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A policy of mercy just doesn't seem consistent with a policy of wanting to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth.
Ahmademonjihad announced over the weekend that Iran will here an appeal for Saberi.
Pressure from Human Rights organizations may or may not have something to do with it.
A policy of mercy just doesn't seem consistent with a policy of wanting to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth.
No matter how many times you say it it won't make it true; Ahmedinejad never said that.
Hunger strikes as a form of protest are pretty lame.
Chastising people for trying to help whilst doing nothing yourself is even more lame.People think because it worked for Ghandi, it'll work for them.
Chastising people for trying to help whilst doing nothing yourself is even more lame.
It's symbolic. Here, education is a good thing:Starving yourself is still doing nothing and lame.
Yeah, and gives them a piece of his mind.
I was referring to TheNextEra's "the hell with them they deserve it" routine.
That was a typical Left-Liberal, New-Liberal, or as I prefer to call them Far Left response.
So let me ask you Triad, when the government says don't travel to a country because it isn't safe for Americans, and you ignore that warning, you think the government should do something about it even though you ignored the warning?
There's a difference between 'Classic' Liberal and 'New' liberal.
Haven't seen a classic liberal barring maybe Alan Colmes and Micheal Kinsley in a while.
Yes, the USA should not abandon its citizens.
The only way to get hunger strikes to work is to apply them against the people you want to change, not to take them up yourselves. But then it's called a siege and not a hunger strike.
Anyway, I never got the point of things like hunger strikes, it's not going to do anything. Iran doesn't care if those people don't eat and it's not like they're gonna not eat till they die either.
Chastising people for trying to help whilst doing nothing yourself is even more lame.
Yes, the USA should not abandon its citizens.
Kind of hard to say he didn't say such things when terrorist tv aka Al Jazeera says he said those things.
Al Jazeera English - Archive - Ahmadinejad: Wipe Israel off map
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has openly called for Israel to be wiped off the map.
"The establishment of the Zionist regime was a move by the world oppressor against the Islamic world," the president told a conference in Tehran on Wednesday, entitled The World without Zionism.
"The skirmishes in the occupied land are part of a war of destiny. The outcome of hundreds of years of war will be defined in Palestinian land," he said.
"As the Imam said, Israel must be wiped off the map," said Ahmadinejad, referring to Iran's revolutionary leader Ayat Allah Khomeini.
His comments were the first time in years that such a high-ranking Iranian official has called for Israel's eradication, even though such slogans are still regularly used at government
rallies.
Actually, it's not an Al Jazeera article. It's an AFP article. And it has been debunked numerous times as a mistranslation; if you knew someone that spoke Farsi and you gave them what Ahmedinejad actually said you would know this.
Then what is he really saying? Give us your expert translation.
This was a mistranslation that has been used by many people as propaganda against Ahmedinejad and the Iranian administration. I contacted Juan Cole, who is a prominent Middle Eastern historian and speaks Farsi, and this was his response:
The speech in Persian is here:
Sorry that I misremembered the exact phrase Ahmadinejad had used. He made an analogy to Khomeini's determination and success in getting rid of the Shah's government, which Khomeini had said "must go" (az bain bayad berad). Then Ahmadinejad defined Zionism not as an Arabi-Israeli national struggle but as a Western plot to divide the world of Islam with Israel as the pivot of this plan.
The phrase he then used as I read it is "The Imam said that this regime occupying Jerusalem (een rezhim-e ishghalgar-e qods) must [vanish from] from the page of time (bayad az safheh-ye ruzgar mahv shavad)."
Ahmadinejad was not making a threat, he was quoting a saying of Khomeini and urging that pro-Palestinian activists in Iran not give up hope-- that the occupation of Jerusalem was no more a continued inevitability than had been the hegemony of the Shah's government.
Whatever this quotation from a decades-old speech of Khomeini may have meant, Ahmadinejad did not say that "Israel must be wiped off the map" with the implication that phrase has of Nazi-style extermination of a people. He said that the occupation regime over Jerusalem must be erased from the page of time.
Again, Ariel Sharon erased the occupation regime over Gaza from the page of time.
I should again underline that I personally despise everything Ahmadinejad stands for, not to mention the odious Khomeini, who had personal friends of mine killed so thoroughly that we have never recovered their bodies. Nor do I agree that the Israelis have no legitimate claim on any part of Jerusalem. And, I am not exactly a pacifist but have a strong preference for peaceful social activism over violence, so needless to say I condemn the sort of terror attacks against innocent civilians (including Arab Israelis) that we saw last week. I have not seen any credible evidence, however, that such attacks are the doing of Ahmadinejad, and in my view they are mainly the result of the expropriation and displacement of the long-suffering Palestinian people.
It is not realistic for Americans to call for Iran to talk directly to the Israeli government (though in the 1980s the Khomeinists did a lot of business with Israel) when the US government won't talk directly to the Iranians about most bilateral issues. In fact, an American willingness to engage in direct talks might well pave the way to an eventual settlement of these outstanding issues.
cheers
Juan Cole
I have also asked friends that I know that speak Farsi, some who still have family in Iran, and they have confirmed Cole's translation.
Isn't it convenient how things get misunderstood in translation. Especially when making excuses for racist, holocaust deniers like Ahmadinejad. The man personifies pure unadulterated evil.
Here are some quotes from the son of satan and twelver, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
"Some European countries insist on saying that Hitler killed millions of innocent Jews in furnaces.... Although we don't accept this claim, if we suppose it is true, our question for the Europeans is: Is the killing of innocent Jewish people by Hitler the reason for their support to the occupiers of Jerusalem? If the Europeans are honest they should give some of their provinces in Europe -- like in Germany, Austria or other countries -- to the Zionists and the Zionists can establish their state in Europe." ~ Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (Speaking to reporters at an Islamic summit in Mecca)
"The Zionist regime is an injustice and by its very nature a permanent threat. Whether you like it or not, the Zionist regime is heading toward annihilation. The Zionist regime is a rotten, dried tree that will be eliminated by one storm."~ Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (In a speech at the opening of the "Support for the Palestinian Intifada" conference on April 14-16, 2006 hosted in Tehran)
''We say that this fake regime (Israel) cannot not logically continue to live. Open the doors of Europe and let the Jews go back to their own countries." ~ Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 4/24/2006
"Are they human beings?... The Zionists are a group of blood-thirsty savages putting all other criminals to shame." ~ Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 8/2/2006 (as quoted by Iranian TV)
"The Zionist regime is counterfeit and illegitimate and cannot survive"
~ Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 10/19/2006 (as quoted by Iranian state television)
"Israel is destined for destruction and will soon disappear"
Israel is "a contradiction to nature, we foresee its rapid disappearance and destruction." ~ Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 11/13/2006
These are but a few quotes of many. Are they all misinterpretations? I think not. There is no doubt that this man is a holocaust denier, a racist, and a danger to Israel.