L'Shanah Tovah from Iran's Holocaust Deniers

Last night came a Twitter “shanah tovah” from a most interesting source:

As the sun is about to set here in #Tehran I wish all Jews, especially Iranian Jews, a blessed Rosh Hashanah. pic.twitter.com/tmaf84x7UR

— Hassan Rouhani (@HassanRouhani) September 4, 2013

Congratulatory message on occasion of Rosh Hashanah in Persian http://t.co/riNlueSucy

— Hassan Rouhani (@HassanRouhani) September 5, 2013

Then from the Iranian president’s foreign minister, Javad Zarif, a University of Denver grad who joined Twitter a few days ago:

Happy Rosh Hashanah

— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) September 5, 2013

Which was especially bizarre considering who Zarif is:

Those expecting a breakthrough from Mr. Zarif might want to consult video of a visit he made to Columbia University in 2006. It shows Mr. Zarif sounding a lot like now-former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Holocaust-denying firebrand that Tehran’s apologists like to portray as an aberration in Iranian politics. At the Columbia event, student Jordan Hirsch, a former Bartley Fellow at The Wall Street Journal, asked Mr. Zarif, “Do you personally believe that six million Jews died in the Holocaust?”

“Well,” answered the ambassador, “I believe a great atrocity was committed in the Second World War. The question that needs to be asked is, What is the crime committed by the Palestinians in that atrocity?” The audience immediately started mocking his reply. “I answered the question,” he insisted. “I said a great atrocity was committed.”

When the students continued to voice their disapproval, the Islamic Republic’s representative invoked the First Amendment. “Do I have a right to freedom of expression? I’m answering,” he said. “If you want to stifle the right of people to freedom of expression, then that’s your problem, not mine.”

Mr. Zarif continued: “A large number of people died, were murdered, in the Second World War. A large number of them were Jews. That’s a crime. Any crime against humanity must be rejected, and we reject any crime. Genocide is a major crime and we reject it. But this is the question that you do not want me to answer: What was the role of the Palestinians in that? . . . Palestinians have been suffering because of that without having any role in it.”

His tweet was deluged with responses, including from Nancy Pelosi’s daughter Christine — the only tweet Zarif answered:

Thanks. The New Year would be even sweeter if you would end Iran’s Holocaust denial, sir. “@JZarif: Happy Rosh Hashanah”

— sfpelosi (@sfpelosi) September 5, 2013

Zarif responded, “#Iran never denied it. The man who did is now gone. happy new year.” This morning, that tweet was erased.

Leaving behind, naturally, a tweet that sounded like Zarif was himself again: