I discuss Ahmadinejad's latest saber-rattling in FrontPage this morning:
The same day that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared at a conference in Tehran entitled “The World without Zionism” that Israel should be destroyed, an Islamic Jihad suicide attacker murdered at least five people in the Israeli city of Hadera. No doubt Ahmadinejad had this kind of thing in mind when he stated that “there is no doubt that the new wave (of attacks) in Palestine will wipe off this stigma (Israel) from the face of the Islamic world”: if he condemns attacks against civilian non-combatants, he has kept it to himself.Imagine if George W. Bush had announced that he intended to wipe Iraq, or any other nation, off the map: the domestic and international outcry that would follow would effectively end his presidency. But in the context of Israel the world has always had a higher tolerance for such talk. The Hamas Charter states that its goal is to “raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine,” and quotes Muslim Brotherhood founder Hasan Al-Banna: “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.” Hamas attacked Israel with 113 suicide bombers from 1993 to 2005 in pursuit of this end. Yet some Western analysts have actually advocated Hamas’ inclusion in the political process in the Palestinian Authority, as long as the group renounces violence. Is the obliteration of Israel more acceptable if it takes place without violence?
And of course, Ahmadinejad wasn’t saying anything new, as he himself made plain by invoking the Ayatollah Khomeini: “As the Imam said,” the President reminded his hearers, “Israel must be wiped off the map.” In 1979, not long after the triumph of his revolution, Khomeini dedicated the last Friday of Ramadan as an international day of jihad against Israel — making it particularly fitting that Ahmadinejad reiterated this lust for genocide and terror during Ramadan.Ahmadinejad also made it clear that, like Hamas, he did not view the Palestinian conflict with Israel as one of nationalism, but of religion: “Anybody who recognizes Israel,” he warned, “will burn in the fire of the Islamic nation’s fury, any (Islamic leader) who recognizes the Zionist regime means he is acknowledging the surrender and defeat of the Islamic world.” It is unfortunate but true that many officials and observers in the West will be puzzled by his view that recognition of Israel would amount to defeat for Islam; although the President has begun recently to refer to the jihadists’ goal of establishing a unified caliphate under Sharia law, the totalitarian, supremacist, expansionist jihad ideology that Ahmadinejad and his ilk espouse has still received scant attention given its increasingly central role in so many world conflicts. Ahmadinejad, Hamas, and innumerable others believe that any land — not only Israel, but Spain also — that has once belonged to the House of Islam belongs to it forever. Non-Muslims may live in such lands, but only as dhimmis, protected people, subject to various forms of legal discrimination and harassment; they have no right to govern such lands. This is why Ahmadinejad views Israel as a “stigma,” and will, like Hamas, accept nothing short of its total destruction.
But this time the reaction has been different. Instead of ignoring Ahmadinejad’s call to destroy Israel, as they have so many such calls in the past, at least some Western leaders were swift to rebuke the Iranian President. Said White House spokesman Scott McClellan: “The Palestinian Authority needs to do more to end the violence and prevent terrorist attacks from being carried out. The terrorist attacks that take place only undermine the leadership of President Abbas and undermine his principle of one authority, one law, one gun.” Of course, even Abbas has not been unambiguous in his opposition to suicide attacks such as the one in Hadera on Wednesday. He attributed Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza to suicide bombings: “We must remember,” he told supporters, “that our achievements are the result of the sacrifices of the martyrs” — that is, suicide bombers. “The martyrs have paved the road for us. The sacrifices of the martyrs, the wounded and the detainees, made the occupation leave Gaza and evacuate the settlements. This step will be followed by further withdrawals from the West Bank and Jerusalem.”
