This weekend, the Islamic Republic will hold its third Holocaust-cartoon festival, with submissions vying to mock the Shoah, deny that it happened, or insult Jews and Israel more generally. When asked about the contest in an interview for the New Yorker, the Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif insisted that it is run by an NGO and not sponsored by the government. Nikahang Kowsar, a cartoonist who fled Iran after receiving death threats for publishing work critical of the regime, sets the record straight:

The claim that the Iranian government doesn’t control this platform for spewing hate and denying the Holocaust is a pure lie, coming from a pathological liar [Zarif] whose previous absurd claim, exactly a year before this one, was “we do not jail people for their opinions.”

The director of the Iranian Cartoon House, a former member of the Revolutionary Guards, runs the contest according to rules set by the Culture and Arts Center, [part of the] Tehran municipal government. Cartoon House is not allowed to hold international competitions and contests without permission from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. . . . [T]he winners of this hate-fest are awarded prize money that is sent to them through the standard channels, controlled and monitored by the government.

Interestingly, the spokesman for the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance denied Zarif’s claim.

Mr. Zarif is the darling of many American reporters, and he knows that most of them avoid scrutinizing whatever he spouts in order to secure another interview or even travel to Iran without facing any problems. . . . [T]he Islamic Republic has not only jailed but tortured, assassinated, and executed [citizens] for their opinions, including converts [from Islam], practitioners of the Baha’i faith, members of the LGBT community, and critics of the government.

For some time, opponents of U.S support for Israel have been urging the White House to end the war in Gaza, or simply calling for a ceasefire. Douglas Feith and Lewis Libby consider what such a result would actually entail:

Ending the war immediately would allow Hamas to survive and retain military and governing power. Leaving it in the area containing the Sinai-Gaza smuggling routes would ensure that Hamas can rearm. This is why Hamas leaders now plead for a ceasefire. A ceasefire will provide some relief for Gazans today, but a prolonged ceasefire will preserve Hamas’s bloody oppression of Gaza and make future wars with Israel inevitable.

For most Gazans, even when there is no hot war, Hamas’s dictatorship is a nightmarish tyranny. Hamas rule features the torture and murder of regime opponents, official corruption, extremist indoctrination of children, and misery for the population in general. Hamas diverts foreign aid and other resources from proper uses; instead of improving life for the mass of the people, it uses the funds to fight against Palestinians and Israelis.

Moreover, a Hamas-affiliated website warned Gazans last month against cooperating with Israel in securing and delivering the truckloads of aid flowing into the Strip. It promised to deal with those who do with “an iron fist.” In other words, if Hamas remains in power, it will begin torturing, imprisoning, or murdering those it deems collaborators the moment the war ends. Thereafter, Hamas will begin planning its next attack on Israel:

Hamas’s goals are to overshadow the Palestinian Authority, win control of the West Bank, and establish Hamas leadership over the Palestinian revolution. Hamas’s ultimate aim is to spark a regional war to obliterate Israel and, as Hamas leaders steadfastly maintain, fulfill a Quranic vision of killing all Jews.

Hamas planned for corpses of Palestinian babies and mothers to serve as the mainspring of its October 7 war plan. Hamas calculated it could survive a war against a superior Israeli force and energize enemies of Israel around the world. The key to both aims was arranging for grievous Palestinian civilian losses. . . . That element of Hamas’s war plan is working impressively.