by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright December 8, 2005
All Rights Reserved.

ran's extremist President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was at it again, spewing more racial hate against Jews at an Islamic conference in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. In October, Ahmadinejad called for Israel “to be wiped off the map,” prompting condemnation from world leaders. This time, the newly minted Iranian president pandered to Islam's most radical elements, drawing support from the same Wahhabist factions claiming allegiance to Osama bin Laden and other radical clerics. With growing discontent inside Iran giving rise to a fledgling democracy movement, Ahmadinejad pandered to Iran's mullahs, hanging on to power at all costs. Pulling out all stops, he dredged up old images of Hitler's “Mein Kamph,” fingering “the Jews” for all the Mideast problems. In an outrageous plea, Ahmadinejad asked Europeans to find Israel territory for permanent relocation.

      More off the wall by the minute, Ahmadinejad denied the Holocaust, telling attendees at a two-day meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference that reports of Jewish genocide in the Holocaust were grossly exaggerated. “Some European countries insist on saying that Hitler killed millions of innocent Jews in furnaces and they insist on it to the extent that if a anyone proves something contrary they condemn the person and throw them in jail.” It's beyond ironic, that Jews were safe from persecution in Iran during the modern era under the first Shah Reza Pahlavi [1877-1944] and under his son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi [1921-1980] during the Nazi holocaust in World War II. Since Ayatollah Khomeini's 1979 Islamic Revolution, Jews were systematically persecuted and forced out of Iran. Ahmadinejad's racist remarks reflect continuity with Khomeini's radical policies.

      Preaching to the anti-Semitic choir in Mecca, Ahmadinejad blasted the U.S. and Israel for furthering Zionist ambitions at the expense of native Palestinians. It's funny how the Israelites or Jews—not Palestinians—were mentioned in the Jewish and Christian bibles, preceding Islam by hundreds of years, yet Ahmadinejad questioned whether Hebrew ancestors ever lived in “Palestine.” “The question is where do those who rule in Palestine as occupiers come from? Where were they born? Where did their fathers live? They have roots in Palestine but they have taken the fate of Palestine in their own hands,” said Ahmadinejad trying, like Bin Laden and Saddam, to rally Islamic radicals against the Jewish State. Today's Palestinian Authority, led by the late Yasser Arafat's successor Mahmoud Abbas, seeks peace with Israel, not more radicalization by militant Palestinian factions.

      When Ahmadinejad called Israel “a disgraceful blot” that should be “wiped off the map” in October, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini remained mum. “The ruling establishment should do something about this man,” said Iranian news analyst Davoud Hermides Bavand, questioning Ahmadinejad's fitness to serve as president. When Ahmeadinejad beat 70-year-old pro-Western reformer Hashemi Rasfanjani for president June 25, Iran regressed to its radical past, ignoring a growing movement begging more freedoms once enjoyed under the Shah. Instead of driving its youth into caves to don lipstick, Iran should be dealing in good faith with the International Atomic Energy Agency's Mohammed ElBaradei to end its nuclear enrichment activity. Ahmadinejad's incendiary rhetoric diverts attention away from Iran's feverish pursuit of atomic bombs.

      Bogged down in Iraq, the U.S. lacks the resources and will to aggressively contain a growing Iranian nuclear threat. After finding no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, it's clear that intelligence estimates miscalculated the real menace in the Middle East. Iran's refusal to allow ElBaradei's inspectors unfettered access to its enrichment sites at Isfahan, Arak, Natanz and, more recently, at it highly secret military Parchin facility indicates that Tehran is up to no good. While ElBaradei indicated that the world is losing patience with Tehran, there's little the U.N. can do to stop Iran's nuclear ambitions. Referral to the U.S. Security Council would be likely met with vetoes by China and Russia—Iran's main suppliers of nuclear technology. U.S. involvement in Iraq has only siphoned off precious energy and resources needed to stop Tehran from building atomic bombs.

      Hateful rhetoric spewing from Ahmadinejad gives Tehran the needed smokescreen to continue pursuing its nuclear fuel cycle. Conservative Israeli politicians like former Prime Minister Benjamin Nentanyahu have already signaled that Israel may have to take preemptive action like in did in 1982, when it bombed Saddam's Osirak nuclear reactor. Israel knows that Iran poses a far greater danger to its survival than Iraq. It also knows that Iran represents a more complicated mission in any kind of preemptive strike. Before Israel acts unilaterally, the U.S. must conclude its mission in Iraq to free up available resources to deal with a growing Iranian atomic threat. “The ball is in Iran's court. It is up to Iran to show the kind of transparency they need to show,” ElBaradei told reporters in Oslo, Norway. With or without ElBaradei's warnings, the U.S. must put more pressure on Tehran.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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