In an interview with Neil MacFarqhar of the NYT, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had the following exchange:
NYT: On another subject, you are a Persian; you are not an Arab. Your country has never directly at least fought a war with Israel, and yet you seem obsessed by the Jews. Why?
President Ahmadinejad: We have nothing to do with their business at all. Jewish people live in Iran; they have lived there historically. They have a representative in our Parliament. Although there are only 20,000 people, they still have one representative in Parliament. Whereas for the rest of the population you have a minimum requirement of 150,000 people to have one representative. So the Jewish people are treated just like everyone else, like the Christians and the Muslims and the Zoroastrians. They are respected. Everyone is respected.
The question is really over Zionism. Zionism is not Judaism. It is a political party. It is a very secretive political party, which is the root cause of insecurity and wars. For 60 years in our region people have been killed, they have been threatened for 60 years, they have been aggressed upon for 60 years. Several large wars have occurred. A large number of territories there are occupied. More than five million people have been displaced and become refugees. Women and children are attacked in their own homes. They demolish homes over the heads of women and children with bulldozer, in their own house, in their own homeland. These are not crimes that one can shut ones eyes to. We disagree with these criminal acts and we announce it loud and clear. The anger of the U.S. government does not prevent us from saying loud and clear what we think about these acts. As long as these crimes are not rooted out we will continue voicing our concern.
I thought the interview was rather good. MacFarqhar did not follow up, but let Ahmadinejad talk. Many of his answers ranged from denial to non-responsiveness. MacFarqhar did not have to follow up because the responses spoke volumes. Or as MacFarqhar put it in a companion piece:
He was distinctly less forthcoming about domestic problems in Iran. At one point when he started to grow testy while being pressed about economic problems under his administration, an aide sitting at his elbow advised him in Persian to stay calm while answering.
I’m reasonably certain that MacFarqhar speaks Arabic, this little observation suggests that he understand Persian too. “Less forthcoming” is a bit of an understatement. And of course Friday’s Qud’s Day celebrations gave lie to Ahmadinejad’s claim that it is Zionists not Jews he opposes.
Presumably on Friday, the world’s news photographers had no other purpose than to photograph Quds day demonstrations.
Iran however had its own way of celebrating – by denying the Holocaust.
Iranian students have released a book containing cartoons of the Holocaust, including some depicting hospitalized Jews on respiratory machines attached to canisters of Zyklon B, the gas used to exterminate Jews during World War II.
The students, members of a state militia, unveiled “Holocaust” in Tehran’s Palestine Square on Friday in the presence of Education Minister Ali Reza Ali-Ahmadi, during annual demonstrations calling for the retreat of “Zionists” from “occupied Palestine.”
The Post’s article first notes that Ahmadinejad spoke last week against Zionists but observes:
The book, however, talks explicitly of the history of the Jews “before, during and after the Holocaust.” The cartoons show caricatured Jews with large, hooked noses trying to fabricate evidence for the Holocaust, while the text states that the Nazi massacre has been highly exaggerated, makes fun of testimonials from survivors and accuses present-day Jews of trying to make money from the Holocaust.
The article ends with a quote from the sole Jewish member of the Iranian parliament saying saying that anti-Zionism, not antisemitism is the policy of the Iranian government. Of course he’s in an unenviable position. He may be in the Majlis, but he better say whatever the regime tells him. It’s true that on the surface he parroted Ahmadinejad’s lie, but anything else and he would have experienced the true “freedom” that Mad Mahmoud boasts about. Overall the Post’s report makes the case that Zionist means Jew to Ahmadinejad and the mullahcracy in Iran.
Related thoughts here and here.
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
