Bad behavior gets attention

Iran’s president Ahmadinejad is getting an awful lot of attention over his rants, particularly his denials of the Jewish Holocaust and his threats to eliminate Israel. And especially now, since he’s hosting a conference to deny the Holocaust, threaten Israel some more, and mostly, attract the world’s attention. It’s working.

It’s mind-boggling that such insanity can be given such attention. But Hitler allegedly said that if you tell a lie often enough, it will become truth. Boldface lies told boldly and with frequency create a perception, and then the perception becomes a reality. Walter Lippman – journalist, political scientist and government propagandist – studied this manipulation of mass thinking in his classic Public Opinion.

What’s amazing is that there are people going along with the denial and deception.

What’s reliable is that the Holy See is coming out with a strong rebuke.

The Vatican joined other European countries in condemning this outrage.

The Vatican has issued a statement deploring the claims made by the Iranian government denying the Holocaust. In a communiqué released the Vatican Press Office about the Holocaust conference in Tehran, the Holy See reiterated its position already laid out in a document of the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews titled ‘We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah’.”

The statement said that “last century saw an attempt to exterminate the Jewish people with millions of Jews murdered of every age and social status for the only reason that they belonged to the same people. The Holocaust was an immense tragedy before which we cannot remain indifferent. With profound respect and great compassion the Church sympathises with the Jewish people and its experience during the Second World War. The memory of those horrible events must remain as a warning for people’s consciences in order to end conflict, respect the legitimate rights of all peoples, urge people towards peace in truth and justice. Pope John Paul II asserted this position, among other places, at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem on March 23, 2000. His Holiness Benedict XVI reaffirmed it during his visit to the Auschwitz extermination camp on May 28, 2006”.

And other profound voices in the Church join the outcry.

Fr David Jaeger, a Jew, an Israeli and a Franciscan father, told AsiaNews that “statements coming from there [Iran] about the Holocaust profound insult me as a Jew, as a Catholic and above all as human being. I hope no one will exploit the Holocaust and my people any more and that everyone, with no exception, will hold an attitude of respect coupled with the determination of not allowing such outrages against God and humanity from taking place again.”