What Iran’s president DID NOT say

[ContraCommando]

Iran's President Did Not Say "Israel must be wiped off the map"
(excerpted)

Across the world, a dangerous rumor has spread that could have catastrophic implications. According to legend, Iran's President has threatened to destroy Israel, or, to quote the misquote, "Israel must be wiped off the map". Contrary to popular belief, this statement was never made, as this article will prove.
…
THE ACTUAL QUOTE:
So what did Ahmadinejad actually say? To quote his exact words in farsi: "Imam ghoft een rezhim-e ishghalgar-e qods bayad az safheh-ye ruzgar mahv shavad."

That passage will mean nothing to most people, but one word might ring a bell: rezhim-e. It is the word "Regime", pronounced just like the English word with an extra "eh" sound at the end. Ahmadinejad did not refer to Israel the country or Israel the land mass, but the Israeli regime. This is a vastly significant distinction, as one cannot wipe a regime off the map. Ahmadinejad does not even refer to Israel by name, he instead uses the specific phrase "rezhim-e ishghalgar-e qods" (regime occupying Jerusalem).

So this raises the question..What exactly did he want "wiped from the map"? The answer is: nothing. That's because the word "map" was never used. The Persian word for map, "nagsheh", is not contained anywhere in his original farsi quote, or, for that matter, anywhere in his entire speech. Nor was the western phrase "wipe out" ever said. Yet we are led to believe that Iran's President threatened to "wipe Israel off the map", despite never having uttered the words "map", "wipe out" or even "Israel".

THE PROOF:
The full quote translated directly to English:
"The Imam said this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time".

Word by word translation:
Imam (Khomeini) ghoft (said) een (this) rezhim-e (regime) ishghalgar-e (occupying) qods (Jerusalem) bayad (must) az safheh-ye ruzgar (from page of time) mahv shavad (vanish from).
…
This is the passage that has been isolated, twisted and distorted so famously. By measure of comparison, Ahmadinejad would seem to be calling for regime change, not war.

…

THE ORIGIN:
The Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran's official propaganda arm, used this phrasing in the English version of some of their news releases covering the World Without Zionism conference. International media including the BBC, Al Jazeera, Time magazine and countless others picked up the IRNA quote and made headlines out of it without verifying its accuracy, and rarely referring to the source. Iran's Foreign Minister soon attempted to clarify the statement, but the quote had a life of its own. Though the IRNA wording was inaccurate and misleading, the media assumed it was true, and besides, it made great copy.

Amid heated wrangling over Iran's nuclear program, and months of continuous, unfounded accusations against Iran in an attempt to rally support for preemptive strikes against the country, the imperialists had just been handed the perfect raison d'être to invade. To the war hawks, it was a gift from the skies.

THE REACTION:
Following news of Iran's remark, condemnation was swift. British Prime Minister Tony Blair expressed "revulsion" and implied that it might be necessary to attack Iran. U.N. chief Kofi Annan cancelled his scheduled trip to Iran due to the controversy. Ariel Sharon demanded that Iran be expelled from the United Nations for calling for Israel's destruction. Shimon Peres, more than once, threatened to wipe Iran off the map. More recently, Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu, who has warned that Iran is "preparing another holocaust for the Jewish state" is calling for Ahmadinejad to be tried for war crimes for inciting genocide.
…
Even if every media outlet in the world were to retract the mistranslated quote tomorrow, the major damage has already been done, providing the groundwork for the next phase of disinformation: complete character demonization. Ahmadinejad, we are told, is the next Hitler, a grave threat to world peace who wants to bring about a new Holocaust. According to some detractors, he not only wants to destroy Israel, but after that, he will nuke America, and then Europe! An October 2006 memo titled Words of Hate: Iran's Escalating Threats released by the powerful Israeli lobby group AIPAC opens with the warning, "Ahmadinejad and other top Iranian leaders are issuing increasingly belligerent statements threatening to destroy the United States, Europe and Israel." These claims not only fabricate an unsubstantiated threat, but assume far more power than he actually possesses. Alarmists would be better off monitoring the statements of the ultra-conservative Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, who holds the most power in Iran.
…
This scenario mirrors the kind of false claims that led to the illegal U.S. invasion of Iraq, a war now widely viewed as a catastrophic mistake. And yet the Bush administration and the compliant corporate media continue to marinate in propaganda and speculation about attacking Iraq's much larger and more formidable neighbor, Iran. Most of this rests on the unproven assumption that Iran is building nuclear weapons, and the lie that Iran has vowed to physically destroy Israel. Given its scope and potentially disastrous outcome, all this amounts to what is arguably the rumor of the century.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=NOR20070120&articleId=4527

[Little Wing]

1. vanish from the page of time?

