Ahmadinejad did not cross EU 'red line' with UN speech, says Sweden (EU presidency)

"Earlier this week, the European Union presidency issued a statement condemning Ahmadinejad for his statements on the Holocaust and on Israel, saying such remarks "encourage anti-Semitism and hatred"."

With such lack of coherence, no wonder there is huge disapppointment in Europe with the EU. It is impossible to know what Europe really stands for.

STOCKHOLM (AFP-EJP)--- Sweden, the country which chairs the EU, Finland and non-EU Norway stayed in the room when Ahmadinejad spoke at the UN.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did not cross the "red line" that would have prompted a walkout by all EU states in his speech at the United Nations, the Swedish foreign ministry said Thursday. "There were certain criteria set for when the EU would leave the room and those criteria were not fulfilled," spokeswoman Cecilia Julin said.

Sweden currently holds the rotating EU presidency. The criteria agreed in New York before the Iranian leader spoke included denying the Holocaust and calling for the annihilation of Israel, which Ahmadinejad avoided doing this time. Even so, a number of EU states did walk out when Ahmadinejad attacked Israel, including Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary and Italy.
"We're not commenting on who left or who didn't leave," Julin said. "I think there were other reasons for other countries that decided to leave."

In his address, Ahmadinejad again took aim at Israel but without mentioning the country or Jews by name, referring only to the "Zionist regime." He accused Israel of "inhumane policies in Palestine," including genocide, and seeking to "establish a new form of slavery, and harm the reputation of other nations, even European nations and the US, to attain its racist ambitions."

Suggesting there was a Jewish conspiracy, Ahmadinejad added: "It is no longer acceptable that a small minority would dominate the politics, economy and culture of major parts of the world by its complicated networks." He accused Jews of seeking to "establish a new form of slavery and harm the reputation of other nations, even European nations and the US, to attain its racist ambitions."

Israel had called for a boycott of the speech, and was not present when the Iranian leader spoke.
Canada heeded the boycott call, while delegations from Argentina, Australia, Costa Rica, New Zealand and the United States also left the room as Ahmadinejad began to rail against Israel, a European source said.

Earlier this week, the European Union presidency issued a statement condemning Ahmadinejad for his statements on the Holocaust and on Israel, saying such remarks "encourage anti-Semitism and hatred".

Rotterdam fires Tariq Ramadan over Iranian TV show

"The enlightened Ramadan makes talk shows for the Islamic fascists of Tehran; without any twinges of conscious, since the Islamic republic is evidently his ideal republic. It is clear where this Dutch-subsidised bridge builder is building his bridges to. To the fascist Islamic regime of Ahmadinejad. [...] This club of liars and state rapists is who Tariq Ramadan, the Rotterdam builder of bridges, works for. Anyone who works for the immoral, extremely violent and anti-Semitic Iranian regime, not out of any necessity and certainly voluntarily, may not and cannot ever build bridges with Dutch money. And if Ramadan has unexpectedly built a small bridge, we should destroy it as quickly as possible. Because the other side of that bridge, the bank on which Islamic fascism thrives, must never be a Dutch polder." (Afshin Ellian)

Hopefully he will not be allowed to enter the US.

Background:
- Tarik Ramadan has show on Iranian TV
- Rotterdam should get rid of this Islamist
- Rotterdam: complaint about Tariq Ramadan prayer

NRC.nl reports :

The Rotterdam city government wants to break ties with the Muslim philosopher Tariq Ramadan, sources at city hall say.

Ramadan (46) has been an adviser on integration for the city of Rotterdam for two years. Recently, he has come under criticism because he hosts a weekly talk show on the Iranian TV station PressTV, which is financed by the Tehran regime.

The sources at Rotterdam city hall said the board of council executives and the mayor feel Ramadan has lost credibility as an adviser on integration issues. The decision was expected to be made official after a 2 p.m. board meeting on Tuesday.

Rotterdam hired the Egyptian-Swiss theologist to help 'bridge the divide' between the Muslim and non-Muslim communities. The city government also funds Ramadan's chair at the Erasmus University, where he has been a visiting professor of Identity and Citizenship since 2007.

Ramadan, whose principal message is that Islam and European culture do not have to be at odds, is a controversial figure. He already came under fire in the Netherlands in April because of statements that were allegedly homophobic and misogynistic.

The right-wing liberal party VVD dropped out of the local coalition after the city decided to extend Ramadan's contract for another two years. An investigation commissioned by the city had come to the conclusion that the allegations against Ramadan were unfounded.

