Ahmadinejad Accepts Israel's Right to Exist

by moonwolf | September 30, 2008 at 10:13 am

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A major shift in the stance of Iran in its relationship to Israel was quietly announced by Iran's normally bellicose President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last week during an interview with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now while he visited New York to attend United Nations General Assembly meetings. Though this major policy shift, Iran's acceptance of the State of Israel to exist, likely signals a key breakthrough in the super-heated war of words between these two long time adversaries in the Middle East, and could likely begin a reduction of tensions in the region, little mention has been made of this eminently newsworthy story in the global media.

Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has made a remarkable announcement. He's admitted that Iran might agree to the existence of the state of Israel.

Ahmadinejad was asked: "If the Palestinian leaders agree to a two-state solution, could Iran live with an Israeli state?"

This was his astonishing reply:

"If they [the Palestinians] want to keep the Zionists, they can stay ... Whatever the people decide, we will respect it. I mean, it's very much in correspondence with our proposal to allow Palestinian people to decide through free referendums."

Since most Palestinians are willing to accept a two-state solution, the Iranian president is, in effect, agreeing to Israel's right to exist and opening the door to a peace deal that Iran will endorse.

Ahmadinejad made this apparently extraordinary shift in policy during an interview last week when he was in New York to address the UN general assembly.

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rumana husain

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at 10:31 on September 30th, 2008

moonwolf, I like this story. It's good stuff.

Wino

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at 10:44 on September 30th, 2008

Maybe we can avert World War III afterall.

World_Groove

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at 11:26 on September 30th, 2008

A very encouraging step in the right direction, yet we should probably hold off on the ticker tate parade until we see what his public speeches say over the next 6 months.

moonwolf

at 11:29 on September 30th, 2008

Thanks World-groove,

That and how the Israelis respond to the overture.

moonwolf

at 11:30 on September 30th, 2008

Thanks Rumana and wino.

I've got my fingers crossed on the outcome!

Johnny Summerton

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 12:44 on September 30th, 2008

Astonishing statement as Peter Tatchell writes. And even more so that it has been completely ignored by the international media. Great find. Let's keep every available limb crossed.

master_jim2008

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at 12:54 on September 30th, 2008

moonwolf, I like this story. It's good stuff.

It still gets back to the same ole thing, which is that when he said he wanted Israel wiped off the face of the earth, he wasn't talking about using violence to do it. He was talking about the Palistinians voting to take over Israeli territory and becoming one state.

It's kind of like in California and Oregon, there is a group that wants to wipe out Northern California and Southern Oregon and call it the 51st state, The State of Jefferson. How would they do it? Certainly not by nuking anyone, but by ballot measure to divide the two states and make one state out of the top of California and the Bottom of Oregon.

But once again, we're all misled by the buzzwords in his statement, and taking it out of context or out of true meaning and tagging it as some sinister plan to exterminate Israel. By the way, the comment about Israel being a stinking rotting corpse, well the state of jefferson backers think the same thing about the parts of California that would remain. It still doesn't mean we're going to kill or bury anyone.

World_Groove

at 17:40 on September 30th, 2008

I've seen you make reference to this before Jim, and I can't seem to verify the complete text to confirm your take on it, though I have found one source for a translation of the original Khomeini comment, which gives a slightly different take.

Ahmadinejad quoted a remark from Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of Iran's Islamic revolution, who said that Israel "must be wiped out from the map of the world."

The president then said: "And God willing, with the force of God behind it, we shall soon experience a world without the United States and Zionism,"

He said: "Anybody who recognises Israel will burn in the fire of the Islamic nation's fury, [while] any [Islamic leader] who recognises the Zionist regime means he is acknowledging the surrender and defeat of the Islamic world." He was addressing a conference titled The World Without Zionism.

Ahmadinejad was speaking to an audience of about 4,000 students at a program called "The World Without Zionism," in preparation for an annual anti-Israel demonstration on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan.......Referring to comments by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the Islamic revolution, Admadinejad said, "As the imam said, Israel must be wiped off the map.".........."Anybody who recognizes Israel will burn in the fire of the Islamic nation's fury," he said. Any Islamic leader "who recognizes the Zionist regime means he is acknowledging the surrender and defeat of the Islamic world.

