His struggle
As president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has regularly denied the Holocaust, called for the elimination of Israel and publicly supported Iran's nuclear weapons program. He has intimated that the program is on track to culminate in March. His repeated attack on Israel's legitimacy -- its right to exist -- seems to be the predicate for the physical destruction of Israel and its people.
The city of Jerusalem is apparently not so holy that it is worth preserving if Jews govern it. So long as Israel can be destroyed, so the thinking goes, the Arab and Muslim citizens of Israel are equally expendable, as are the Arab and Muslim people in Israel's immediate vicinity.
It is striking to me how unseriously Ahmadinejad's and Iran's words, actions, plans, pronouncements are taken. Yet Ahmadinehad's threats are not limited to Israel. He has explicitly threatened Europe and forged an anti-American alliance with Hugh Chavez. Something wicked this way comes.
In today's New York Observer, Ron Rosenbaum considers the Holocaust Denial Jamboree:
It should be remembered (as I point out in Explaining Hitler) that Hitler himself was the First Holocaust Denier. He sought to keep the Final Solution a secret, believing (alas, mistakenly) that if word got out, he would suffer consequences for it from the aroused conscience of the world. Well, word did get out, and despite the heroic efforts of those like Ben Hecht (the journalist and screenwriter who agitated ceaselessly for action to halt the Final Solution as the mass murder proceeded), the conscience of the world remained largely undisturbed.Arutz Sheva carries a thoughtful editorial on the concerted efforts to delegitimize Israel, to which Ahmadinejad's contribution is key. Haaretz observes that the world yawns as Iran grows strong. Haaretz also notes that Benjamin Netanyahu is convening a meeting with diplomats stationed in Israel next Tuesday "at which he will urge them to end their complacency and join Israel in an effort to halt Iran's nuclear program, which he says is aimed at genocide of the Jews."
Almost all Holocaust deniers follow in Hitler’s footsteps, share Hitler’s two-faced view of Holocaust denial: They deny it happened but are glad it did. Mr. Ahmadinejad has taken this one step further, I’d argue: He denies that it happened, is glad that it happened, and wants to make it happen again.
Perhaps Iran's threats and alliances are simply intended to deter action either to forestall or respond to genocide of the Jews. But Iran's long war on the United States and Ahmadinejad's correspondence suggest to me that the genocide of the Jews is only a component part of a larger program.
UPDATE: In the Jerusalem Post, Michael Freund address the threat to Israel and frames a plea to American Christians. Via the Hot Links at NRO.
MORE: MEMRI has posted Yigal Carmon's remarks at the symposium on "Holocaust Denial: Paving the Way to Genocide" held at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. MEMRI has posted additional links in this post.
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