The Rotterdam city government was surprised last week when it learned about Ramadan's cooperation with the Iranian TV channel. Three local opposition parties immediately called for his resignation, as did the ruling Christian democrats, CDA, in the Dutch parliament.

Ramadan defended his position in a letter to NRC Handelsblad on Tuesday saying: "The present controversy says far more about the alarming state of politics in the Netherlands than about my person."

- European Union invites extremist Muslim representatives to interfaith dialogue

Tarik Ramadan has show on Iranian TV

"In his essay, Dr Nicholas Kollerstrom argues that the alleged massacre of Jewish people by gassing during World War II was scientifically impossible. The distinguished academic was dismissed on April 22, 2008 without any explanation and a Holocaust conference held on 16-18 May in Berlin refused his article and warned that he would be arrested if he attended the conference and presented his essay. The West punishes people for their scientific research on Holocaust but the same Western countries allow insults to prophets and religious beliefs…" (PressTV)

Dutch site ScienceGuide reveals that Tariq Ramadan has his own show "Islam & Life" on Iranian broadcaster PressTV. On his show Ramadan discusses various social and political issues from an Islamic point of view. According to PressTV this is "A weekly show presented by Tariq Ramadan on the world's fastest growing religion and the daily challenges faced by its followers especially in the West."

The most recent show, for example, was about Islam and art. Recent shows discussed Islam and student involvement, Changing Europe and Islam, Obama and the Muslim world, Islam and science, and the concept of freedom in Islam. All shows are available online.

ScienceGuide reports that Ramadan is joined on his show by British parliament member George Galloway, who was kicked out of the Labour Party for his support of Saddam Hussein, as political commentator.

Dr. Nicholas Kollerstrom, a former astronomer at University College London, who was fired for Holocaust denial, is also on the show. Kollerstrom wrote: "Let us hope the schoolchildren visitors are properly taught about the elegant swimming-pool at Auschwitz, built by the inmates, who would sunbathe there on Saturday and Sunday afternoons while watching the water-polo matches; and shown the paintings from its art class, which still exist; and told about the camp library which had some 45,000 volumes for inmates to choose from, plus a range of periodicals; and the six camp orchestras at Auschwitz/Birkenau, its theatrical performances, including a children’s opera, the weekly camp cinema, and even the special brothel established there."

PressTV says: "In his essay, Dr Nicholas Kollerstrom argues that the alleged massacre of Jewish people by gassing during World War II was scientifically impossible. The distinguished academic was dismissed on April 22, 2008 without any explanation and a Holocaust conference held on 16-18 May in Berlin refused his article and warned that he would be arrested if he attended the conference and presented his essay. The West punishes people for their scientific research on Holocaust but the same Western countries allow insults to prophets and religious beliefs…"

PressTV is fully paid for by the Iranian government. After the recent presidential elections that station became so militant that a British presenter resigned. Nick Ferrari said at the beginning of July: "I imagine they’ve been told what to do, and I can’t reconcile that with working there."

Professor Ramadan continued with his program in the weeks after the election, without any objection or protest against the course of events. ScienceGuide says this is remarkable given that the Iranian government made arrests on university campuses and among colleagues of Ramadan. Ramadan works for the city of Rotterdam as a 'bridge-builder' in the framework of the 'Islam-debates' that the city organizes. Following this report, CDA (Christian-Democratic Appeal) parliament members Jan Jacob van Dijk and Mirjam Sterk turned with questions to the Dutch government, saying Ramadan should not continue as integration advisor to the Rotterdam municipality. Van Dijk says that this is not just a local Rotterdam issue since professor Ramadan is considered a very influential opinion leader in international media and at important universities such as Oxford. The parliament and government have a responsibility towards the content and credibility of the integration debate.

Sources: Islam in Europe and ScienceGuide 1, 2 (Dutch)

Ramadan criticised over Iran connection
Tarik Ramadan: "Boycott Israel at the International Book Fair of Turin"

Where are all the usual suspects?, Seth J. Frantzman

"The reaction to events in Iran has shown once again the double standards and hypocrisy of those in Europe and the West who jump at the slightest opportunity to protest Israel but remain stoic in the face of events in Iran. ... Yet in January, when Israel was embroiled in a war with Hamas, the anger directed at her in Europe was apoplectic."

Following the contested Iranian election, the green armbands of the opposition and pictures of bloodied and dying Iranian protesters were being held aloft by Iranians from Los Angeles to Paris. Noticeably absent from the international scene were Westerners, particularly students.

