Are they doing this on purpose? First top politicians feted Khatami in Germany despite the mullah's charming declaration that Israel is "an old, incurable wound on the body of Islam, a wound that really possesses demonic, stinking, contagious blood." Potentially embarrassing questions about internal Iranian politics - like the ones that cracked Ahmadinejad in NYC - were prohibited. Naturally.

On the economic side it's almost like Germans are going out of their way to flaunt sanctions and keep Iran's economy afloat:

While the United States reacts to reports that Iran had enriched enough uranium for a nuclear weapon with concern and calls for tighter sanctions, in Germany it is business as usual. Today, many of the leading lights of German-Iranian trade will be meeting at a conference in Hamburg in order to discuss how further to promote the "success" of German business with Iran... the Hamburg-based German-Iranian Chamber of Commerce... continues to work with the Iranian Saderat Bank: a bank that was blacklisted by the United States in September 2006 on account of its relations with terrorist groups like Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad... The list of conference participants reads like a “Who’s Who” of German-Iranian trade relations.

Strong German-Iranian ties are apparently a matter of... achem... "tradition." Although economic relations are hardly the only common interest shared by contemporary Germans and Iranians. German Jews are actually experiencing anti-Semitic attacks that you couldn't even get away with in Iran (albeit only for technical halal reasons - it's not like the sentiment would be unrecognizable).

Maybe this is just Germany's attempt to reach out to their large, unassimilated Muslim populations. "Interfaith dialogue" and spirited theological disputation kind of spectacularly backfired. So maybe cozying up to the genocidal Iranian regime was their next best option. That and selling cutting edge subs to Egypt.

References:
* Jews slam Germany for hosting Khatami [JPost]
* Sanctions? What Sanctions? German-Iranian Trade Booms [PJM]
* Berlin hearts Iran III [WSJ]
* Pictures Of German Students' Anti-Semitic Pro-Palestinian Rampage (Plus: Not At All Anti-Semitic Berkeley Protesters Keep Attacking Jews) [MR]
* Vandals hang severed pig's head outside entrance to Jewish cemetery in Germany [Ha'aretz]
* German outreach to Muslims backfires [Hot Air]
* Germany-Egypt sub sale worries Israel [JPost]

Previously:
* Rabbis Are Again Being Attacked And Stabbed On German Streets
* Wherein We Almost Entirely Decline To Comment On Iran's Major Trading Partner
* German Anti-Zionists Momentarily Forget That They're Not Anti-Semitic, Trash Anti-Nazi Memorial