The bicyclists, the Jews, and Queen Elizabeth

One of the cartoons winning an award in Iran's Holocaust cartoon contest

There was a joke that Jews told each other during the Holocaust:

An antisemite claimed that the Jews had caused the war; the reply was: Yes, the Jews and the bicyclists. Why the bicyclists? Asks the one? Why the Jews? asks the other.

I was reminded of this by the announcement of the latest Iranian antisemitic cartoon contest, coming on the heels of the Holocaust cartoon contest:

An Iranian museum on Tuesday kicked off a “Zionist caliphate” cartoon contest, with “Zionism, terrorism and racism” and “ISIL terrorism and genocide in the name of religion and to the benefit of the Zionists” the designated themes.

The contest by Iranian Cultural-Art Masaf Institute will offer one $5,000 award for best cartoon, $1,000 for best caricature and four $500 awards to the other top entries, according to the semi-official Fars News Agency.

In its portrait session, participants are asked to focus on Theodor Herzl and Queen Elizabeth. The competition is dedicated to the “Nakba,” or displacement of Palestinians in 1948 with the establishment of the State of Israel, according to the report.

Why Queen Elizabeth?

The answer is probably because they are using her as a representative for responsibility for the Balfour Declaration, but my point is that hate against Jews remains as arbitrary and deadly now as it was during the coining of the first joke. But hating Israel is now considered as considered "obvious" as hating Jews was a couple of generations ago, because Israel in the 21st century has become the proxy for Jews as they were looked upon in the 1940s.

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