From Bruce Wolman:
Those of us wanting to prevent a looming military conflict with Iran are scratching our heads today, wondering who is the biggest obstacle to peace we face, Binyamin Netanyahu or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The only Head of State willing to accept the UN's invitation to attend the Durban Review Conference on Racism, Ahmadinejad was given the introductory speaking slot as protocol dictates. By the time he left the platform, you have to wonder, is this guy a Mossad agent? The Israelis themselves could not have written the role of arch fiend better.
Almost nobody in the world heard the speech and only a few more read it. The most controversial and frequented reported line, a clear denial of the Holocaust, in the end did not get uttered. In the speech's prepared release, Ahmadinejad stated "the West had used the ambiguous and dubious question of the Holocaust in setting up the the State of Israel." He decide to drop the crucial words, ambiguous and dubious from his delivery after a meeting with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who reminded him that the UN had adopted resolutions "to revoke the equation of Zionism with racism and to reaffirm the historical facts of the Holocaust". Some of Ahmadinejad's previous Holocaust statements before world forums contained enough ambiguity that the charitable might have left him off the outright denier list, but make no mistake, the President of Iran has now unequivocally earned his place among The Deniers, right up there with David Irving and his band of Nazi apologists.
Admadinejad's speech triggered a walk-out in the conference hall. A wide swath of Europe along with Morocco and St. Kitts had their delegates march out on the Iranian leader. Australia, Canada, Germany, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland and the United States had previously decided to boycott the conference before it began.
From all the hoopla, you might have thought the President had engaged in one long, Castro-style, anti-Zionist harangue. In fact, he started out with a 9-paragraph review of the history of imperialism and colonialism plus a critique of the UN Security Council. He then moved on to a 6-paragraph attack on the United States and its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, followed by a 3-paragraph discussion on the collapsing world economy and the unfair global economic structure. Midway, he reached the topic of the conference: Racism. His short dissertation on that topic was so theologically infused and ethereal, I'm not religious enough to comment. At last, Ahmadinejad came around to his favorite subject, World Zionism:
World Zionism personifies racism that falsely resorts to religions and abuses religious sentiments to hide its hatred and ugly face. However, it is of great importance to bring into focus the political goals of some of the world powers and those who control huge economic resources and interests in the world. They mobilize all the resources including their economic and political influence and world media to render support in vain to the Zionist regime and to maliciously diminish the indignity and disgrace of this regime.
This is not simply a question of ignorance and one cannot conclude these ugly phenomena through consular campaigns. Efforts must be made to put an end to the abuse by Zionists and their political and international supporters and in respect with the will and aspirations of nations. Governments must be encouraged and supported in their fights aimed at eradicating this barbaric racism and to move towards reform in current international mechanisms.
There is no doubt that you are all aware of the conspiracies of some powers and Zionist circles against the goals and objectives of this conference. Unfortunately, there have been literatures and statements in support of Zionists and their crimes. And it is the responsibility of honorable representatives of nations to disclose these campaigns which run counter to humanitarian values and principles.
Like another famous President, this guy does not do nuance. Considering that Ahmadinejad went on to state, "it is absolutely possible to improve the existing situation in the world. However, it must be noted that this could be only achieved through the cooperation of all countries in order to get the best out of the existing capacities and resources in the world", one has to question whether this character have any diplomatic skills at all. This stuff may play in the red states of Iran, but did Ahmadinejad really think that a screed worse than anything found in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion was going to elicit cooperation from Western Nations or their populations?
Unless Ahmadinejad was playing to a home crowd as Iranian elections near, this was the wrong speech at the wrong time on the wrong subject. It certainly didn't help the Palestinians nor US-Iranian relations. Nor the cause of fighting racism, which no matter what we think of Israeli treatment of the Palestinians, is a much broader and pervasive problem than Israel-Palestine.
Those of us working to prevent an attack on Iraq can only hope that President Ahmadinejad will not be re-elected this summer. Otherwise, the next few years will be needlessly more conflict ridden than they have to be.
