More Mahmoud
Iran's president had his big day at the United Nations yesterday, giving a speech slamming Zionists and replete with classic anti-Semitic motifs: The Zionists are murderers, deceitful and dominate global finance despite their "minuscule" number, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said.
Then he went on CNN to talk with Larry King about how the Zionists start wars, have no religion, and are "uninvited guests" (he starts talking about Israel at minute 13:40).
As with many other American media personalities who have sat down with Ahmadinejad over the years, King was outmaneuvered by Iran's president (and his shrill translator) when it came to Israel's right to exist and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Where King, and others, have failed to challenge Ahmadinejad is on his assertion that, if the Holocaust is true, Jews should get a state in Germany, not Palestine (for more on that, Israeli artist Ronen Eidelman has a project proposing the establishment of a Jewish state in Weimar, Germany). King should have pointed out that, as a devout Muslim, Ahmadinejad ought to know from the Bible (considered a holy book by Islam) that the Jews are indigenous to the holy land, and not a European people – to say nothing of the fact that half of Israel's Jews are immigrants or children of immigrants from the Middle East, that Jews continually lived in Palestine/Israel since the last Jewish state there 2,000 years ago and that Israel is a democratic nation of all its citizens and not just its Jews (Israeli Arabs have the vote, too).
And when Ahmadinejad was talking about Palestinian suffering, King could have pressed him about the Arab attacks against Israelis that perpetuate the conflict – and Palestinian suffering. The point is not to get into a pissing contest about whose suffering is worse – the Israelis' or the Palestinians' – but to understand the context for the suffering of the Palestinian side and its root causes: the refusal of powerful Palestinians to give up their war against Israel.
JTA's Ron Kampeas notes that CNN's Christiane Amanpour made her own bungle of an analysis of Ahmadinejad's speech, which she characterized as Ahmadinejad "trying to actually pull back from some of that very fiery rhetoric that he's directed towards Israel."
For Ahmadinejad's interviews with NPR and the L.A. Times, read yesterday's post.
4 Comments |
Share This
| 
Anti-Zionism,
Iran
Comments RSS Feed Reader Comments
We saw the CNN interview of A-Mahdi-Nejad, and we concluded that either Larry King is a complete coward OR that Larry King is a complete ignoramus with regard to the 3458 year old history of the Nation/People of Israel.
For just one example: ?? Where did Larry King mis-learn that the most recent Holocaust in Europe marks the beginning of the concept of Jewish-nationhood??
Larry King was completely unqualified to interview this current Arab ruler over the people of Iran / Persia.
What CNN did, was provide an international platform for a inciter-to-genocide to express his Jew-hating rhetoric and anti-Israel propaganda.
What a shanda for American media and secular Jewish-Americans.
Leave a Comment
To comment on this article, you must first be registered with JTA.
Not Registered?
There are real advantages to a FREE registration with JTA.org:
- Make your voice heard through comments on articles
- Receive our e-mailed Daily Briefing, an invaluable quick-read
- Help decide what Jewish news matters most with interactive tools coming soon
Register Now
Already a JTA member?
Syed Shahid Ali
09/24/08 01:06 PM
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s rhetorics against Israel are stemmed from the wish to lead the Muslim world unanimously.
Israel-Palestinian conflict is the emotional point for Muslims. This is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s emotional manipulation/blackmailing to intensify Muslim pressure against Israel and to attain undeclared leadership of Muslim world.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hits sensitive points to justify Iran’s supremacy among Muslim world.