Bolton on CNN repeats Ahmadinejad "want to wipe Israel off the map."

[flpoljunkie]

http://www.juancole.com/2006/05/hitchens-hacker-and-hitchens.html

But the actual quote, which comes from an old speech of Khomeini, does not imply military action, or killing anyone at all. The second reason is that it is just an inexact translation. The phrase is almost metaphysical. He quoted Khomeini that "the occupation regime over Jerusalem should vanish from the page of time." It is in fact probably a reference to some phrase in a medieval Persian poem. It is not about tanks.

and earlier, this:

http://www.juancole.com/2006/08/ahmadinejad-we-are-not-threat-to-any.html

The schlock Western pundits, journalists and politicians who keep maintaining that Ahmadinejad threatened "to wipe Israel off the map" when he never said those words will never, ever manage to choke out the words Ahmadinejad spoke on Saturday, much less repeat them as a tag line forever after.

(Ahmadinejad is scheduled to speak before the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, I believe. Perhaps someone will ask him if he intends "to wipe Israel off the map.")

[louis-t]

1. Yeah, yeah, and Gore said he invented the internet.

Wish the press could report the truth.

[wuushew]

2. kick

:kick: for truth

[BRLIB]

3. Ed Schultz

Ed Schultz too keeps swearing that Ahmadinejad wants to wipe Israel off the map.
Where is this quote from? Someone needs to set these clowns straight.

[Windy]

6. Ed is pissing me off today!

He's so worried about "phase two" regarding Iraq, but is ready to buy the administration hook line and sinker on iran! I hope he's ready to send his son to die for Israel, because my sons aren't going!

Diplomacy first!!! VERIFY!!! That is critical so that we don't make the same mistakes with Iran that we made with Iraq. Its not so damn cut and dry!! Ed wants a oneliner candidate...and one-liner dems. Not me!! I want intelligent leadership!!!

[Supersedeas]

4. that's Murika's chief diplomat in action - and Condi - all smiles

[flpoljunkie]

5. Below is more from Cole on Ahmadinejad's Saturday speech referenced above.

http://www.juancole.com/2006/08/ahmadinejad-we-are-not-threat-to-any.html

Ahmadinejad: We are Not a Threat to Any Country, Including Israel

Believe it, don't believe it, that's up to you. But at least we should know what exactly he said, which is not something our US newspapers will tell us about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech on Saturday:

Kayhan reports that Ahmadinejad said, "Iran is not a threat to any country, and is not in any way a people of intimidation and aggression." He described Iranians as people of peace and civilization. He said that Iran does not even pose a threat to Israel, and wants to deal with the problem there peacefully, through elections:

"Weapons research is in no way part of Iran's program. Even with regard to the Zionist regime, our path to a solution is elections."

Ahmadinejad seems to be explaining what his calls for the Zionist regime to be effaced actually mean. He says he doesn't want violence against Israel, despite its own acts of enmity against Middle Eastern neighbors. I interpret his statement on Saturday to be an endorsement of the one-state solution, in which a government would be elected that all Palestinians and all Israelis would jointly vote for. The result would be a government about half made up of Israeli ministers and half of Palestinian ones. Whatever one wanted to call such an arrangement, it wouldn't exactly be a "Zionist state," which would thus have been dissolved.

http://www.juancole.com/2006/08/ahmadinejad-we-are-not-threat-to-any.html