6 Responses to Ahmadinejad Holds Up a Mirror to Western Powers, Inviting Scorn

1. 

   Moign Khawaja

   April 23, 2009 at 5:34 am

   Well written article Jeremy. I think people in the West love to misunderstand Iran and its leaders. Ahmedinijad is no exception. While I condemn Israeli aggression and blatant violation in occupied territories, what I can’t understand is the Iranian duplicity on issues like Afghan invasion and Iraq war. They were the ones who welcomed American plans to invade both the countries and overthrow regimes hostile towards Tehran. Iranian leadership offered cooperation to the American while invasion plans were chalked out. Yet they condemn the aggression and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq. Sheer hypocrisy!
   The absence of Western countries from the anti-racism summit shows how shortsighted they’re when it comes to support their so-called ‘allies’. I can’t think of any better synonym for Zionism than racism.
   • 

     Jeremy R. Hammond

     April 23, 2009 at 6:39 am

     I’m not sure it’s fair to say they welcomed both wars. No doubt, they saw certain advantages in it. They had always opposed the Taliban, and their enmity for Saddam Hussein goes without saying. But that does not necessarily mean they supported the U.S. bombing Afghanistan or invading Iraq.

     As for Zionism, not all early Zionists were racists. But the leaders who really decided what the Zionist project would be made sure that it was inherently racist. The West adopted this racist framework (actually, you could say the Zionists adopted the racist framework from the West, and the whole colonialist/empiralist assumption that white European types should rule the world and basically regarded everyone else as cheap labor), explicitly rejecting the right of the Arab majority to self-determination.
2. 

   Faraz Butt

   April 23, 2009 at 11:00 am

   But there is with certainty no doubt that what is going on in Palestine and ‘Israel’ is a mess.

   Everyone talks about a free world and so called “liberation”. But as soon as you “belive” in something different then man made laws – then you are labeld as an extremist and fundamentalist.

   Religion is a personal and a free choice. If one belives it, one should have the freedom of following it. If a country wishes to impose devine rulings – then its their decision.

   Why is everyone so bothered with other countries internal matters!

   How can a country bomb its neighboring country (mostly women and children) and then just get away with it!. Zionist or none-zionist. We are talking about human beings who have been mistreaded and psychologically tortured for that past 50 years. Women raped, children shot in the head. Yet no reaction but labeled as self defence.

   Well if you occupy a country and obviously people will react to oppression!

   The leaders and the people are forgetting the United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 which clearly states:

   - Withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict!

   - Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgement of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force!
3. 

   Rehmat

   April 23, 2009 at 12:20 pm

   The boycott and walk-out of 29 countries out of 187 member countries of UN, show who are for the world peace and who are puppets of powerful Jewish Lobby. The leadership of these countries are hypocrites themselves while preaching “freedom of speech” to other countries – especially the Muslim world.

   Criticizing Israel is not anti-Semitism – because there could be millions of Muslim and Christian Arabs who could claim to be Semites while we all know that the great majority of Jews are neither Semite people (they’re Asian Khazar Turks) nor practicing Jews. In fact most leaders of Zionist movement have been committed atheists and quite hateful towards Jews.

   Iran has not attacked neither of its neighbours for the last 100 year while Zionist entity has invaded almost every one of its neighbours during the last 60 years. Tehran did not invite US to attack Afghanistan or Iraq. Contrary to Pakistan, Iran refused to give the US its airspace for attacking Afghanistan. Now, Israel pushing Washington to enlarge its war front – extending it to Iran and Pakistan.

   http://rehmat1.wordpress.com/2009/04/23/vampires-eying-pakistan/
4. 

   Jared Israel

   November 3, 2009 at 7:17 am

   The article states that the UN did not create Israel — which is true but entirely misleading. It TRIED to divide what was left of the Palestine Mandate Territory between Jewish and Arab states, facing intense opposition from Arab states and the UK. The Arabs said no way. With British backing, they began a low intensity war against Jewish residents. The Jews only then unilaterally declared the independence of Israel. Arab states then invaded, ordering Arab residents to leave to facilitate the massacre of all Jews that they promised publicly and repeatedly to carry out, and which they did carry out wherever possible. The harshly enforced Arab demand – now ‘forgotten’ – is certainly why *most* of the Arabs who left did so. The Nation magazine (yes, that one) sent the UN a memorandum documenting Britain’s role in attempting to sabotage the creation of Israel and aiding the pre-invasion Arab terror. It can be read at http://emperor.vwh.net/history/br.htm
   • 

     Jeremy R. Hammond

     November 4, 2009 at 6:47 am

     The article states that the UN did not create Israel — which is true but entirely misleading.

     How is stating the fact that the U.N. did not create Israel “entirely misleading”? What is entirely misleading is the commonly asserted falsehood that the U.N. created Israel. That is absolutely false.

     “With British backing, they began a low intensity war against Jewish residents.”

     Nonsense. British actions against Jews were directed against Jewish terrorist activities, such as the bombing of the King David hotel and similar atrocities, many of which targeted the British as well as the Arabs. To suggest the British backed Arab attacks against Jewish residents is just nonsense. The British certainly played a deplorable role in the whole episode, but this was not a part of it.

     “Arab states then invaded, ordering Arab residents to leave…. The harshly enforced Arab demand – now ‘forgotten’ – is certainly why *most* of the Arabs who left did so.”

     Another falsehood. On the first part of this statement, Jews owned approximately 7% of the entire territory of Palestine, and yet unilaterally declared for themselves, well, pretty much all of it (the unilateral declaration of the existence of the state of Israel contained nothing defining the borders of the declared state). Saying Arabs then “invaded” assumes Israel somehow had a right to simply annex all of this land that did not belong to them. Most of the fighting did not take place on land belonging to Jews, but on land belonging to the Arabs. You also omit the fact that the Zionists terrorized the Arabs, and it was the massacre at Deir Yassin and the deliberate ethnic cleansing of Palestine that resulted in the Arabs fleeing. That is non-controversial, and well acknowledged among Israelis and well documented by Israelis like Shlomo Ben-Ami and Benny Morris and Ilan Pappe, etc.

     The latter part of this is simply a fabrication. You’ll find no documentary evidence supporting the claim that Arab armies ordered inhabitants to leave. This is a historical fabrication.

     “The Nation magazine (yes, that one) sent the UN a memorandum documenting Britain’s role in attempting to sabotage the creation of Israel and aiding the pre-invasion Arab terror.”

     Correction: The Nation magazine sent a memo claiming Britain did a number of things. It’s utter rubbish. Take the claim that the British had the goal in mind of a federal state. Complete nonsense, as the documentary record shows unambiguously this solution was repeatedly and consistently rejected by the British from A to Z. Other claims therein are similarly nonsensical, like that the British conspired with the Arabs to plan the Arab revolt — which was then violently suppressed by the British, and in which far more Arabs were killed than Jews. It’s just asinine nonsense.