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US calls out Iran supreme leader for claiming West controlled by 'Zionist merchants' | The Times of Israel
Washington’s antisemitism monitor tore into Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei Thursday after he tweeted that Western powers are a mafia controlled by “Zionist merchants.”
The tweet by Khamenei was far from the first to usher in accusations of antisemitism, and it renewed frustrations among pro-Israel advocates who have long called on Twitter to ban the supreme leader over accusations he engages in hate speech.
The tweet by Khamenei was far from the first to usher in accusations of antisemitism, and it renewed frustrations among pro-Israel advocates who have long called on Twitter to ban the supreme leader over accusations he engages in hate speech.
On Thursday, Deborah Lipstadt, the US Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism spoke out against the Iranian leader.
“We denounce this continued, egregious antisemitism. This rhetoric is unacceptable – not to mention dangerous – especially from a head of state. It must cease,” she tweeted.
“We denounce this continued, egregious antisemitism. This rhetoric is unacceptable – not to mention dangerous – especially from a head of state. It must cease,” she tweeted.
She has used the bully pulpit to condemn Hungarian leader Victor Orban’s remarks in which he expressed an aversion to “becom[ing] peoples of [a] mixed race” in what the Lipstadt said “evokes Nazi racial ideology.”
She also recently called out a member of the ongoing UN Commission of Inquiry into last year’s 11-day war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, after he said social media was “controlled largely by the Jewish lobby.”
She also recently called out a member of the ongoing UN Commission of Inquiry into last year’s 11-day war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, after he said social media was “controlled largely by the Jewish lobby.”