In other words, disappear. I think you need a stronger argument.

[walldude]

2. Why? We would like the Bush regime to vanish from

the pages of time, why can't Iran wish the same thing for the regime in Israel?

[rman]

4. but not necessarily made to disappear by use of violence

To translate it as "must be wiped off the map" is disingenuous.

I say the spin is much more blatant then what Iran's President has said.

[jobycom]

7. No, the article's argument is correct, the Bush-friendly interpretation is wrong.

"Wiping a nation off the map," in the western, violent, connotation of that phrase, is far different than claiming a nation's government needs to be changed. You can still disagree with the statement, but it's a far cry from the war-like statement BushCo has propagated as an excuse to invade Iraq.

[Little Wing]

9. regime needs to be changed = vanished from the page of time

thanks for the :rofl:

[jobycom]

15. So you think the rofl smilie is a factual or logical argument?

The Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki has repudiated that his state would want the Jewish state Israel 'wiped off the map'. Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had been misunderstood. 'Nobody can erase a country from the map.' Ahmadinejad was not thinking of the state of Israel but of their regime. 'We do not accredit this regime to be legitimate.' Mottaki also accepted that the Holocaust really took place in a way that six million Jews were murdered during the era of National Socialism." (Reuters 2006-02-21)

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12790.htm

[Zodiak]

19. I agree

jeering is the province of a bully.

It is not progressive to be a bully, nor it is acting in good faith to conduct oneself on a polticial message board of ostensible political allies like one is in high school.

Your argument was quite sound, joby. I am sorry that it had to be posted in response to such bad behavior and not a legitimate attempt to engage in debate.

[ContraCommando]

22. I don’t believe he meant militarily

Some of the parts that I omitted (too large to include it all) make his intentions clear. He is condemning Israeli policy and Israeli/American hegemony in the Middle East and in Palestine. He goes on to mention several instances when, in his opinion, hostile empires have collapsed and now “only exist in history books.” In other words, “vanished from the page of time.” He is calling for the end of the Israeli regime (it’s policies and those of the U.S.) and not for “wiping Israel off the map.” When Reagan demanded that the Berlin wall be torn down, he was not advocating the military destruction of the Soviet Union, nor was he when he called them an evil empire. Viewed in this context, I think that some level of negotiation and understanding is merited, not belligerent threats and hostility from George W. Bush. The situation, unfortunately, has been made worse by Iran’s president; he, like Bush, is politically incompetent.

other seemingly invincible empires have disappeared and now only exist in history books. He then proceeds to list three such regimes that have collapsed, crumbled or vanished, all within the last 30 years:
(1) The Shah of Iran- the U.S. installed monarch
(2) The Soviet Union
(3) Iran's former arch-enemy, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein

In his speech, Ahmadinejad declares that Zionism is the West's apparatus of political oppression against Muslims…Palestine, he insists, is the frontline of the Islamic world's struggle with American hegemony, and its fate will have repercussions for the entire Middle East.

[wiggs]

3. Interesting. Remember when some MSM had to apologize for accidentally

inserting the word "weapon" in a translation when talking about nuclear programs? Heinous, criminal, irresponsible....

[Just-plain-Kathy]

5. Welcom to DU ContraCommando,

I can't wait until Webb gives his response tonight.

I'm hoping Webb declares that we're not going to fall into Bush's trap again.

[BushOut06]

6. Thank you, for bringing logic & rational thought to the table

I K&R'd your post, it's refreshing to have people who don't automatically knee-jerk to what the MSM reports.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

8. Interesting

how is this phrase interpreted in Iran? Does "vanish from the page of time" mean that eventually the Israeli government will go, not done in by anything except time and the changes time brings? Or does it imply that an outside source will erase this government? Not asking for flames, just wanting to know.

[LSK]

10. or a more moderate Govt will be elected in Israel???

:shrug:

[mmonk]

11. While there is deception out there on the Iranian threat,

I think I read somewhere he is against Israel being in its current location, but is not against Israel's existence. Sorry, but I believe his hatred is genuine but I don't believe he will attack because I don't view him or their government suicidal.