But Ahmadinejad may have inadvertently initiated a shift in the prevailing winds. British Prime Minister Tony Blair was dismayed: “There has been a long time in which I have been answering questions on Iran with everyone saying to me: ‘Tell us you are not going to do anything about Iran.’ If they carry on like this, the question people are going to be asking us is: ‘When are you going to do something about this?’ You imagine a state like that, with an attitude like that, having a nuclear weapon.” He condemned the call for Israel’s destruction: “I have never come across a situation (where) the president of a country (says) they want to wipe out -- not that they’ve got a problem with, or issue with -- but want to wipe out another country. This is unacceptable, and their attitude towards Israel, their attitude towards terrorism, their attitude on the nuclear weapons issue isn’t acceptable. If they continue down this path, then people are going to believe that they are a real threat to our world’s security and stability. How are we going to build a more secure world with that type of attitude? It’s a disgrace.”
Exactly so. And Blair was not alone. Jacques Chirac said that Ahmadinejad’s words were “completely irresponsible.” Even Kofi Annan issued a statement reminding UN members that “Israel is a long-standing member of the United Nations with the same rights and obligations as every other member.”
The Iranians, however, were unrepentant. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki announced that demonstrations would be held on Friday — the last Friday of Ramadan, which Khomeini had directed be set aside for such activities — to show popular agreement with Ahmadinejad: “The world,” he predicted, “will see the anger of the Islamic world against this regime.” And other Muslim states declined comment, although Ahmadinejad’s words were splashed across front pages all over the Islamic world.
Ariel Sharon has issued a call of his own: expel Iran from the UN: “A country that calls for the destruction of another people cannot be a member of the United Nations.” If Ahmadinejad and his gang are to see that the anger of the civilized world against his criminal regime is genuine, world leaders should heed Sharon’s recommendation -- and also work quickly to defuse Iran’s nuclear program. Otherwise Iran’s Thug-in-Chief will almost certainly use those weapons to make sure that there is indeed a “world without Zionism” – and since the jihad Israel faces is the same jihad that threatens so much of the world today, this great “victory for the Islamic world” will only herald even larger cataclysms to come.
"I say accomplishment of a world without America and Israel is both possible and feasible"
Not only Ahmadinejad, but every muslim (including rthat bugger ia786) is driven by the koranic peace.
After all is it noit an `islamic bomb`. And what is its existence for.
All this the world has known; and yet it has sat on its hands, occasionally extricating them to be wrung over Iran’s accelerating nuclear programme before resorting to the tried and tested strategy of maximum uselessness, diplomacy through the United Nations
http://www.melaniephillips.com/diary/archives/001464.html
“Tahir’s teacher carries a cane and can often be brutal. One madrasa in Pakistan has resorted to the practice of chaining students to pillars until they memorize the day’s lesson. But compared with life in a squalid refugee camp, the harshness of the madrasa probably is a blessing. Tahir’s day begins with the predawn prayer and a breakfast comprising bread and tea; it ends with the night prayer and a dinner of rice and mutton. And if Tahir does well at the madrasa and earns a diploma, he can expect to find a job as a preacher in a mosque.”
http://www.abelard.org/news/fundi2.htm
http://www.faithfreedom.org/Iran/KhomeiniSpeech.htm
Khomeini's speech on the day of celebration of the birth of Muhammad: 1981
Why do you only read the Quranic verses of mercy and do not read the verses of killing? Quran says; kill, imprison! Why are you only clinging to the part that talks about mercy? Mercy is against God. The prophet has [had] sword to kill people. Our [Holy] Imams were quite military men. All of them were warriors. They used to wield swords; they used to kill people. We need a Khalifa who would chop hands, cut throat, stone people In the same way that the messenger of God used to chop hands, cut throats, and stone people. In the same way that he massacred the Jews of Bani Qurayza (4) because they were a bunch of discontent people. If the Prophet used to order to burn a house or exterminate a tribe that was justice.
http://www.iran-press-service.com/articles_2001/dec_2001/rafsanjani_nuke_threats_141201.htm
RAFSANJANI SAYS MUSLIMS SHOULD USE NUCLEAR WEAPON AGAINST ISRAEL
One of Iran’s most influential ruling cleric called Friday on the Muslim states to use nuclear weapon against Israel, assuring them that while such an attack would annihilate Israel, it would cost them "damages only". "If a day comes when the world of Islam is duly equipped with the arms Israel has in possession, the strategy of colonialism would face a stalemate because application of an atomic bomb would not leave any thing in Israel but the same thing would just produce damages in the Muslim world", Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani told the crowd at the traditional Friday prayers in Tehran. "Jews shall expect to be once again scattered and wandering around the globe the day when this appendix is extracted from the region and the Muslim world", Mr. Hashemi-Rafsanjani warned, blaming on the United States and Britain the "creation of the fabricated entity" in the heart of Arab and Muslim world.
