It has been over five years since George W. Bush’s State of the Union address in which he proclaimed that an “axis of evil” that included the countries of Iraq, Iran and North Korea “threaten the peace of the world.” Bush made it clear that he is willing to take action against such “evil” when he invaded Iraq in 2003, and now there is much discussion about what should be done with Iran and its ambition to obtain nuclear technology. Currently, Americans are being led to believe that Iran is a serious threat to their security (and Israel’s), yet this idea is simply false and based on misquotations and exaggerations.
While there have been sanctions and talk of an invasion, political figures have been using the media to create intense American animosity toward Iran. Very few Americans could quote a single world leader other than their own, yet we find an exception when it comes to the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and his two infamous quotations regarding how Israel should be “wiped off the map” and how the Holocaust was a “myth.” What is lost in these oft-heard quotations is their context and true intent.
What Ahmadinejad actually said (in regards to the call for Israel’s destruction) was that “this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the pages of time,” a quote from a speech made by Ayatollah Khomeini. The context of the speech does not include any calls to attack the occupying regime, nor does it make any reference to its vanishing any time soon. Rather, Ahmadinejad said this in order to express hope that the Palestinian territories will one day be free of the Israeli occupation (which in fact is mandated by U.N. Security Council Resolution 242 and has been since 1967).
After he supposedly called the Holocaust a “myth,” Ahmadinejad took much international criticism. He was asked about his statement in a CBS interview with Mike Wallace:
Wallace: Last December, you said this: the Europeans created a myth: the Holocaust.
Ahmadinjad: What I did say was that if this is a reality, if this is real, where did it take place?
Wallace: In Europe.
Ahmadinejad: In Europe. [cross-talk]
Wallace: What you’re suggesting, I have one moment, what you’re suggesting then is that Israel should be over in Germany, because that’s where the Holocaust took place?
Ahmadinejad: I’m not saying that, mind you. Why on the pretext of the Holocaust, they have occupied Palestine?
Ahmadinejad never pushes his supposed conviction that the Holocaust never took place, and even seems to affirm Wallace’s statement that it took place in Europe. It is quite clear that while Ahmadinejad may not have the same view of the Holocaust as the West does, he cares to focus much more on why the Holocaust has been used as a justification for the establishment of a Jewish settlement in the middle of traditionally Muslim lands (an establishment that created hundreds of thousands of refugees) rather than the details of the event itself. Iran is clearly not supportive of the Israeli state (a view shared by many Muslim nations), yet to believe that Ahmadinejad is calling for the immediate destruction of Israel is simply incorrect. Unfortunately, this is the belief held by the vast majority of Americans. Not only would an attack on Israel provoke quick international retaliation, but the retaliation of Israel alone would reduce Iran to rubble in a matter of days.
Ahmadinejad’s quotations have been used to convince the American public that he is attempting to obtain nuclear weapons, and while his nuclear ambitions are indeed questionable, the United States cannot continue to apply a double standard when it comes to such issues (such as sharing nuclear technology with India or allowing Israel to build up their nuclear weapons arsenal) because allowing only certain nations to obtain nuclear technology naturally provokes rival states like Iran to acquire their own as a deterrent.
As much as we believe our media to be fair and balanced, we only get one side of the news on issues such as Iran, which dangerously provides us with false and misleading information. It has only been four years since Americans were misled into a war in Iraq, and we should not allow ourselves to be misled again.