The reaction to events in Iran has shown once again the double standards and hypocrisy of those in Europe and the West who jump at the slightest opportunity to protest Israel but remain stoic in the face of events in Iran.

While many have compared the outpouring of anger in Iran to what presaged the 1979 revolution, there is one key difference; this time around, no Western students care. Before the shah fell from power, he often visited the capitals of major European and North American cities. Every time he did, tens of thousands of progressive students and human-rights activists poured out onto the streets calling him a fascist and protesting his visit. In one such protest on June 2, 1967 a German student, Benno Ohnesorg, was even killed. But now there is no such outpouring of emotion. Neither is there any interest from the UN or from Jimmy Carter.

Yet in January, when Israel was embroiled in a war with Hamas, the anger directed at her in Europe was apoplectic [photos of massive pro-Hamas rallies in Brussels, the capital of Europe]. When Israel fought a war against Hizbullah in 2006, Western students even proudly wore the symbol of Hizbullah, a clenched fist holding an AK-47.

So where were the Western students to hold aloft the green armbands of Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi? Why will Western students who call themselves progressives wear green for Hamas and Hizbullah - terrorist organizations that murder civilians - and not for Iranian dissidents?

Why have CNN and other major media been so coy when it comes to covering the outrages perpetrated by the regime in Iran? Describing the deaths of protesters, CNN never once, in the coverage I watched, mentioned who had killed them. It simply said they were "shot." But when Iranian dissidents in Washington were interviewed with "death to the dictator" placards, the CNN reporter challenged them, demanding to know if they were calling for "murder."

Murder? The only murder that has taken place so far is the murder of Iranian protesters. For members of my parent's generation, protesting the shah was one of the things you did as a sign you were a good person. It was up there with the civil rights movement. So where is this generation in its opposition to the modern shah of Iran, the ayatollahs and their lackey, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?

The reason for the disconnect on Iran has strange roots. It was encapsulated in the support that Michel Foucault, a major figure in Western philosophy, gave the Islamic revolution. Foucault, angry at what he found to be a conservative Western attitude toward his homosexuality and feminism, came to support Iranian Islamism in the warped belief that it was the newest "revolutionary" idea. Even when women were smothered in chadors and gays were executed by the ayatollah, he didn't admit that he was wrong.

During the years of the second Bush administration, there was a belief among some on the extreme Left that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." Even the indefensible Ahmadinejad was rewarded by those choosing to see his evil through the lens of "realism," "interests" and "historical meddling by the West."

The BBC claimed that should Mousavi win the election, it would be "hard for Israel to ratchet up opposition to Iran" and CNN claimed that "Iran's main enemy, Israel," was watching the protests closely.

Those who oppose Israel therefore justify supporting Iran. This strange logic has led to support for Ahmadinejad's right to "free speech" by inviting him to Columbia University and supporting his "right" to speak at Durban II.

It is a disgrace that those who don keffiyehs as a fashion symbol in universities and fiercely protest Israeli actions in Gaza and Lebanon will not lift a finger in defense of democracy in Iran. It is a sad testimony to the warped logic of "human rights" that it was a cause célèbre to riot against the shah in the streets of Europe in 1978, but that no one can be called away from their coffee houses and belly dancing classes to raise their hands against the rigged election in Iran.

There are many in the West who are on the wrong side of history, and just as Iranians did not forgive the West for coddling the shah, neither will Iran's next generation forgive us for our silence on this momentous crackdown.

The writer is a PhD student in geography at the Hebrew University and runs the Terra Incognita Journal blog. sfrantzman@hotmail.com
Source: JPost

Ahmadinejad's delegation visits European Parliament

"... four of the five members of this Iranian delegation belong to Ahmadinejad's political faction."

Source: EJP

"A Jewish advocacy organization has expressed concern about the recent visit of a delegation from Iran’s parliament to the European Parliament in Brussels.

The delegation of five MPs from the Majlis, the Iranian parliament, visited the European Parliament on November 4 and 5 as part of a meeting with the EU Assembly’s delegation for relations of Iran.

In a statement, the B’nai B’rith International EU affairs office said the delegation "represents a government which poses a threat to Middle East stability by attempting to acquire nuclear weapons and actively supporting terrorism around the globe."

"It is well documented that Iran has been funding, training, and guiding terror organizations such as Hezbollah and the EU blacklisted Hamas," the group noted, adding that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has publicly denied the Holocaust, consistently questions Israel's right to exist and has called for Israel to be "wiped off the map."

