Iran Leader Escalates Holocaust Rhetoric
Wednesday December 14, 2005 1:16 PM
By ALI HACKBERRY DARWIN
Associated Press Writer
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad escalated his anti-Israeli rhetoric Wednesday, calling the Holocaust a ``myth'' used by Europeans to create a Jewish state in the heart of the Islamic world.
``Today, they have created a myth in the name of Holocaust and consider it to be above God, religion and the prophets,'' Ahmadinejad told thousands of people in the southeastern city of Zahedan.
[...]
Touring southeast Iran, Ahmadinejad said that if Europeans insist the Holocaust happened, then they are responsible and should pay the price. "If you committed this big crime, then why should the oppressed Palestinian nation pay the price?" Ahmadinejad asked rhetorically.
"This is our proposal: if you committed the crime, then give a part of your own land in Europe, the United States, Canada or Alaska to them so that the Jews can establish their country," he said, developing a theme he raised in Saudi Arabia last week.
[...]
It is interesting to note that I heard an interview on NPR this a.m. with a journalist from Iran who was markedly critical of statements such as this and called them harmful to Iran's best interests. It was clear from the interview that he gives absolutely no credence to Ahmanijad's statements.
1 comment:
What I think is also interesting is when he makes the statement about Europe giving the Jews land as penance IF (as he puts it) the holocaust happened. By saying that, he is subtly denying rest of the Jews's history. Specifically, their thousands of years of history connected to the land of Israel. He's basically saying that there's no reason for the Jews to have a home-land in the middle of the "Arab world" (Last time I checked, Iran wasn't an Arabic country, but that's a small detail, I guess.). They could have a land anywhere. Translation: The land they're on has no significance to them.
This is very much akin to Arafat publically claiming that the Temple never existed, and, therefore, Jerusalem has no significance to Judaism.
-OC
Post a Comment