 TEHRAN, Iran — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's hard-line president who has said the Holocaust was a myth, now has charged that European countries sought to complete the genocide by establishing a Jewish state in the midst of Muslim countries. "Don't you think that continuation of genocide by expelling Jews from Europe was one of their aims in creating a regime of occupiers of Al-Quds (Jerusalem)?" the official Islamic Republic News agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying Sunday. "Isn't that an important question?"
| He conveniently forgets that 1) Jews that fled Europe during and after WWII did so to avoid being killed, and 2) the Brits tried to stop Jewish refugees from entering the Mandate territory. |
Ahmadinejad said Europeans had decided to create a "Jewish camp" as the best means for ridding the continent of Jews. He said the camp, Israel, now enjoyed support from the United States and Europe in the slaughter of Muslims.
In October, Ahmadinejad called for Israel to be "wiped off the map." Last month, Ahmadinejad said the Holocaust, in which Nazi Germany killed six million Jews, was a myth. After global outrage over the comments, he said that Europeans, if they insist the Holocaust occurred, should cede some of their territory for a Jewish state.
He said anti-Semitism had a long history in Europe, while Jews had lived peacefully among Muslims for centuries.
| As long as they remembered their place, of course. And they lived very peacefully in Arab states and Iran in the 1950s and 60s, when they were expelled from those countries. |
His remarks have been condemned by the White House, Israel, Germany, France and the European Commission, among others. Germany has said the remarks would affect negotiations over Iran's nuclear program.
|