Tuesday, April 21, 2009

TheOldestLies

At yesterday’s UN racism conference IRANIAN president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad described the Holocaust as a "pretext" for aggression against Palestinians, prompting European diplomats to walk out of a speech disrupted by pro Israel protesters tossing red clown noses at the hard-line leader.

The myth being perpetrated by the Israel baiting Iranian is that Israel is a racist state partly because it has Judaism as its state religion and partly because it has a law of return that entitle Jews to become Israeli citizens.

The truth is that every other country in the area, including the Palestine Authority, has Islam as its state religion. Israel does not discriminate against the interests of any of its citizens, whatever they are. Contrast this with the country’s Muslim neighbours who routinely discriminate against all non-Muslims, particularly Jews. In addition to which several of these states have their own laws of return for their own people, and again this includes the Palestine Authority. Jordan goes so far to have a law, which explicitly prohibits Jews from citizenship, but only Israel is condemned for its law of return. Why?

Several hundred thousand Arabs either ran or were pushed from Israel when it was fighting the Arab armies seeking to destroy it on its UN sanctioned formation in 1948. There is compelling evidence that most Arab refugees left on their own accord.

What is less well known is that simultaneously three quarters of a million Jews were forced to leave the Arab countries they had inhabited for millennia and run to Israel in fear for their lives.

The difference between these two sagas is that Israel took in the Jewish refugees and made them into productive Israeli citizens whereas the rich Arab states kept their co-religionists in festering refugee camps for three stateless generations to make political capital from their awful plight.

It is no surprise to find the Iranian leader expressing such racist and revisionist views, after all he had previously denied the Holocaust and threatened to wipe Israel off the face of the world map. The man is so intensely anti Semitic he would have received honorary membership in Hitler’s Nazi Party, but for the fact that he is a bit too brown skinned to have passed for an Aryan super being.

Mr Ahmadinejad was the first government official to take the floor at the conference, opening on the eve of Israel's Holocaust Memorial Day. Two protesters in clown costumes tossed red noses at Mr Ahmadinejad as he recited Muslim prayer to begin his speech.

A Jewish student group from France later took credit for causing the disturbance, saying that members threw clown noses to "symbolise the masquerade that this conference represents".

Mr Ahmadinejad restarted his talk and delivered a speech that lasted more than half an hour, saying the United States and Europe had helped to establish Israel after the Second World War and victimise Palestinians "under the pretext of Jewish suffering".

That prompted a walkout by some 40 diplomats from Britain, France and other European countries that had threatened to leave the conference if it descended into anti-Semitism or other rhetoric harshly critical of Israel.

All the sneering Iranian leader needs to complete his visible hatred of all things Jewish, Israeli and Zionist is for him to hold aloft his copy of Hitler’s “Mien Kampf”.

The walkout was temporary, with most diplomats returning after Mr Ahmadinejad finished speaking, but the Czech delegation, which currently holds the European Union presidency, said it would not return to the conference.

The US was already boycotting the event, along with Australia, Canada, Germany, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Poland. This was due to the advance knowledge of all participants that like its predecessor conference at Durban 2, this conference was been built on a false pretext. Supposedly devised to combat racism it is, in reality, hijacked by those wishing to demonize and delegitmise Israel and anybody who dares support the Jewish state’s right to exist.

Mr Ahmadinejad went on to accuse Israel of being the "most cruel and racist regime".

Protesters against the Iranian leader held placards reading, "This is a circus. A racist cannot fight racism", and repeatedly interrupted the speech with shouts of "Shame! Shame!" and "Racist! Racist!"

UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon met Mr Ahmadinejad prior to his speech to specifically advise the Iranian leader to avoid dividing the conference. Clearly this advice was ignored in much the same way as President Obama’s peace overtures have been.

Mr Ban, who was plainly both disgusted and angry, added that he was disappointed Mr Ahmadinejad had misused his speech "to accuse, divide and even incite", directly opposing the aim of the meeting.

Mr Ahmadinejad, as head of state, had the right to speak and did not need a UN invitation to the event, aimed at stamping out intolerance worldwide.

Speaking after Mr Ahmadinejad's speech, Norway's foreign minister said the comments "run counter to the very spirit of dignity of the conference".
Mr Ahmadinejad "has made Iran the odd man out", Jonas Gahr Store said.

Sadly Mr Ahmadinejad has been praised in the Muslim world for calling for Israel's destruction and making other anti-Israeli comments. What chance a peace deal in the Middle East with such myopic and evil lunatics in charge of important nation states?

We must remember our history, or we are doomed to repeat our mistakes. No other people but the Jews have endured such persecution, annihilation, pogroms, expulsions and destruction, yet survives and flourishes. No other nation has been hated for so long by so many, yet, is still here, while most of the nations who tried so hard to wipe the Jewish people from the face of the earth, have themselves been wiped off. Think hard about the lessons you might learn from that Mr Ahmadinejad before you cost your people dear.