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disturbing
Dec. 14th, 2005 07:39 amIranian leader denies Holocaust
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has courted further controversy by explicitly calling the Nazi Holocaust of European Jewry a "myth".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4527142.stm
This would be laughable if Ahmadinejad were some loony crackpot, or third-world dictator whose power rested on his control of his armies. But he's not; he's the elected leader of a significant nation.
He even makes at least one valid point.
He returned to his earlier theme that Europe should shoulder the responsibility for a Jewish state.
"If you [Europeans] committed this big crime, then why should the oppressed Palestinian nation pay the price?
European guilt at the end of WWII *did* somehow get paid off with someone else's land. Of course, the point was to get Jews *out* of Europe, where they had been being slaughtered, back to what was claimed to be their ancestral homeland (never mind that there were now other people living there...) But still, a neat solution for everyone but the Palestinians. Other, earlier European proposals, like creating a Jewish state in Kenya, had a similar flavour of "why don't we give you some of someone else's land..." to them, too.
But back to Ahmadinejad... presumably this is not an indication of practical policy as quote fodder to boost his popularity at home. But the fact that that *will* boost his popularity, instead of causing the Iranian people tremendous embarrassment, is pretty disturbing. It shows just how much of a hill ther still is to climb in finding a solution to the problems of the region that will enable, if not amity between nations, at least toleration.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has courted further controversy by explicitly calling the Nazi Holocaust of European Jewry a "myth".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4527142.stm
This would be laughable if Ahmadinejad were some loony crackpot, or third-world dictator whose power rested on his control of his armies. But he's not; he's the elected leader of a significant nation.
He even makes at least one valid point.
He returned to his earlier theme that Europe should shoulder the responsibility for a Jewish state.
"If you [Europeans] committed this big crime, then why should the oppressed Palestinian nation pay the price?
European guilt at the end of WWII *did* somehow get paid off with someone else's land. Of course, the point was to get Jews *out* of Europe, where they had been being slaughtered, back to what was claimed to be their ancestral homeland (never mind that there were now other people living there...) But still, a neat solution for everyone but the Palestinians. Other, earlier European proposals, like creating a Jewish state in Kenya, had a similar flavour of "why don't we give you some of someone else's land..." to them, too.
But back to Ahmadinejad... presumably this is not an indication of practical policy as quote fodder to boost his popularity at home. But the fact that that *will* boost his popularity, instead of causing the Iranian people tremendous embarrassment, is pretty disturbing. It shows just how much of a hill ther still is to climb in finding a solution to the problems of the region that will enable, if not amity between nations, at least toleration.