http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=435
Iran's Missiles Can Now Hit Europe, Rafsanjani Says
"Now we have the power to launch a missile with a 2,000-kilometer range. Iran is determined to improve its military capabilities." "If the Americans attack Iran, the world will change. . . . They will not dare to make such a mistake," Rafsanjani was quoted as saying in a speech at a national security exhibition.
http://fjordman.blogspot.com/2005/09/bush-iran-has-right-to-civilian.html
Bush: Iran has right to civilian nuclear program
President George W. Bush on Tuesday said Iran had a right to a civilian nuclear program if it did not gain expertise or materials to build an atomic weapon. The United States last month explicitly accepted for the first time that Iran could develop civilian nuclear programs, backing an EU proposal.
http://www.india-defence.com/reports/424
Iran prepares war plans, to strike bases in case of US mobilization
Iran has identified seven US bases in the region to attack in case there is the smallest sign of American mobilisation to its borders. The Iranian leadership is absolutely confident of prevailing over any US attack alone, and it assesses that the American military is “very tired” and cannot run a big military campaign against Iran for long.
http://fjordman.blogspot.com/2005/07/iran-opens-garrison-to-recruit-suicide.html
Iran opens garrison to recruit suicide bombers against West
A senior officer in the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), told a hard-line weekly close to Iran’s ultra-conservative President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that the new “Lovers of Martyrdom Garrison” would recruit individuals willing to carry out suicide operations against Western targets.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=568952
Pakistan Admits Rogue Scientist Aided Iran
After years of denials, Pakistan admitted Thursday that its top nuclear scientist sold crucial equipment to Iran. The admission by the Pakistani information minister was the first public acknowledgment that Abdul Qadeer Khan provided Iran's secret nuclear program with centrifuges, a crucial component needed to enrich uranium and produce nuclear material for warheads.
While the world may see this as more Islamic sabre rattling, in the light of Iran's vow to achieve nuclear technology it cannot be ignored. This is why the Islamic world must not be allowed WMD's. A nuclear Iran would be like a rabid monkey with a hand grenade.
These people are violent animals and must be stopped with extreme prejudice.
Somehow, these twits seem to forget that about 40 years ago, there was some semi-bald man, banging his shoe on the podium in the UN telling the US that he will bury us. This was a guy who had a lot of nukes, he is gone, his nation is gone, and we are still above ground.
But the big difference is, it turned out that the Russians love their children as much as we do. The Mullahs would be happy to throw their into the fire, and that is more frightening than the 1,000's of nukes that the ruskies have.
I believe that ahmadinejad, an accomplished terrorist and assassin, should be taken at his word. Israel now has the moral obligation to do away with ahmadinejad, the mullahs, and Iran's other "hard liners" before they can do away with Israel. As others here have pointed out, waiting for him to acquire more nuclear weapons is the height of folly, and may well prove suicidal for Israel.
Sharku:
Kruschev certainly did threaten the USSR would bury the western capitalists, but the Soviet people didn't love death more than they love life, or hate their own children more than they hated westerners.
Islam is a religion of terrorists, and Iran is a unified nation state that espouses both terrorism and islam. Officials always complain that terrorism is a menace that has no country or government to attack. Well, Iran by its own admission is a fine example of an exception to that model. I say we tell Iran to go ahead and begin trying to wipe out Israel, while in the mean time, we try to wipe out Iran...and see who finishes first.
Envision a world religion of peace...blech!
The day Iran uses nuclear weapons it will cease to be a nation and the makeup of the Muslim world will change radically. Along with Iran's target, most likely Israel, Iran will be destroyed in retaliation from any number of sources. That will leave a large part of the Middle East uninhabitable for many years. Millions will die that day and then millions in the months afterwards. Any Islamic nation that uses nuclear weapons will be sounding the death toll of Islam as the world will no more tolerate it than it did Hitler's Nazi party after WWII.
