Fox News reports that New York congressman Stephen Israel wants Iranian pres. Ahmadinejad arrested on "incitement to genocide" charges. Why? Because of his alleged calls for Israel to be "wiped off the map."
Problem is - as Juan Cole and others have noted - the man called for no such thing. A proper translation of what he said (a couple of years back - and he was quoting the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini) was that the Zionist regime would eventually disappear from the pages of history - as well it likely will, as will the United States, in the centuries to come. But a state or regime "disappearing" is hardly the same thing as "wiping from the map" said state, or (as Rep. Israel - and Mr. Netanyahu and his ilk would have us believe) eradicating its people.
I'm as appalled and disgusted by Mr. Ahmadinejad's vile rejection of the reality of the Holocaust as is anyone. But it's inexcusable that Israel + Netanyahu keep invoking the Ahmadinejad = Hitler, Iranian bomb = second Holocaust trope. Absolutely nothing good comes from it; it brings us all closer to another catastrophic war; and it does great disservice and disrespect to those millions of Jewish lives Hitler's regime snuffed out. Rep. Israel ought to be ashamed.
Problem is - as Juan Cole and others have noted - the man called for no such thing. A proper translation of what he said (a couple of years back - and he was quoting the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini) was that the Zionist regime would eventually disappear from the pages of history - as well it likely will, as will the United States, in the centuries to come. But a state or regime "disappearing" is hardly the same thing as "wiping from the map" said state, or (as Rep. Israel - and Mr. Netanyahu and his ilk would have us believe) eradicating its people.
I'm as appalled and disgusted by Mr. Ahmadinejad's vile rejection of the reality of the Holocaust as is anyone. But it's inexcusable that Israel + Netanyahu keep invoking the Ahmadinejad = Hitler, Iranian bomb = second Holocaust trope. Absolutely nothing good comes from it; it brings us all closer to another catastrophic war; and it does great disservice and disrespect to those millions of Jewish lives Hitler's regime snuffed out. Rep. Israel ought to be ashamed.
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