Following Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s recent foul speech on “Jerusalem Day” about Jews, Israel and the Holocaust – he’s been welcomed to New York this week with Iranian protests - Juan Cole digs deeper into his words to reveal an even bleaker picture:
For him to suggest, as he does here, that anti-Semitism was justified by Jewish “indecent behavior,” is beyond despicable. He also appears to blame Jews for the Nazi crimes against them, saying that the Zionists spread around anti-Semitic books and films in Europe so as to make Jews hated and so as to cause them to be expelled to Palestine. These allegations go beyond simple anti-Zionism into a weird and creepy world of anti-Semitic conspiracy theory.
Elsewhere he says, “My dear ones, the pretext used to establish the Zionist regime was a lie and a corrupt act. It was a lie based on a fabricated claim that cannot be proven. The occupation of the Palestinian land had no connection with the issue of holocaust. The claim, the pretext, [and the directors [dastandarkaran] and the patrons [hamiyan]] are all fraudulent and corrupt. They are all historical criminals. They are responsible for plundering and colonizing the world for the past 500 years.”
I read the Persian phrase, which the government translators dropped, about dastandarkaran (masters, proprietors) and their protectors and patrons (hamiyan) to be a reference to Zionists and imperialists. He then says “all of them” (hamih-’i ishan) are responsible for colonizing and plundering the world for the past half-millennium. I’ve gone back and forth on this, since Ahmadinejad’s speaking style is syntactically sloppy and his referents are not always clear, but I am leaning to thinking that he sees a Jewish/ imperial partnership as having stretched into the distant past.
In other words, he is saying, all of modern history (possibly from the Portuguese conquest of Goa) and certainly the British conquests during WW I, the Nazi persecution of Jews, and last year’s American presidential race, has been the unfolding of a secret Jewish plot, wherein “Zionists” control everything that happens.
You wonder why he holds out any hope of Palestinians prevailing in the face of such a long-lived and all-powerful conspiracy! It is sort of like The Highlander meets the Protocols of the Elders of Zion!
This man is most certainly not a friend of the Palestinians.
Ahmadinejad is not saying anything that isn’t said on a daily basis by the Palestinian leadership and repeated by their TV stations, radio, newspapers and school textbooks. Anyone remember Farfour the Jew-hating Mouse or Nahoul the Jew-hating Bee? Al-Manar pumped into peoples homes 24 hours a day. Palestinians are brainwashed from birth to have the same insane hatreds that Ahmadinejad is spewing so I find it laughable that you suddenly have a problem with anti-Semitism and act like his attitudes to Jews are in some way different from those in your beloved “Palestine”.
The reason the west and jews have to demonise him is because we can’t face our own truth. He asks the same valid questions that hundreds of millions ask – why is only the holocaust the issue when over 60 million people died? If the west are uncomfortable it is because they did all the killing and the Palestinians and Iranians did none of it but they are the ones constantly attacked and abused for the crimes of the west. We all need to face some facts and stop whining.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/216040
Iran is trying to improve its relationship with the West, as I understand it. It is clear that there was a Holocaust. Why would you say there was no Holocaust? Do you feel there should be no Jewish state—no Israel?
What I am saying is extremely clear. It is an academic approach to a crucial subject and also one based on humanitarian considerations. What I am saying here is that in past history many events have happened, and in World War II many crimes were committed. Over 60 million people were killed and even more were displaced. So we have several specific questions with regard to the events of World War II, and I believe we cannot find the answers to these questions through the propaganda that is promoted by the media. In the end, the questions need convincing answers. The first question that I have to try and understand is why in the midst of all that happened in World War II, the Holocaust is emphasized more than any other [event]?
Let’s say that Stalin’s crimes were equally great.
The second question is why do Western politicians focus on this issue so much? The third question is how does that event connect with issues that we see around us in the world today? Was this a historical event that happened in isolation without impacting the present conditions? The next question we should ask ourselves is if the event did take place, where did it happen, who were the perpetrators, what was the role of the Palestinian people? What crime have they committed to deserve what they have received as a result? Why exactly should the Palestinian people be victimized? Are you aware that over 5 million Palestinians have been displaced and have had refugee status? What role did they play in the Holocaust? Why is the Holocaust used as a pretext to occupy the land of other people? Why should the Palestinian people give their lives up for it? You are probably aware that there have been embargoes on the people of Gaza.
Who is there to speak for the 9 million German women, kids and old people murdered by the west under the Morgenthau plan from 1945-50? Only James Bacque from Canada and Giles McDonogh from England so far. The Germans are never allowed to mention the 16 million of them ethnically cleansed from Europe after the war, the millions dead and the immense suffering of the innocent civilians after the years of deprivation at Hitlers hands.
We are not allowed to talk about the 3 million Polish catholics murdered under Hitler’s mad plan to murder all Poles just because he hated them so much, we are not allowed to state as Tom Segev did that only 20% of the deaths in Buchenwald were jews, we are not allowed to mention even that fully two thirds of Austrian, German and Russian jews had escaped the killing fields before the war.
Shaun, you are one moronic lad is you don’t mind me saying so. The Palestinians did not put jews into gas chambers but they have been paying for it under zionist rule and plans since 100 years before WW11 and it has to stop and stop now.
Ahmadinejad is constantly quoted out of context by Western media. e.g 60 minutes US this year
The constant disinformation about his views on the genocide against Europe’s Jews & other minorities is an example of why Iran does not trust the West.
I’m not defending Iran’s domestic political controls, but can understand the level of paranoia among the country’s rulers given that 56 years ago, the US toppled the Middle East’s first democratically elected government of Iran, and replaced it with the Shah Pahlavi.