Monte Cargo wrote:InfraBlue wrote:
Is "the Zionist regime" synonymous with "Israel?"
What other nation would Ahmadinejad be talking about?
How many ways does Ahmadinejad need to spell his intentions out before we "get it"?
Ahmadinejad states that Israel is a "fictitious state"
Ahmadinejad states that Isreal will soon cease to exit.
Ahmadinejad has been conducting a "Holocaust never happened" meeting
The IAE has stated that it can not determine if Iranian development of nuclear energy is for peaceful or military purposes.
I don't know what the Iranian leadership hopes to accomplish through thier holocaust convention. People ranging from holocaust denyers, and minimizers to Orthodox Jews like Rabbis Moishe Ayre Friedman, and Aharon Cohen, and the Neturei Karta (Guardians of the City) who certainly don't deny the holocaust, but oppose the creation of the state of Israel on religious grounds attended the convention.
There is some confusion as the result of the conflation of words expressed by the Iranian president. He's quoted as saying that "the Zionist regime will be wiped out soon the same way the Soviet Union was," and the media headlines say "Ahmadinjad: Israel will be 'wiped out.'"
A regime is not a state, it is the the form of government of a state, the government in power. This conflation of terms, and the resulting confusion helps to stoke the paranoia that's behind the rationalization for the extistance of a chauvanistic and bigoted ethnocentric state.
The Iranian leadership is as extremist as the far right Zionists in that they propose the transfer of Ashkenazi Jews back to Europe after the destruction of the Zionist regime much like the rightist Zionists propose the transfer of the Palestinians to the Arab countries. In its place it would install a Muslim theocratic regime.
This isn't very much different from the expressed desires of some of Israel's leadership like its very deputy prime-minister, Avigdor Lieberman, who proposes the segregation of Israel, and the appliction of "loyalty tests" to its Arab citizens whereby they would confirm the existance of their nation as the Jewish state.
One difference between ethnocentirsts like Ahmadinjad and Lieberman is that the former is vilified thorughout the Western world. The latter is invited to meet US officials like its Secretary of State, Condoleza Rice.
This brings up a question, however. Why should an ethnocentric regime (i.e. government in power)--one that for its very existence necessarily discriminates and oppresses a people of a different ethnicity--be allowed to exist?
