Wednesday, October 26, 2005

President of Iran Says, "Israel Should Be Wiped Off the Map"

Every once in awhile a leader stands up and speaks the truth boldly and unequivicably. Two people did that today. But there was a significant difference.

First, Governor Jeb Bush of Florida, in the wake of Hurricane Wilma, publicly declared,

"People had ample time to prepare, and it isn't that hard to get 72 hours worth of food and water, to do the simple things we ask people to do," Gov. Jeb Bush said. The governor bristled in response to criticism of FEMA.

"If anyone wants to blame anybody, blame me," he said. "I'm not going to criticize anybody and I'm not going to let anybody criticize FEMA for something we accept responsibility for." (as quoted in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel)
How refreshing to seeing a politician accept responsibility instead of trying to blame someone else. How refreshing to see a leader face a problem and promise to find a constructive way to solve it and to do even better next time.

On the other hand, we have Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad declaring that,

“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, (while) 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.” (from
AP)

For those of you who have never heard this sort of rhetoric before, "A World Without Zionism" means exactly the same thing as, "A World Without Israel."

It is significant that Iran aligns itself with Palestinian terrorism against Israel. Known as a long-time supporter of terrorist organizations such as Islamic Jihad, Iran here publically declares common cause with any group that, in the name of Islam, seeks the physical destruction of the nation of Israel.

Does this qualify as a declaration of war? Would this sort of declaration, taken in the context of Iran's nuclear reactor program, justify a "preemptive strike" by Israel?

I, for one, believe that it is more than likely that Israel will not sit and wait until Western Europe gets around to condemning Iran for either its nuclear ambitions, its incitement to terrorism or its public vow to see Israel destroyed.

When the time is right, Israel will "go it alone" and attack Iran in "self-defense."

Israel will be universally condemned....at least publicly.

The United States, Jordan and Iraq will be excoriated for having allowed Israeli warplanes to pass through their air space.

Iran, in turn, will turn loose at least 10,000 trained jihadi who will be more than willing to martyr themselves in attacks against the US/Iraq, the nation of Israel and any Muslim nation that has or may be considering establishing diplomatic relations with Israel.

Egypt and Jordan will be fair game, of course, but other nations will suffer under the Iranian-style fatwas as well.

Arab governments may well topple under such an assault and the United States, in defense of Israel and other Middle East "allies," may be forced to quarantine and blockade Iran from all trade as part of a world-wide boycott of an entire nation.

In a worse-case scenario, the United States could be forced to actually attack Iran from the air and possibly even send ground troops across her borders.

The religious and governmental leaders in Iran are, of course, counting on their proxies in Palestine to do their dirty work for them. As long as they can pretend that their hands are "clean" they know that they can sucker Western Europe, Russia and China into giving them a "pass."

What is truly frightening this time around is that the President of Iran is talking so boldly that it almost appears as if there is a plan in place....and that Iran actually believes that the destruction of Israel is "doable."

Personally, between the two I would choose Jeb Bush every time.