Any doubts about the antisemitic nature of the Iranian regime should be thoroughly squashed by news of a row at an international book fair in Zagreb, Croatia.

Regime mouthpiece The Tehran Times reports as follows:

TEHRAN — Senior presidential advisor Mojtaba Samara Hashemi has criticized certain Zionist groups in Croatia for pressuring Iranian diplomats.

The Zionist groups had put pressure on the Iranian diplomats because they had displayed the book The International Jew at Iran’s booth at the Zagreb International Book Exhibition.

The International Jew is a compilation of articles originally published in Henry Ford’s newspaper The Dearborn Independent.

Hashemi called the action “a sign of the Zionist influence on European countries” and expressed regret over this state of affairs.

He said the over-emphasis on matters related to the Zionist regime, like The International Jew, shows the “real face” of Israel.

This situation shows that European countries do not abide by their commitments to basic concepts like democracy and freedom of speech, despite the fact that they are always boasting about their adherence to these ideas, he added.

But everyone has become accustomed to the West’s double standards toward democracy and freedom of opinion, he said.

And The International Jew is a history book, he stated.

Hashemi said the book exhibition incident showed the covert and overt influence of the Zionist regime over various institutions of Western countries and called it a sign of the weakness of certain countries that claim to be advocates of dignity and independence.

“The International Jew” is not a history book. It is a four-volume rant by Henry Ford, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, which borrows generously from “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” (what does copyright law have to say about plagiarizing a fabrication, I wonder?)

Ford later apologized for the book and disowned it. However, like the Protocols, it continues to circulate on the internet and in bookshops of dubious provenance in several languages.

Given the Iranian regime’s active promotion of Holocaust denial, its endorsement of “The International Jew” should hardly raise eyebrows. But that’s not the point: the challenge is not in Iran, but in the west, and specifically to those who refuse to admit that Iran is pushing a state policy of antisemitism shared by its regional allies, Hezbollah and Hamas.

After all, how much more evidence is needed? The book is called “The International Jew,” not “The International Zionist.” It states: “Whichever way you turn to trace the harmful streams of influence that flow through society, you come upon a group of Jews.” And the Iranian regime wants you to read it and believe it.

As a result of this antisemitic provocation in Zagreb (similar to the one carried out at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2005), Croatia’s Jewish community is urging an investigation into the activities of the Iranian “Cultural Center” in the city.