A leading pro-Israel group slammed the German government for refusing to label the Iranian regime’s genocidal threats as “anti-Semitic,” deeming Iran merely “anti-Israel.”
By United with Israel Staff
The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) criticized German Chancellor Angela Merkel based on a German Foreign Ministry statement that referred to Iran as “anti-Israel,” without ever mentioning anti-Semitism.
“We live in a surreal age in which the most blatant, the most obvious, the most frightening expressions of hatred against the Jewish people and its collective existence is doggedly ignored, whitewashed or watered down by foreign governments,” ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said in a statement released by the organization.
Klein was referring to Germany’s reaction to comments in September by Major General Hossein Salami, commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), who said that destroying Israel was an achievable goal.
“This sinister regime [Israel] must be wiped off the map and this is no longer … a dream [but] it is an achievable goal … [Iran has] managed to obtain the capacity to destroy the impostor Zionist regime 40 years after the 1979 Islamic revolution ” Salami said, as quoted by the IRGC’s Sepah news site.
The German Foreign Ministry reacted to Salami’s statements by calling them “anti-Israel rhetoric.”
“We condemn the recent threats by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps against Israel in the strongest possible terms. Such anti-Israel rhetoric is completely unacceptable. Israel’s right to exist is not negotiable. We urge Iran to commit to maintaining peaceful relations with all states in the region and to take practical steps to de-escalate tensions,” the German Foreign Ministry said.
According to the ZOA, when the the Germany Foreign Ministry was questioned as to whether their remarks represent the views of the German government, a government spokesman replied, “We have nothing to add to the reply of the foreign office.”
“It seems that, come what may, foreign leaders like Chancellor Merkel … would rather say or do anything else other than state and condemn the obvious fact that, in this case, the Iranian regime has been and is still seeking to eliminate the Jewish State of Israel,” responded Klein via the ZOA statement.