Mick Hartley

Iran is holding an "Hourglass Festival", counting down to the destruction of Israel:

At a press conference announcing the festival on Tuesday, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the Secretary General of the International Conference on Supporting Palestinian Intifada, said that "the Islamic Republic won't allow the Zionists to play with the security" of the Middle East. 

Amir-Abdollahian added that the Iranian regime believes that Israel will collapse within the next 25 years and suggested that, in the time being, Israel is purposefully keeping the region in an era of instability. 

To combat this "Zionist aggression," Iran is hosting the festival as a means to showcase anti-Israel art and multimedia creations. 

In the past, Iran has expressed this same sentiment by burning Israeli flags and hosting an annual Holocaust cartoon contest. 

One country holding a festival in celebration of the coming destruction of another country? Isn't that a bit….inflammatory?

No one seems much bothered, though. Search for it on Google and the top entries, aside from Iran's Mehr News, are all from the Israel media.

As David Gertsman notes, in the Tower, it does somewhat reinforce the sense of hollowness of that hackneyed old "never again" line, used after the Holocaust:

This week Iran announced that it will be hosting an “Hourglass festival” in April in anticipation of Israel’s anticipated destruction in 25 years. While there was plenty of commentary about it from pro-Israel groups, there appears to be virtually no response from the world at large.

If such a conference were a one-time event, silence might be appropriate, as maybe it’s just hubris. But this is not a one-time aberration, it is part of a pattern of Iran’s leadership calling for Israel’s destruction. And it isn’t just words, as the infiltration of Israeli airspace by Iranian drone three weeks ago showed, Iran is following up its words with actions.

These actions include the creation of Shiite militias to be deployed across the Middle East, the establishment of bases inside Shria, and the arming of the terror groups Hamas and Hezbollah on Israel’s southern and northern borders.

Iran is backing up its threats against Israel’s existence with concrete actions to make those threats credible.

Iran isn’t just talking about destroying the world’s one Jewish state, it is working towards that goal, but rather than saying “never again,” the world is saying, “who cares?”

[…]

If the words “never again” are to have any meaning, Iran’s aggression will have to be countered. At first this must be done with diplomatic isolation and economic measures. If such responses are not sufficient to deter Iran, then military efforts may be necessary. But without a strong stand against Iran and its designs in the Middle East, “never again” won’t mean anything.