Posted on 10/05/2007 6:36:47 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Friday launched a new tirade against Israel amid growing tensions with the West, vowing to work to abolish the Jewish state and questioning the scale of the Holocaust. Ahmadinejad said Iran would work until "all of Palestine is liberated" from Israeli hands, in a speech to mark the Quds day, Iran's annual day of mass protest marches in solidarity with the Palestinians.
Tens of thousands of Iranians turned out for the march in central Tehran, carrying anti-Zionist banners, chanting "Death to Israel" and burning Israeli and American flags.
"The Palestinian people are standing firm. The Iranian people and other peoples will not stop until all of Palestinian territory is liberated," Ahmadinejad told the faithful at Tehran University.
"They (world powers) should not think that the Iranian nation and other nations in the region will take off their hands off the throat of the Zionists and their supporters."
Ahmadinejad provoked an international outcry shortly after his election in 2005 when he called for Israel to be "wiped from the map" and also described the Holocaust as a "myth".
He has since toned down his rhetoric but in this speech he reaffirmed his deeply controversial questioning of the mass slaughter of Jews in World War II and his suggestion that Israel could be moved to arctic North America.
"The Iranian nation hates killing and considers Hitler and the executioners of the World War II as black and dark figures," he said.
"But the Iranian nation has a question and as long as there is no clear and reasonable response to this question, it will remain.
"They have made the Holocaust sacred and do not allow anyone to ask questions. Under the pretext of the Holocaust they are allowed to commit whatever crime they like," he added.
"Europeans can not tolerate the Zionists in their region and country, but they want to impose them on the people of the region... Give these vast lands of Canada and Alaska to them to create a country for themselves."
His graphic verbal assualt on the Jewish state came amid growing tensions over the Iranian nuclear programme.
Israel, widely believed to be the only nuclear armed power in the Middle East, has expressed alarm over Iran's nuclear drive, which the Jewish state and its main ally the United States believe is aimed at making an atomic bomb.
The United States and Israel have never ruled out the option of military strikes and some European states, led by France, want to impose their own economic sanctions against Tehran.
Iran however insists that its nuclear programme is solely aimed at generating electricity for a growing population whose massive oil and gas reserves will eventually run out.
Israel was an ally of the imperial regime of last Iranian shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, developing close military and economic ties, but all this changed when he was ousted by the Islamic revolution in 1979.
Iranian officials insist they would never initiate any military attack and say their policy has always been to let all the occupants of "Palestine" -- including refugees -- decide their future in a referendum.
Iran is also home to 25,000 Iranian Jews, the largest Jewish community in the Middle East outside Israel, and officials say this shows its stance is anti-Zionist but in no way anti-Semitic.
Despite the heavily politicised nature of the demonstration, there was a festive mood with the numerous children present having their faces painted as cats and rabbits in entertainment laid-on by the municipality.
"I come every year because the Palestinians are helpless and they cannot defend themselves. I come here to here to attract the world's attention to their plight," said Somayeh Salim, 27.
She was carrying an Israeli flag in her rucksack: "I am going to burn it."
“Ahmadinejad said Iran would work until “all of Palestine is liberated” from Israeli hands”
I think it’s time we liberated the Iranian people from the mullahs.
Laughable.
In the Soviet era, tens of thousands of Russians used to converge on Red Square, lining up to pay homage at Lenin’s Mausoleam, and to threaten “Death to America”.
However, it was the Soviet political apparatus that bussed-in these tens of thousands from factories and schools and universities.
When the Soviet era ended, these massive holiday visits to Lenin’s Tomb ended.
I was in Red Square on March 8, 2002, “International Women’s Day.” This is a VERY BIG international communist holiday. During the Soviet era, Red Square would have been FILLED with tens of thousands.
On March 8, 2002, Red Square was empty. There were no Russians lining up at Lenin’s Mausoleum.
But the shopping malls were full.
In my visits to Russia, I also learned that the people refer to Lenin’s mummified body as, “The Mummy”.
So much for reverence for such a communist icon.
I expect that when Amadi-jihad and his Ayatoilet masters have been relegated to the dustbin of history, the overwhelming majority of Iranians will have the same reaction to their former tyrants.
1. The Lord God gave the land to Israel forever.
2. Don’t mess with God.
Fools rush in where wise men fear to tread.
25K Jews in Iran? Hmm... not good.
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