We must hope that the horrors that Islam subjects the world to on a daily basis will be sufficient and we won't have to wait for Iran to play atomic-suicide-bomber to do the right thing.
For those of you who don't read the full essay on frontpagemag.com, Spencer cites Kofi Anan thusly:
"Even Kofi Annan issued a statement reminding UN members that 'Israeli is a long-standing member of the United Nations with the same rights and obligations as every other member'".
So, who is gonna remind the UN Secretary General of this, let alone explain to a large number of the "other members" about the uniform application of those rights and obligations?
all i can say is, saddam kept iran in check whilst he was in power. thanks bush you're doing a great job inflaming the middle east and now you've created a threatening and very dangerous iran, what an idiot!
leom:
At the best of times, Iran wasn't contained by Saddam, who barely outlasted the knock'em-down, drag'em out he had with the Ayatollah with much American support and the Iranians were dangerous and inflamed long before Bush set foot into Iraq, just as Muslims were hostile to the Jews in their midsts long before the first Eastern European Zionists made aliyah.
There are many who put forward the theory that a large US contingent in Iraq is more of a constraint against highly dysfunctional Iran's bellicosity and hegemonic ambitions than not. The shame is that the Europeans, who love to rail about Israel's alleged human rights abuses against the Palestinians, were too craven to hold Saddam to similar standards.
to leom, you know if the left would only focus on the real enemy, and stop the attacks on Bush, this war with Iraq's enemies would improve tremendously!
you just have to read more, and learn that Iran's mullahs did not need Bush to become crazed! you can go back further, and see that when country bumpkin Carter was president, he gave up on Iran's ruler, and let the sob mullah back into Iran! he had no real nerve to run a country. he is best at using his hammer and nails! so leom let it go,, Bush did not create crazed mullahs!
to leom, you know if the left would only focus on the real enemy, and stop the attacks on Bush, this war with Iraq's enemies would improve tremendously!
you just have to read more, and learn that Iran's mullahs did not need Bush to become crazed! you can go back further, and see that when country bumpkin Carter was president, he gave up on Iran's ruler, and let the sob mullah back into Iran! he had no real nerve to run a country. he is best at using his hammer and nails! so leom let it go,, Bush did not create crazed mullahs!
bush never created the mullahs, correct, i respect your reply, but bush and the west kicked open the "ant hill". saddam's worst enemy was the wahabi cultists and shiites whom he cracked down on with an iron fist. not only has the west taken away our greatest arab ally in the middle east but we have unfortunately turned iraq into an annexation of iran. our best hope now is to install an arab dictatorship in iraq, heavily arm them and push them into iran and saudia arabia and once and for all wipe out this wahabi cult of death. the way we are running this shambles of a war is pathethic, if we don't act now then nukes will go off in new york, london and paris.
Leom, your ant hill anology is quite good. These loser mullahs have been killing each other over the centuries. Its because of them, when they prevented the Europeans from traveling east for trade that caused Europeans to travel west over to the Americas and become what we are now.(a thriving freedom loving society) So now these same mullahs are trying to control the oil,l think one positive outcome will be inventions on other ways of energy. so they can choke on their oil! One way to destroy these mulahs , we should export Hollywood actors.. let the Hollywierd left loose in their cities...they wont know what hit them!
leom and lulu:
I suggest both of you look for a book entitled At the Assassin's Gate, written by a writer who writes a lot for the New Yorker. The Bush admin has made many mistakes in its execution of the war, but much of that has to do with State Dept. interference and not the wisdom of taking Saddam out.
thanks waterdragon52, any new knowledge in this area is greatly appreciated. i totally agree with you lulu, its time we invested time and money into alternative fuels and become less dependent on the middle east. remember a diesel vehicle can use bio fuel, at 40 cents a gallon thats very cost effective! also american farmers will benefit directly from growing sustainable vegetable oil crops thus boosting the economy. all i need now is a diesel car! thanks for all your responses and advice.