I wonder what they want nukes for?

The President of Iran calls, once again, for the destruction of the Jewish state:

Iran’s hard-line president called for Israel to be “wiped off the map” and said a new wave of Palestinian attacks will destroy the Jewish state, state-run media reported Wednesday.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also denounced attempts to recognize Israel or normalize relations with it.

“There is no doubt that the new wave (of attacks) in Palestine will wipe off this stigma (Israel) from the face of the Islamic world,” Ahmadinejad told students Wednesday during a Tehran conference called “The World without Zionism.”

“Anybody who recognizes Israel will burn in the fire of the Islamic nation’s fury, any (Islamic leader) who recognizes the Zionist regime means he is acknowledging the surrender and defeat of the Islamic world,” Ahmadinejad said.

Ahmadinejad also repeated the words of the founder of Iran’s Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who called for the destruction of Israel.

“As the Imam said, Israel must be wiped off the map,” said Ahmadinejad, who came to power in August.

Update: Sari Stein makes an interesting point in the comments section:

Israel is the only rallying point that all the Arab states have to channel hatred and unite against. Without Israel, they'd go back to fighting one another, and the people would rise up against their autocratic, dictatorial leaders. Iran doesn't actually want Israel destroyed... it just wants everyone talking about it and directing effort and energy towards its destruction.

I think that's true for most of the Arab states, especially Egypt and Syria. But I fear the Iranian mullahs, who have backed and armed Hezbollah for years, really believe they have a sacred religious obligation to eradicate Israel by any means necessary. Hopefully, Israel won't let them. (One word: "Osirak".)

An Islamic Jihad suicide bomber struck in Hadera, Israel today, killing five people.

Posted by damian at October 26, 2005 11:01 AM | TrackBack