Undeniably offensive is their headline and I will agree wholeheartedly with that, in fact, most of what I have read, from the left and the right blogs and papers have basically been on the same page. The only thing good that has come from this outrage is that it seems both sides of the aisle have found something they can overwhelmingly agree on.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad himself was the power behind the Tehran conference on the Holocaust that has rightly been giving the Islamic Republic such negative media exposure in the west. Iran's hardline president billed this odious event as intended to allow scholars to "debate" the extermination of Europe's Jews free from the taboos and intimidation they allegedly suffer in their own societies. No surprise then that luminaries such as David Duke, formerly of the Ku Klux Klan, a racist associate of the jailed David Irving and a brace of other seedy anti-semites with dubious or non-existent academic credentials flocked to the Iranian capital to take part. German neo-Nazis were banned from attending by their government. The president was being heckled by students protesting his other madcap views when it began on Monday, but he welcomed the guests yesterday.
This official stamp matters because Mr Ahmadinejad claims to have arranged the conference to retaliate for the notorious Danish cartoons poking fun at the Prophet Muhammad. These were seen as offensive by many Muslims but they were not the work of any government. The president's misunderstanding of how western democracies function may be matched by western misunderstanding of Iran or Islam. But it is hard to imagine anything remotely analogous to his questioning - in the face of overwhelming historical evidence - of the industrial-scale murder of 6 million Jews during the second world war. The word "myth" was much in evidence in Tehran. It is unclear whether he believes that gays, Gypsies and other victims of Nazi persecution also shamelessly lied about their suffering.
Read the rest...
Israel will `vanish' just like the Soviet Union collapsed, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a conference in Tehran that questions the Holocaust.
``As the Soviet Union disappeared, the Zionist regime will also vanish and humanity will be liberated,'' the official Islamic Republic News Agency cited Ahmadinejad as telling the conference yesterday.
In another Guardian article they point out that the outgoing US ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, is backing a call for the president of Iran to be charged with inciting genocide because of his speeches advocating the destruction of the state of Israel.
Mr Bolton will be joined in tomorrow's launch of the legal action against Mr Ahmadinejad by a Harvard law professor, Alan Dershowitz, and the former Israeli ambassador to the UN, Dore Gold, together with experts from the US, Canada and Israel. A suit will be lodged with the international court of justice at The Hague, which will decide whether to hear the action. The panel said the Iranian president was guilty of inciting genocide "by making numerous threats against the United States, calling for the destruction of Israel and instigating discrimination against Christians and Jews". His words violate a 1948 UN genocide convention, to which Iran is a signatory, they said.
I think they should, this madman must be stopped. His insane antics are not amusing and there are dangers in underestimating the power of a madman. Look at Hitler.
From Bloomberg:
Systematic Killings
Germany's Nazis killed 6 million of Europe's 9 million Jews between 1939 and 1945 in a ``systematic, bureaucratic and state- sponsored campaign,'' according to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.
Proof of the Holocaust has come from survivors of Nazi death camps, camp guards, government documents and testimony in the 1945 Nuremburg war crimes hearings. Former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer in a 2005 speech called the Holocaust ``the darkest chapter'' in Germany's history.
The U.S. rebuke comes as President George W. Bush is trying to pressure Iran to abandon a nuclear program that his administration says is aimed at developing atomic weapons. Iran insists its program is only for producing energy.
The conference is being condemned by multiple sources including :
U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert also condemned the meeting. Iran's denial of the Holocaust ``demonstrates the danger that emanates from such a regime and the dangers for Israel and many other countries if such a state possesses non- conventional weapons,'' Olmert said at a news conference with Merkel in Berlin.
Part of this conference included David Duke, known for his KKK connection, stating that the gas chambers were not used to kill Jews.
Left pundits as well as right pundits have finally found a common thread.
LA Times states:
Although it's tempting to shrug off a gathering of fourth-rate intellects who seethe with contempt even for each other (did Duke discuss his theories about white racial superiority?), the conference illustrated a present and growing danger to the international community: Iran is on the path to becoming a nuclear power. Any promise to "remove" its neighbors from the map must be taken seriously.
Ahmadinejad's rejection of the thousands of written and oral testimonies of Holocaust survivors, reams of scholarship, films, photographs, diaries and detailed Nazi archives has nothing to do with evidentiary standards and everything to do with playing to the extremists in his regional audience. To Ahmadinejad, attacking the legitimacy of the Holocaust allows him to attack the legitimacy of Israel, which was created by the United Nations as a result of the Holocaust. If the first act didn't happen, then the second act wasn't necessary.
Atlas Shrugs points out Liebermans words:
“Ahmadinejad is not a rational player,” “Any attempt to pacify him is like before the second World War in Europe.”
Read the rest of her piece it is good.
YID with LID has a wonderfully poignant piece that is well worth the read. a letter written as a rebuke to the men in black (Jews) who are supporting the Iranians in this madness. It is a gut wrenching letter.
I wrote a piece myself back in November asking if you would negotiate with Hitler, making the comparison between Ahmadinejad and Hitler, which there are many. Hitler announced his plans in his book, Mein Kampf, and Ahmadinejad states it outright.
This is a damger that we need to pay attention to. I also list the multiple times Ahmadinejad has threatened Israel openly and publically.
Some will say Ahmadinejad is not Hitler, is not like Hitler.... they are either blind, dumb or dense.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's anti-Semitic and anti-Israel views place him and the Iranian regime among the foremost threats to Jews and the state of Israel.
Ahmadinejad repeatedly demonizes the state of Israel and openly calls for its destruction at every opportunity. Most notoriously, he described Israel as a "fake regime" that "must be wiped off the map."
Remember also, he is not only calling for the state of Israel to be wiped out but he also calls for the United States of America to be brought down. This is a dangerous man and he must be dealt with. He has also told Europe to either support their nuclear ambitions or "suffer the consequences".
This man is a lunatic but but a dangerous one that if someone does not act soon, will be a lunatic with a nuclear weapon. Does that thought make you all warm and fuzzy? I do not know what actions should be taken, but somebody has to do something and it better be soon.
[UPDATE] A Blog for All has more on Iran.
Israel has been ambiguous about its nuclear stockpile and capabilities since Israel first brought the Dimona facility online. That ambiguity has served Israel well, and Israel would appear to have been in the nuclear club since the 1960s. Iran clearly wants to link the regional instability to Israel, which is something straight out of the ISG report, despite the fact that Iran is behind much of the violence via its proxies in Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon. Iran continues to support terrorist groups, provides material support to terrorists, and agitates the Islamists in the region to pick up arms against Israel to bring about its annihilation.
Iran further engages in the annual Holocaust denial conferences, all of which must be seen in the bigger picture of Ahmadinejad's repeated calls for Israel's elimination and downfall in the near term.
Others discussing this:
Captain's Quarters.
Gateway Pundit.
Right Wing Rebel.
NYT.
Slate.