Our dear Imam (referring to Ayatollah Khomeini) said that the occupying regime must be wiped off the map and this was a very wise statement. We cannot compromise over the issue of Palestine. Is it possible to create a new front in the heart of an old front. This would be a defeat and whoever accepts the legitimacy of this regime has in fact, signed the defeat of the Islamic world. Our dear Imam targeted the heart of the world oppressor in his struggle, meaning the occupying regime. I have no doubt that the new wave that has started in Palestine, and we witness it in the Islamic world too, will eliminate this disgraceful stain from the Islamic world.[2]

It seems you point to a later interview in which he re defines his wording :

At a later news conference on January 14, 2006, Ahmadinejad stated his speech had been exaggerated and misinterpreted."There is no new policy, they created a lot of hue and cry over that. It is clear what we say: Let the Palestinians participate in free elections and they will say what they want."

Let us be clear, his original speech was given at an event called "The World Without Zionism".

The one web site I found to give defense of the Statement has the translation as follows.

Imam (Khomeini) ghoft (said) een (this) rezhim-e (regime) ishghalgar-e (occupying) qods (Jerusalem) bayad (must) az safheh-ye ruzgar (from page of time) mahv shavad (vanish from).

The web site tries to make this statement seem trivial, with it's take that this interpretation is much better, than what they allege being a bad translation of Ahmadinejad's paraphrasing of Khomeini's comment. To me personally it seems a far more damning. Saying something should "Vanish from the Page of time" is rather final, that is extinction. One web site goes on to say the words "wiped off the map" were used on President Ahmadinejad's English web site, though I checked and his speeches no longer go back as far as the date in question for "domestic" speaches.

Ahmadinejad's is not a pacifist. His Hero Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini was not a pacifist. (Your comparative to the State Of Jefferson)

Khomeini supported the hostage-takers with the slogan "America can't do a damn thing against us."..........Khomeini began calling for Islamic revolutions across the Muslim world,........Khomeini issued an order to judicial officials to judge every Iranian political prisoner and kill those who would not repent anti-regime activities. Estimates of the number executed vary from 1,400 to 30,000..........Khomeini explained, `The club of the pen and the club of the tongue is the worst of clubs, whose corruption is a 100 times greater than other clubs.

Ahmadinejad may not be the Ogre he is painted as being. But he surely has no love nor like of Israel or America. I doubt a tear would be shed by him with the demise of either.

moonwolf

at 13:51 on September 30th, 2008

Thanks all! and Jim, you de man!

amyjudd

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at 14:12 on September 30th, 2008

moonwolf, I like this story. It's good stuff.

This sort of slipped under the radar didn't it?

Tina Kells

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 14:25 on September 30th, 2008

moonwolf, I like this story. It's good stuff.

Barry Artiste

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at 14:35 on September 30th, 2008

moonwolf, I like this story. It's good stuff. A step in the right direction, now only if the Taliban could stop killing afghani women policewomen, that would be a great advance, after all if Iran and see the light, lets hope Israel and Taliban Afghans will too.

eastvanray

at 14:41 on September 30th, 2008

It must be April 1st?

moonwolf

at 14:51 on September 30th, 2008

Thanks all!

Yah this did "slip under the radar" with all the buffoonery going on in the USA!

rahul

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 15:09 on September 30th, 2008

moonwolf, I like this story. It's good stuff. There were early signs of this Iranian shift in the comments made by its Minister for Turism few weeks ago. He welcome all citizens to Iran including Israelis. In addition this is great news as it further clarifies the stand on Israel while the outgoing Prime Minister Elmud Omert requested the eventual withdrawal from "almost all" the land his country captured in the 1967 war and divide Jerusalem in order to agree reach peace with the Palestinians and Syria. Something is moving in the Middle East

Rhonda J Mangus

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 15:22 on September 30th, 2008

moonwolf, I like this story. It's good stuff.

BallyZACA

at 15:42 on September 30th, 2008

Would not place too much faith in what Ahmadinejad (pronounced, "I'm-a-MAD-jihad") say's, he's filled with the ideological baggage packed for him before he left the mosque and the mullahs he speaks for in Iran, be it the sermon he gave before the UN general assembly, or the b*****it spoken during his interview on Larry King Live. He'd have to go a lot further to overcome the remarks he has made about Israel, quote "Israel must be wiped from the face of the earth,” and, "Israel's a stinking corpse."

-END-

moonwolf

at 16:02 on September 30th, 2008

Thanks all for the flags and comments, other than that stuck record that has been playing the same old Republican swansong over and over ad nauseum for the last eight years. Boring. Yawn....