[It looks like maybe we can close the debate on this point. He seems worse than worst exaggerations.]
http://www.juancole.com/2009/09/ahmadinejad-spews-raving-lunatic-anti.html
Saturday, September 19, 2009 Informed Comment
Ahmadinejad Spews Raving Lunatic Anti-Semitism on 'Jerusalem Day' Juan Cole
Note: Revised 9/21/09
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gave a sermon on Friday for "Jerusalem
Day" that is full of the most vile crackpot anti-Semitism that can be
imagined.
Anti-Semitism as a form of bigotry typically ascribes the most abject
motives and character to Jews in general at the same time as they are
depicted as secretly controlling the world. The original version of
this posting did not post extended Open Source Center translation. Here
are a couple of paragraphs, below. But note that the the first two
sentences were not in the Persian text. The OSC translators listened to
the original radio broadcast, however, and so it is possible that
Ahmadinejad added things orally that were not in his prepared remarks.
I have compared the translation to the Persian text and have altered
some of my original readings.
'Before the First World War, certain noises were made in order to
organize an evil current to dominate the entire world. Using their
colonial experiences, they [the imperial European states] plotted to
dominate all nations and the world's material and intellectual
properties. After the First World War, they abused the ignorance of
the nations and Muslims of the region, and they put Palestine under
the trusteeship of the old colonialist, Britain. They provided an
opportunity for the organized criminal Zionists and the[se] rushed
into Palestine. Under the cover of buying farms, gardens, and lands,
they occupied a major part of the land by the use of weapons and
carrying out massacres and assassinations. By the help of the
British government and relying on her force, they displaced the
people.
Before the Second World War, the noises and activities were
intensified. In European countries, a complicated show started which
was called anti-Semitism. Of course, some governments and their
people have always abhorred the Jews because of indecent behavior by
some of the Jews and they were willing to evict the Jews out of
Europe. However, some European governments and statesmen and the
Zionist network did the main plot of anti-Semitism. They produced
hundreds of films. They wrote hundreds of books and circulated
rumors. They started a psychological war in order to make them (the
Jews) escape to Palestine.'
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!
The US press coverage of the speech has focused on Ahmadinejad's denial
of the Holocaust, which seems more complete than before (he has in the
past said that the number of dead, 6 million, has been 'exaggerated').
He said this time, "Four or five years after the Second World War, all
of a sudden they claimed that during this war, the Holocaust had
occurred. They claimed that a few million Jews had been burned in the
crematorium furnaces. They institutionalized two slogans. One was the
innocence of the Jews. They used lies and very sophisticated propaganda
and psychological ploys and created the illusion that they (the Jews)
are innocent. The second goal was that they created the illusion that
the Jews needed an independent state and government. They were so
persuasive and convincing that many of the world's politicians and
intellectuals were deceived and persuaded." Elsewhere he called this
'pretext' a "lie" and a "myth" (afsaneh).
He then went on to repeat his bizarre claim that researchers are
prevented from researching the Holocaust. Surely no event in history
has been better documented by historians from primary sources.
I just felt a chill, and frankly then nausea, as I read this sewage.
I am not saying that Ahmadinejad is genocidal. He has killed many more
Muslims than Jews (I don't know that he has directly killed any Jews,
and Iran has 20,000). A campaign of vilication against me was kicked
off when I pointed out that Ahmadinejad had not in fact threatened to
wipe Israel off the map, but had just quoted Ayatollah Khomeini to the
effect that the 'Zionist regime over Jerusalem' must eventually 'vanish
from the page of time.' Since expressing a wish that a regime will
collapse is not a casus belli, hawks who wanted a war on Iran were
furious at me for revealing the truth. The usually reasonable New York
Times even did a hand-waving smoke and mirrors piece attempting to
deflect my argument without actually disproving it. And it remains the
case that Ahmadinejad is not the commander in chief of the armed forces
and cannot make troops march into war-- that prerogative is with
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Ahmadinejad could not even appoint a vice
president he wanted without Khamenei's permission (and when it was not
forthcoming, he had to dismiss him).
But the venomous rhetoric against Jews (it isn't just Zionists if it is
projected back 500 years) that he used in this speech is so hateful
that if it became widespread and ensconced in Iranian society, it
certainly would have bad and tragic results-- for Jews, Iranians and
for us human beings in general.
One of the dangers of the right-wing Zionists' tactic of smearing as
"anti-Semitic" all criticism of any Israeli policy is precisely that
they end up trivializing this deadly, soul-killing phenomenon, and by
crying wolf so often may actually decrease vigilance toward the real
thing. Saying that former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert is
corrupt, or that Israeli settlers in the West Bank are violating the
international law of occupation, is not anti-Semitism. Neither one is
doing any favors to Israel or to world Jewry, and it is odd that anyone
should defend them or see criticism of them as bigotry. But the bilge
that came out of Ahmadinejad's mouth on Friday, that is the real thing.
Luckily, most Iranians clearly were not taken in, and his opponents put
around pamphlets saying "No to Gaza and Lebanon, I will give my life
[only] for Iran!" In fact, by associating it with himself, Ahmadinejad
may single-handedly be sinking support for the Palestinian cause among
Iranians, since most of them despise him and everything he stands for.
Now excuse me while I go take a shower with lava soap. Ugh.
posted by Juan Cole @ 9/19/2009 12:55:00 AM