Pop Hitler, Peak Hitler?

Er ist wieder da. He is back again. During the harrowing June nail-biter standoff between Israel and Iran, an otherwise dissonant chorus of global diplomatic voices — for a moment — seemed to speak in unison. According to a bare-minimum international consensus, Hitler had to be defeated once more. What was less clear, and subject to intense public-diplomatic dispute, was the question of who exactly harboured the spirit of the Führer this time. For Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and Turkish President Recep Erdoğan, the reincarnation was obvious: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, now said to be the flesh vessel of ultimate evil. In return, Israel’s Defence Minister Katz identified the Ayatollah Khamenei as the contemporary Hitler, allegedly hellbent on completing what his twentieth-century predecessor could not — the annihilation of the Jewish people.