Iranian 'news' gets its scare-quotes mixed up

It used to be that Iranian "news" sources would "report" about news from Israel and "Palestine" with a liberal use of "scare-quotes" around the word "Israel," usually referring to it as the "Zionist regime."

Today, for some strange reason, I am seeing that they are scare-quoting "Zionist" and not Israel.

Maybe next they'll start getting rid of the vowels of anything vaguely Jewish, so we'll be reading about "Z**n*sts" and "*sr**l".

LONDON, September 26 (IranMania) - Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi deplored new wave of extensive air raids of 'Zionist' regime against innocent Palestinian people, IRNA reported.

He condemned Israeli air raids against Palestinian activists and said that the extensive air attacks against defenseless Palestinians indicated that (Ariel) Sharon cannot abandon its nature of warmongering and murder.

"The Zionist regime's announcement of withdrawal from Gaza with US green light was a ploy to misuse inattention of the international community, especially those Islamic states which resumed diplomatic relations with the 'Zionists' to pave the way for new round of repressive moves against the Palestinians," Asefi said.