ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION I D , a conference of historic signifi cance was convened in Tehran, Iran at which 67 participants from 30 countries participated.1 Although elements of the extreme right and radical Islam have, on occasion, collaborated in the past, since World War II, cooperation has generally been sporadic and sub rosa.2 Possibly, an important watershed event, the Tehran conference could presage greater cooperation in the future between the two seemingly disparate movements, which on closer analysis, actually share a very similar critique with respect to the Holocaust, American foreign policy, and, oddly enough, the Palestinian issue. In recent years, some observers have noted the parallels between traditional antiSemitism and the current incarnation of anti-Americanism.3 Both

the extreme right and radical Islam see the United States as being under the control of a Jewish cabal. A new synthesis has been created centered on the narrative of the U.S.-Israeli alliance. In a sense, Holocaust denial serves to bind disparate groups and individuals together who share a critique of Jews and Zionism, but arrive at these positions for diff erent reasons.