid of the Holocaust lies of the Zionist regime, there is no question about this. All the media is silent about all the crimes committed by the Zionist regime by using the Holocaust concept.

Q: What’s your idea about Ahmadinejad’s suggestion that the West should allocate a land to the Zionists so that they can establish their own country there?

A: The first thing which has to happen is the immediate and unconditional return of the entire Palestinian refugees to their own land. When I say unconditional, I mean without having the precondition that they have to recognize the Zionist regime. The Palestinians have to receive their rights without recognizing the Zionist regime. By recognizing the Zionist regime we are having contradiction with the Palestinians’ rights and the rights of the Islamic world. We have to discuss not about the people who lived in Palestine, but those who came from Poland, from Russia, and other places. By using the Holocaust concepts they came to the holy land to eliminate others. At the first step, they should return to where they came from. I do not understand really the logic or the position of the Europeans or the Americans for opposing the approach and initiative of President Ahmadinejad, suggesting that the Zionists should return to Europe or to U.S. because after all, the Europeans are sacrificing their whole economy for those Jews, for the colleagues and associates of those Israelis who are now in Palestine. They are even sacrificing their own national security. They are not willing to implement law and order against Jews in their own state. So what is the problem for Jews to come there? There is no problem.

As a consequence of the Second World War, in a very unjustified way, at least a third of Poland nowadays and at least 34 percent of the Zech Republic for example is simply a German territory which they robbed off unjustified, and they are not doing anything about that. So there is no problem with giving the Zionist Jews some territories.

Q: What do you think about President Ahmadinejad’s speech at Columbia University, about Holocaust?

A: The issues which President Ahmadinejad stated and the issues that Iran’s leaders, Imam Khomeini and Ayatollah Khamenei, have mentioned, those issues were known before, but we are living in a world that is shut by the horrific Zionist media domination. In fact he managed to break those taboos. He had his mission there. Now the world is starting to realize that the Zionist regime is not only concentrated in the holy land. The root of the problems is actually the Zionist regime elsewhere. The Zionist Jewish community is extremely violent, they are even poisoning the American society. The Zionist regime is leading them. Even they have their own police in New York. A few thousand Jews in New York are able to have their own police.

Q: What is your opinion about Iran, and about the U.S. propaganda calling Iran a terrorist state?

A: I think it is the best thing and you should be proud that the Zionist media, inside the United States, are against you. The more they are trying to attack you, the more is because you are at a better position. Do not be afraid of people who speak openly of attacks, you should rather be afraid of those who speak nice to you. No one in the world had expected the Islamic Republic to make such achievements. The Iranian people are far too clever to fall into such propaganda, and I think they are clever enough to realize that this propaganda is the exact reason to stand firmly, and they do not expect to receive cheers from the evil.

I think the Islamic Republic is the nation chosen by God for justice and peace.