Last month, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad caused quite a stir by violating every international agreement in existence when calling - at a government-sponsored conference - to "wipe Israel off the face of the map." (The Indispensible MEMRI has the full text of the President-Kidnapper's remarks here.)
The MSM continues peddle several myths about Iran. Essentially, they argue that Iran isn't all that dangerous because it doesn't mean what it says, couldn't do what it says even if it meant it, and anyway, its problem is with Israel, not with Jews in general.
Turns out that apparently nobody in the MSM has bothered to check out the website for the conference, despite the URL's prominent place on a banner behind Ahmadinejad while he was speaking.
The English-language portion of the site is turned over mostly to photos and cartoons. What's striking is the prominence of Jewish noses, while the "Palestinian" children look white, and the prominence of Jews in Charedi dress. While there's nothing specifically Israeli about such dress, it's quite distinctively Jewish. You are more likely to find Jews in New York, London, Los Angeles, even Denver, dressed that way, than you are to find people parading around those downtowns in Israeli army uniforms.
Does anyone still care to argue that anti-Zionism isn't anti-Semitism?
Also note that the Denver Post which was all over local Shiite cleric Kazerooni when he opposed the invasion of Iraq, somehow hasn't been able to track him down for a quote over this controversy. Kazerooni's relevance, such as it is, doesn't stem only from his being Iraqi, but also from his being Shiite. And if you're going to argue that the Iraqi Shiites are puppets of the Iranians, you can't very well ignore them when the Iranians say something uncomfortable.
Note, in particular, this paragraph towards the end of Ahmadinejad's remarks, which didn't get so much press:
I hope that the Palestinians will maintain their wariness and intelligence, much as they have pursued their battles in the past 10 years. This will be a short period, and if we pass through it successfully, the process of the elimination of the Zionist regime will be smooth and simple.
Well, yes, I suppose a sheet of glass on the eastern Mediterranean coast, where Tel Aviv once stood, could be characterized as "smooth and simple." Add to this former President Rafsanjani's remarks about how the Muslims world could afford to trade a nuclear blast or two with Israel and still come out ahead, and I think the agenda becomes pretty smooth and simple itself.
After the initial Western reaction to the man's poor manners, the issue more or less dropped off the face of the map itself. To the extent that it continues to get brought up, it's in the context of this NPR report, that nothing's really changed:
Every since Khatami came to power in 1997, the Iranians started to realize that they cannot expect the world to understand that there is a difference between Iranian policies and Iranian rhetoric.
...the statement that the new President has made has nev- at least not yet, and probably will not be translated into actual policy. Iran is not as active against Israel as it was 12 years ago when the peace process was starting.
Naturally, host Robert Siegel let this last comment go completely challenged, despite numerous press reports that Iran is actively subsidizing Palestinian terrorism against Israel, replacing Saddam Hussein as their main patron, and is active on other fronts, as well:
There is a tendency to ignore the fact that besides the nuclear sphere, Iran is operating against Israel in other realms: the country finances Hezbollah and supplies it with thousands of rockets that threaten northern Israel, and it also bankrolls Islamic Jihad and urges Palestinians to carry out attacks against Israel. In addition, Tehran is making an intensified espionage effort to identify targets in Israel.
(Hat Tip: Regime Change Iran)
I want to be clear here. This is about the intentions and attitudes of the Iranian government, not the Iranian people. The government is wildly unpopular, and like all wildly unpopular dictatorships, tries to create foreign enemies where there are none.
This also isn't about Islam in general, or the Shiite version in particular. It's about the clear hostility of the Islamofascist Mullahcracy, and the unwillingness of the western media to see it for what it is - at war with Israel as a state, and with Jews as a people.