[cynatnite]

12. I'm not confident the intent is different because of the wording n/t

[jobycom]

13. Now, too debunk the lie that Ahmadinejad denied the Holocaust...

The Iranian press agency IRNA renders Ahmadinejad on 2005-12-14 as follows: "'If the Europeans are telling the truth in their claim that they have killed six million Jews in the Holocaust during the World War II - which seems they are right in their claim because they insist on it and arrest and imprison those who oppose it, why the Palestinian nation should pay for the crime. Why have they come to the very heart of the Islamic world and are committing crimes against the dear Palestine using their bombs, rockets, missiles and sanctions.' (snip) 'If you have committed the crimes so give a piece of your land somewhere in Europe or America and Canada or Alaska to them to set up their own state there.' (snip) Ahmadinejad said some have created a myth on holocaust and hold it even higher than the very belief in religion and prophets (snip) The president further said, 'If your civilization consists of aggression, displacing the oppressed nations, suppressing justice-seeking voices and spreading injustice and poverty for the majority of people on the earth, then we say it out loud that we despise your hollow civilization.'"

snip

Here are some of the ways that statement was presented in the west:

"The Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has stepped up his verbal attacks against Israel and the Western states and has denied the Holocaust. Instead of making Israel's attacks against Palestine a subject of discussion 'the Western states devote their energy to the fairy-tale of the massacre against the Jews', Ahmadinejad said. (dispatch of the German press agency DPA, 2005-12-14.)

"The Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has stepped up his verbal attacks against Israel and called the Holocaust a 'myth' used as a pretext by the Europeans to found a Jewish state in the center of the Islamic world ."

etc

---------------------

Here, btw, is Iran's response to these misinterpretations and mischaracterizations:

A dispatch by Reuters confirms 2006-02-21: "The Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki has (snip) repudiated that his state would want the Jewish state Israel 'wiped off the map'. (snip) Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had been misunderstood. 'Nobody can erase a country from the map.' Ahmadinejad was not thinking of the state of Israel but of their regime (snip). 'We do not accredit this regime to be legitimate.' (snip) Mottaki also accepted that the Holocaust really took place in a way that six million Jews were murdered during the era of National Socialism."

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12790.htm

[Scriptor Ignotus]

14. thanks for this

I always figured this was mistranslated, but never saw the proof until now. Ahmadinejad has done little to help his "cause" with the western media though. Certainly, hosting the World Without Zionism conference is a prime example. And we complain about Bush denying the existence of Climate Change...

Also, it's kind of his own damn fault for having a propaganda machine distort his statements to begin with. Then again, we have a free press here and we still twist politician's statements (ex. Al Gore never said he created the internet).

[rinsd]

16. LOL. Disproving something by relying on Ahmadinejad's archives?

And what was his response to this grave quote that could escalate tensions unnecessarily?

Why he holds a conference for Holocaust deniers!

Fuck him.

[Chulanowa]

17. I'm always amazed...

By how many supposed Democrats will jump at any chance to blow the fuck out of Iran because Tony Blair and George Bush tell them it's a good idea. Do these two smeg-smears speak Farsi? No, one of them can't even speak english. Have either produced evidence of Iran being dangerous? Again, no, they rely on journalistic reinterpretations andsensationalist reporting.

But what the hell, doesn't stop some of our local armchair generals from nodding excitedly at the prospect of maybe nuking a country on the say-so of these two officeholding perverts.

[chookie]

18. It appears that a regional war is inevitable

Ahmadinejad is a firebrand, but he is not the maniac he is being portrayed as. He is simply the "Hitler du jour" to use as an excuse to destroy Iran. His views are deliberately being distorted to advance the NeoCon agenda one more disastrous step. Once again, the American people are being lied to, brainwashed, manipulated and emotionally blackmailed.

I am glad to see people who are actually familiar with Farsi trying to get the details straight.

After all the breathless warnings about how Iraq/Iran are planning to use nuclear weapons against Israel and the US, the irony is that the next time nuclear weapons will be unleashed on earth, it will be BY the US or Israel....

It may be emotionally satisfying to many to think of the US protecting Jews, but the sad truth is that the NeoCons have achieved nothing but to reduce the security of both Israel and the US. It's a pity.

There are a few brave Americans who are trying to alert We The People to the folly of widening the war into Iran (i.e. Wesley Clark), but I anticipate that we are going to see an almost identical repeat of the rush to war with Iraq, with all the Democratic leaders getting right behind George W.

Within a year and a half, I think we'll all be looking back on the Good Old Days when we were just stuck in Iraq.

[tuvor]

20. So I guess bush won't be accepting Ahmadinejad's offer to debate any time soon.

[burythehatchet]

23. talk is cheap

cruise missles are expensive and profitable.

[LynnTheDem]

21. And hopefully damn soon the bush regime will vanish from the page of time.

Really soon.

Today would be good;

IMPEACH.

INDICT.

IMPRISON.