Latest Iranian echo of Third Reich propaganda

Via Mick Hartley, a MEMRI transcription of an Iranian TV broadcast by a Professor Hasan Bolkhari, who sees a Jewish world domination plot in ...Hollywood cartoons:

There is a cartoon that children like. They like it very much, and so do adults - Tom and Jerry."

[...]

"Some say that this creation by Walt Disney [sic] will be remembered forever. The Jewish Walt Disney Company gained international fame with this cartoon. It is still shown throughout the world. This cartoon maintains its status because of the cute antics of the cat and mouse - especially the mouse.

"Some say that the main reason for making this very appealing cartoon was to erase a certain derogatory term that was prevalent in Europe."

[...]

"If you study European history, you will see who was the main power in hoarding money and wealth, in the 19th century. In most cases, it is the Jews. Perhaps that was one of the reasons which caused Hitler to begin the antisemitic trend, and then the extensive propaganda about the crematoria began... Some of this is true. We do not deny all of it.

"Watch Schindler's List. Every Jew was forced to wear yellow star on his clothing. The Jews were degraded and termed 'dirty mice.' Tom and Jerry was made in order to change the Europeans' perception of mice. One of terms used was 'dirty mice.'

"I'd like to tell you that... It should be noted that mice are very cunning...and dirty."

[...]

"No ethnic group or people operates in such a clandestine manner as the Jews."

[...]

"Read the history of the Jews in Europe. This ultimately led to Hitler's hatred and resentment. As it turns out, Hitler had behind-the-scenes connections with the Protocols [of the Elders of Zion ].

"Tom and Jerry was made in order to display the exact opposite image. If you happen to watch this cartoon tomorrow, bear in mind the points I have just raised, and watch it from this perspective. The mouse is very clever and smart. Everything he does is so cute. He kicks the poor cat's ass. Yet this cruelty does not make you despise the mouse. He looks so nice, and he is so clever... This is exactly why some say it was meant to erase this image of mice from the minds of European children, and to show that the mouse is not dirty and has these traits. Unfortunately, we have many such cases in Hollywood shows."

Perhaps it's a little churlish of me to point out that Walt Disney wasn't Jewish, and there's some circumstantial evidence that he was sympathetic to Nazism before World War II and tolerated anti-semitism in his organization.

Oh, and Tom and Jerry was an MGM cartoon series, not a Disney one, but maybe academic standards in Iran aren't what they are elsewhere.

What's most interesting is where Professor Bolkhari might have got his ideas from. First, the idea of Disney as a Jewish company. You'll find that myth being propagated on all the main US white supremacist web sites, as well as Islamist sites like Radio Islam which copy off their ravings. It's on the basis that the long-serving chief executive of the Disney Corp was a Jew, who employed fellow Jews. Case proven!

But the idea of using mice to propagandise Jewish virtues is altogether more bizarre.

Bolkhari comes up with the ludicrous idea that the Nazis during World War II insulted Jews as "mice", and so the Disney Corp set out to redress the balance with Tom and Jerry cartoons, made to make mice look nice. Really.

The likely source of all this farrago of the current Iranian state anti-semitic imagination is Art Spiegelman's Maus graphic novel series, which I doubt Bolkhari is aware of. But the white supremacist hate sites, including the so-called Institute of Historical Review have featured reviews of it.

Spiegelman captions Volume II of Maus with a key quotation from a Nazi newspaper:

"Mickey Mouse is the most miserable ideal ever revealed... Healthy emotions tell every independant young man and every honorable youth that the dirty and filth-covered vermin, the greatest bacteria carrier in the animal kingdom, cannot be the ideal type of animal... Away with the Jewish brutalization of the people! Down with Mickey Mouse! Wear the Swastika cross!"

- German newspaper article, mid-1930's (quoted in Art Spiegelman's Maus)

This would be a wholly laughable story about an obscure Iranian academic, were it not for the fact that he's actually a cultural advisor to the Iranian Education Ministry, a member of the Film Council of the Islamic republic, and, wait for it, a member of an interfaith jury set up to promote Christian-Islamic relations.

Comments

[JohnM]

Regarding your list of the likely sources for this latest nonsense. Please add the book "How To Read Donald Duck" by Ariel Dorfman and Armand Mattelart 1972.

This book, which I used to own, was incredibly popular on the left, identifying how Disney is covertly advancing the American imperialist agenda.

[Paul]

Speaking of Hollywood Jewish plots, has professor Bolkhari ever seen cartoons featuring that Zionist avatar Bugs Bunny? He'd choke on his popcorn watching Bugs bamboozle hapless Elmer Fudd.