Ahmadinejad, The Man & The Myth - Is He Really A Threat To The World?

President Bush said on Wednesday the United States would stop North Korea from transferring nuclear weapons to Iran or al-Qaida and that the communist regime would then face "a grave consequence."

Bush refused to spell out how the United States would retaliate. "They'd be held to account," the president said in an ABC News interview.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned Iran that they would have "a price to pay" if it doesn't back down from its nuclear ambitions, hinting broadly that Israel might be forced to take action.Israel cannot reconcile itself to a nuclear Iran, he said, and "there comes a time when you have to do damage control.""A red line must be drawn that cannot be crossed," he said, without specifying what that line was.

On Friday, in a speech to mark Jerusalem day, the Iranian president said Europe was stirring up hatred in the Middle East by supporting Israel and warned it "may get hurt" if anger in the region boiled over.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a speech broadcast on state radio: "You should believe that this regime [Israel] cannot last and has no more benefit to you. What benefit have you got in supporting this regime, except the hatred of the nations?

Ahmadinejad caused outrage last year by calling for Israel to be "wiped off the map", echoing comments by Ayatollah Khomeini, the Islamic Republic's late founder, who established al-Quds or Jerusalem day in 1981. It is a day when Iranians are encouraged to demonstrate in support of the Palestinians.

In the speech, he said: "Today, with the grace of God, the efforts to establish this fake regime have failed totally."

Response
A spokesman for Tony Blair, the British prime minister, said in response to Ahmadinejad's speech: "Unfortunately these remarks do not come as a surprise. They are consistent with what Mr Ahmadinejad has said for some time.

Philippe Douste-Blazy, the French foreign minister, said in a statement: "I condemn the unacceptable comments made today by the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in which he again calls into question the existence of the state of Israel."

What did he really mean - Does he really hate Jews?
After his historic speech at the United Nations general assembly, Ahmadinejad when asked by a reporter if he had been correctly translated as saying last year he sought the elimination of the Jewish state. He said Zionists were aggressors and murderers who had driven Palestinians from their home to set up the Jewish state and then occupied Palestinian lands.

"We love everyone around the world. Jews, Christians, Muslims, non-Muslims, non-Jews, non-Christians - we have no problem with people," he told a news conference on the sidelines of a U.N. General Assembly meeting.

"Zionists are Zionists, period. They are not Jews, they are not Christians, and they are not Muslims," he said. "They are a power group, a power party, and we oppose the oppression and the aggression that any party that seeks pure raw power goes after."

Zionism is the name of the movement to establish a Jewish homeland that led to the creation of the state of Israel nearly 60 years ago. Ahmadinejad says he favors a return of Palestinians to the land now called Israel, and a referendum "with the participation of everyone" to determine its fate.

On the people of the United States he said: Iranians "highly regarded" the people of the United States as they did all people around the world, he said. "Many people in the United States believe in God and they believe in justice."

On the Jews in New York
On his trip to New York, President Ahmadinejad had a meeting with rabbies held at the Intercontinental Hotel in Manhattan.The rabbis, who believe Israel's founding violated God's will, had praise for the controversial Iranian leader.

"God should give you long life and health and strength and not to be intimidated by the attacks of Zionism, that is attacking you as being anti-Semitic, which is a pure ploy of Zionism to intimidate people," said Rabbi Yisroel David Weiss of United Jews Against Zionism.

"They shouldn't speak up against their illegitimate state."Ahmadinejad again questioned the existence of the Holocaust. The rabbis, some of whom lost relatives in the war, suggested it was all a Zionist conspiracy. New York City Jewish groups told WCBS-TV the meeting was a travesty.







On the Jews in Iran
Although Iran and Israel are bitter enemies, few know that Iran is home to the largest number of Jews anywhere in the Middle East outside Israel.

About 25,000 Jews live in Iran and most are determined to remain no matter what the pressures - as proud of their Iranian culture as of their Jewish roots.

It is not a sight you would expect in a revolutionary Islamic state, but there are synagogues dotted all over Iran where Jews discreetly practise their religion.

"Because of our long history here we are tolerated," says Jewish community leader Unees Hammami, who organised the prayers.

He says the father of Iran's revolution, Imam Khomeini, recognised Jews as a religious minority that should be protected.

As a result Jews have one representative in the Iranian parliament.
"Imam Khomeini made a distinction between Jews and Zionists and he supported us," says Mr Hammami.

Despite the offence Mahmoud Ahmedinejad has caused to Jews around the world, his office recently donated money for Tehran's Jewish hospital.

It is one of only four Jewish charity hospitals worldwide and is funded with money from the Jewish diaspora - something remarkable in Iran where even local aid organisations have difficulty receiving funds from abroad for fear of being accused of being foreign agents.

"Anti-Semitism is not an eastern phenomenon, it's not an Islamic or Iranian phenomenon - anti-Semitism is a European phenomenon," he says, arguing that Jews in Iran even in their worst days never suffered as much as they did in Europe.


Useful Readings:
BBC: Iran's proud but discreet Jews

CBS: Iran's Ahmadinejad Bonds With Rabbis In NYC

Neturei Karta – Jews United Aginst Zionism

Why Orthodox Jews Are Opposed to a Zionist State