[NYTr] Wall St Journal Surprised anti-Iranian Propaganda Isn't True

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

[Well the Wall Street Journal thinks it's an "unlikely TV hit," since
they believe their own propaganda about what Iran is like and what its
people think and what its President [didn't really] have to say about
Jews and the Holocaust.... Facts are sometimes inconvenient and
shocking things. -NYTr]


The Wall Street Journal - Sep 7, 2007 via rick kissell
(no URL provided)

Iran's Unlikely TV Hit

Show Sympathetic to Plight of Jews During the Holocaust 
Draws Millions Each Week 

By FARNAZ FASSIHI

(See Corrections & Amplifications item below.

Every Monday night at 10 o'clock, Iranians by the millions tune into 
Channel One to watch the most expensive show ever aired on the Islamic 
republic's state-owned television. Its elaborate 1940s costumes and 
European locations are a far cry from the typical Iranian TV fare of 
scarf-clad women and gray-suited men.

But the most surprising thing about the wildly popular show is that it 
is a heart-wrenching tale of European Jews during World War II.

The hour-long drama, "Zero Degree Turn," centers on a love story between 
an Iranian-Palestinian Muslim man and a French Jewish woman. Over the 
course of the 22 episodes, the hero saves his love from Nazi detention 
camps, and Iranian diplomats in France forge passports for the woman and 
her family to sneak on to airplanes carrying Iranian Jews to their homeland.

On the surface, the message of the lavish, state-funded production 
appears sharply at odds with that sent out by Iranian President Mahmoud 
Ahmadinejad, who has repeatedly called the Holocaust a myth.

In fact, the government's spending on the show underscores the subtle 
and often sophisticated way in which the Iranian state uses its TV 
empire to send out political messages. The aim of the show, according to 
many inside and outside the country, is to draw a clear distinction 
between the government's views about Judaism -- which is accepted across 
Iranian society -- and its stance on Israel -- which the leadership 
denounces every chance it gets.

"Iranians have always differentiated between ordinary Jews and a 
minority of Zionists," says Hassan Fatthi, the show's writer and 
director. "The murder of innocent Jews during World War II is just as 
despicable, sad and shocking as the killing of innocent Palestinian 
women and children by racist Zionist soldiers," he says.

Mr. Fatthi, 48 years old, is a well-known director of historical fiction 
for television. In the past, his work has focused on Iranian history. 
But he also dabbles in comedy, winning international critical acclaim 
two years ago for a hit feature, "Marriage, Iranian Style."

He says he came up with the idea for "Zero Degree Turn" four years ago 
as he was reading books about World War II and stumbled across 
literature about /charge d'affaires/ at the Iranian embassy in Paris. 
Abdol Hussein Sardari saved over a thousand European Jews by forging 
Iranian passports and claiming they belonged to an Iranian tribe.

Mr. Fatthi says he chose the title because the world at the time was in 
dire circumstances, offering few options for avoiding the terrors to 
come. Shot on location in Paris and Budapest, the show stars Iranian 
heartthrob Shahab Husseini and is so popular that its theme song -- an 
ode to getting lost in love -- is a hit, too.

"It's captivating. No matter where I am or what I'm doing, on Monday 
nights I find a television set and watch the show. So does every Jewish 
person I know here," says Morris Motamed, the lone Jew in parliament.

Mr. Fatthi enlisted the help of Iran's Jewish Association, an 
independent body that safeguards the community's culture and heritage. 
The association has criticized Mr. Ahmadinejad's comments about the 
Holocaust but has praised Mr. Fatthi's show.

Iran is home to some 25,000 Jews, the largest population in the Middle 
East outside of Israel. Iran's Jews -- along with Christians and 
Zorastrians -- are guaranteed equal rights in the country's 
constitution. Iran's Jews are guaranteed one member of parliament and 
are free to study Hebrew in school, pray in synagogues and shop at 
kosher supermarkets. Despite Mr. Ahmadinejad's statements, it isn't 
government policy to question the Holocaust, and the country's supreme 
leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, hasn't endorsed those views.

While Iran makes it no secret that it considers Israel an enemy, it has 
been extremely touchy about criticism of its treatment of Jewish 
citizens. The show is seen as an effort by the government to erase the 
image that it may be anti-Semitic -- both at home among Jews and 
non-Jews, and abroad.

"In this show, you notice that a new method of political dialogue is 
being promoted that is more in line with the modern world," says 
Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a reformist cleric and former Iranian vice president.

The message appears to be grabbing the public. Sara Khatibi, a 
35-year-old mother and chemist in Tehran, says she and her husband never 
miss an episode. "All we ever hear about Jews is rants from the 
government about Israel," she says. "This is the first time we are 
seeing another side of the story and learning about their plight."

The show also pushes Iran's political line regarding the legitimacy of 
Israel: The Jewish state was conceived in modern times by Western powers 
rather than as part of a centuries-old desire of Jews for a return to 
their ancestral homeland. In one scene, a rabbi declares it a bad idea 
for Jews to resettle in Arab lands. In another, the French Jewish 
protagonist refuses a marriage offer by a cousin, who is advocating the 
creation of Israel.

Iran has long used TV to shape public opinion, where newspapers and the 
Internet are seen as media for the elite. The state's control over radio 
and television is enshrined in the constitution. Ayatollah Khamenei, the 
supreme leader, is not only head of the armed forces and the judiciary, 
but also the national broadcast authority.

"The regime appreciates the fact that to appeal to the masses, both in 
Iran and the Muslim world, television is the most important outlet," 
says Karim Sadjadpour, an expert on Iran at the Carnegie Endowment for 
International Peace in Washington.

On any given day, the country's seven state-run channels broadcast a 
mostly drab offering of news, sports, cooking shows, soap operas and 
religious sermons. Political propaganda is constantly fed into the mix. 
Dissidents such as students or reformers are routinely paraded before 
cameras to read confessions after stints of solitary imprisonment.

A slick documentary-style program recently aired long interviews with 
two Iranian-Americans who were detained on allegations of working to 
overthrow the regime. The interviews -- in which the pair blandly 
admitted to meeting with Iranian scholars and dissidents, but not to 
attempting to topple the government -- were intercut with provocative 
scenes of demonstrations in Ukraine, where the U.S. encouraged groups 
that eventually staged the successful Orange Revolution in late 2004.

In July, Iran launched a 24-hour English-language satellite news channel 
called Press TV, joining the ranks of the BBC, CNN and Al Jazeera. Its 
Arabic news channel, Al Alam, has been broadcasting news with an Iranian 
slant in the Arab world for several years.

Episodes of "Zero Degree Turn," broadcast in Farsi, can be seen outside 
of Iran on the Internet, either streaming live or downloaded at 
http://tv1.irib.ir/barnameha/sharhefilm.asp?code=0011109036106 . It 
is also broadcast with English subtitles on the state-controlled Jameh 
Jam satellite channel, which is available on Europe's Hot Bird
satellite network. Mr. Fatthi also says Islamic Republic of Iran
Broadcasting has been contacted about selling the show to networks in
other countries, but he doesn't know which ones.

Corrections & Amplifications

Press TV, a 24-hour English-language satellite news channel, was 
launched by Iran in July. An earlier version of this article incorrectly 
called the channel Pars News.