I can not help but feel that there is some method to this madness. Outright denial of the Holocaust is the obsession of the delusional and feeble minded. While there is much neurosis in the mullahcracy, I do not believe that is the reason for their obsession with the Holocaust. The target is Israel, and Israel’s right to exist as a nation.

What is embedded in the western press, and thus in the western mind is that Israel only exists because of the Holocaust. That it was implanted by the West into Muslim lands, either because of a bad conscious (because of the real or imagined Western abuse of Jews), or because of a Jewish/Crusader conspiracy.

It is really not important for the Iranian Government to determine whether the Holocaust happened or not, whether Hitler was a Jew or not, the important message is different. What sticks is that Israel has no right to exist, except for the Holocaust. The Holocaust (the real one, or the legend) is a problem of the West, and not the Muslim world. The West "created" Israel. Israel was given to the Jews to compensate for the Holocaust, or the Holocaust was created as an excuse to steal Palestine for the Jews. The West thus created the Jewish-Palestinian Conflict. The West is thus responsible for the problems in the Middle East.

A view that some in the West have already bought into:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,418660,00.html

The interviewers never challenge Ahmadinejad’s linkage between the Holocaust and the State of Israel, and seem to accept it as a given.

It would be stupid to deny that the Holocaust has had an impact on Israel. However, we should not follow the example of Der Spiegel, and argue on Iran’s terms. Israel has a right to exist not because of the Holocaust, but because it earned it, because its people earned. It has been settled by Jews from around the globe, including Arab Jews, not just Holocaust survivors. The citizens of Israel include Jews, Christians and Muslims. They have a right to choose their own government and defend it. The Holocaust happened, but it is not the basis for Israel’s right to exist, and we should not allow Iran to make the linkage.