By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 5 minutes ago
TEHRAN, Iran - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad escalated his anti-Israeli rhetoric Wednesday, calling the Holocaust a "myth" used by Europeans to create a Jewish state in the heart of the Islamic world.
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His remarks drew swift condemnation from Israel, Germany, France and the European Commission. Germany said the remarks would affect upcoming negotiations over Iran's nuclear program, and European Commission President Jose Manual Barroso said Iranians "do not have the president, or the regime, they deserve."
Ahmadinejad last week questioned whether the Nazi destruction of 6 million European Jews during World War II occurred and said Israel should be moved to Europe. He also provoked an international outcry in October when he called for Israel to be "wiped off the map."
But Wednesday was the first time he publicly denied the Holocaust. Touring southeast Iran, Ahmadinejad said that if Europeans insist the Holocaust happened, then they are responsible and should pay the price.
"Today, they have created a myth in the name of Holocaust and consider it to be above God, religion and the prophets," Ahmadinejad told thousands of people in the southeastern city of Zahedan.
"If you committed this big crime, then why should the oppressed Palestinian nation pay the price?" Ahmadinejad asked rhetorically.
"This is our proposal: if you committed the crime, then give a part of your own land in Europe, the United States, Canada or Alaska to them so that the Jews can establish their country," he said, developing a theme he raised in Saudi Arabia last week.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier called the remarks "shocking and unacceptable." He said the German government had summoned the Iranian charge d'affaires to make "unmistakably clear" its displeasure.
"I cannot hide the fact that this weighs on bilateral relations and on the chances for the negotiation process, the so-called nuclear dossier," Steinmeier said, referring to European talks with Iran on its nuclear program.
The German government said Chancellor Angela Merkel would call on the European Union to press for international condemnation at the U.N.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said: "The repeated outrageous remarks of the Iranian president show clearly the mind-set of the ruling clique in Tehran and indicate clearly the extremist policy goals of the regime.
"The combination of fanatical ideology, a warped sense of reality and nuclear weapons is a combination that no one in the international community can accept," Regev added, referring to allegations that Iran is developing nuclear bombs.
Avner Shalev, the director of Yad Vashem, Israel's memorial to the Holocaust in Jerusalem, said Ahmadinejad's comments required a "stronger response from world leaders."
"Every genocidal statement has to be taken seriously because the Holocaust occurred, and the world knows it. Therefore, we don't just condemn these comments, we believe that the international community and the United Nations should deal with them more seriously," Shalev said.
In Strasbourg, France, Barroso said the president's comments were "completely unacceptable."
"This shows the nature of (Iranian) regime," he said. "With the great respect I have for that country, that people, the great history of that country, I say they do not have the president, or the regime, they deserve."
He also said Ahmadinejad's comment "calls our attention to the real danger of that regime having an atomic bomb."
French Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei also condemned Ahmadinejad's remarks.
Ahmadinejad said the West had harmed Muslims, invaded their countries and plundered their wealth.
"If your civilization consists of aggression, making oppressed people homeless, suffocating the voices of justice and bringing poverty to a majority of the world's people, we say loudly that we hate your hollow civilization," he said.
Ahmadinejad has been unapologetic about taking Iran on a more openly defiant course, insisting on Iran's right to develop its nuclear program — which it insists is peaceful — and often using rhetoric reminiscent of the 1980s heyday of the Islamic Revolution.
Yea we know this Ahmadinejad a douche bag but it just pisses me off more that he got mad because they US didn't sell them parts for their 'peaceful' nuclear progam and parts for planes. What an idiot. These fooker are the idiots that make Islam look bad. Also, what idiot denys the Holocaust never happened?
The Zionist entity's days are numbered, former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said in a meeting with senior Hamas member Khaled Mashal, according to an Islamic Republic News Agency report.
The agency said that in a report released by the Iranian Expediency Council, headed by Rafsanjani, the former leader pointed to the political standstill facing the ‘Zionist’ regime and its withdrawal from some of the territories as reasons for its backward movement.
"The high spirit, resistance and hopefulness of the Palestinian people for restoration of their violated rights are among the factors leading to the current situation encountered by the Zionists," he said.
It is very troubling to me that not a single Western strategist has proposed an ideological response to the religious challenge of Islam. On the contrary: the Vatican, the guardian-of-last-resort of the Western heritage, has placed itself squarely in the camp of appeasement. Except for a few born-again Christians in the United States, no Western voice is raised in criticism of Islam itself. The trouble is that Islam believes in its divine mission, while the United States has only a fuzzy recollection of what it once believed, and therefore has neither the aptitude nor the inclination for ideological warfare.
Which brings us to the threat of radical Islam. "You are decadent and hedonistic. We on the other hand are willing to die for what we believe, and we are a billion strong. You cannot kill all of us, so you will have to accede to what we demand." That, in a nutshell, constitutes the Islamist challenge to the West.
Neither the demographic shift toward Muslim immigrants nor meretricious self-interest explains Western Europe's appeasement of Islam, but rather acknowledges the terrifying logic of the numbers. That is why President Bush has thrown his efforts and prestige behind the rickety prospect of an Israeli-Palestinian peace. And that is why Islamism has only lost a battle in Iraq, but well might win the war. The people of the West had better wake up soon, the threat is very real and we are only beginning to see it's effects here.
I wish there could be a way to remind all Xians, Jews, and Muslims that they all believe in the same God. Mohammed, Jesus, and Moses are all prophets of the same God.
Jesus should come back now and fix all the Xians while Mohammed should come back and fix all the Muslims. For there's no goverment on earth that could undertake and convince otherwise what you have just requested Dholly.
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Man these Iranians piss me off.