B’nai B’rith International found disturbing that "four of the five members of this Iranian delegation belong to Ahmadinejad's political faction."

In the face of Iran’s nuclear ambitions, the international community should be working hard to strengthen sanctions against Iran. This visit is at odds with such an effort.

Paulo Casaca, a Portuguese Socialist member of European Parliament, also questioned the visit. "When there is a session titled 'Developing Relations Between Iran and the European Parliament,' we have to ask ourselves what sort of relations are being developed while the clock is ticking on Iran's nuclear program?," he said."

- Switzerland not invited to Israel’s 60th anniversary festivities
- Israel concerned over Germany-Iran deal
- Iran, Italy sign oil exploration deal
- For Norwegian F.M. Europe much too lenient with Israel

UN: d'Escoto Brockmann hugs Ahmedinejad and says he loves Israel

Source: TJP

With great Christian charity the man told TJP that he loves Israel (nobody needs to take what he says at face value) but refuses to criticize Ahmedinejad when he compares Israel to a cesspool and calls for its destruction. He brings even more discredit on the United Nations.

"The head of the UN General Assembly claims he was slandered by "irresponsible" suggestions that he hates Israel.

President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, an ordained Catholic priest, told The Jerusalem Post in an exclusive interview Tuesday that he loves Israel and believes the Jewish people "have suffered more perhaps in time than any other people."

"I don't hate any country, but Israel I happen to love," d'Escoto said.

The 75-year-old Nicaraguan, a former diplomat for the Sandinista government, has been sharply criticized in the past weeks for hugging Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad moments after he gave a speech to the UN in which he described Israel as a "cesspool."

D'Escoto has also refused to condemn Ahmadinejad's comments that Israel be "wiped off the map."

He told the Post he "did not like" the comments, but said he believed Iran's antipathy toward Israel stemmed not from anti-Semitism but from the political dispute over the Palestinian issue.

"I don't pretend to be infallible, but I don't perceive that, for example, from Iran they would be anti-Jew," d'Escoto said. "That position of the Iranian government is on account of what they consider to be the bad treatment for the Palestinians."

D'Escoto dodged questions on whether Iran's pursuit of a nuclear capability threatened Israel. He instead said he believed the US had "no moral authority" with regard to nuclear proliferation. (...)

"He should stick to the real chores of the GA president and not give a partisan point of view," said Ambassador Daniel Carmon, chargé d'affaires at the Israeli mission. "If he is a really good friend of Israel, he would criticize a [UN] member state for making comments that another state should be wiped off the map."

Ambassador Gabriela Shalev, who said in September she felt d'Escoto was an "Israel-hater," was not available for comment because of Succot.

A spokeswoman for the mission said Shalev would stick by her earlier comments regarding d'Escoto.

In an earlier interview with the Post, Shalev said she felt d'Escoto had "hijacked" his position as General Assembly president by using it as a bully pulpit for his personal opinions.

In his opening speech to the UN in September, d'Escoto made thinly veiled attacks on the US and other permanent members of the Security Council for "casually ignoring" the will of "95% of the organization's members."

UN General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann hugged Ahmadinejad

UN General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann hugged Ahmadinejad

Caught on Video: The response of the UN to Antisemitism - Applause and a Hug from General Assembly President

Source: Ynet News

'Why did he embrace Ahmadinejad?'

"Israel's new United Nations Ambassador, Professor Gabriella Shalev, is fuming. In a talk with Ynet, Shalev blasted UN General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, who hugged Iranian President Ahmadinejad following his anti-Semitic speech. Brockmann himself delivered an anti-American speech and also harshly criticized Israel.

"To my deep regret, in my first session representing Israel I was forced to hear d'Escoto and I found it hard to believe what I was hearing," she said. "In his speech, d'Escoto declared war on the United States and World Bank, and also dedicated a whole paragraph to Israel, saying that the UN's great failure is the fact that a Palestinian State was not established in 1947, as part of the partition plan."

"The man is known for his dislike for Israel, to put it mildly, and those who heard the speech could think that Israel is the most important country in the world, as if there are no other problems or hotbeds of terrorism in the world," Shalev said.

Israel's ambassador is also upset at d'Escoto's warm embrace of President Ahmadinejad.

"I heard that the Iranian president's address was followed by loud applause, and that d'Escoto warmly embraced him," she said. "He was also expected to join a dinner with Arab leaders to mark the end of Ramadan, with Ahmadinejad also in attendance.""

According to his biography on Wikipedia, Brockmann is a Catholic priest and used to be an official with the World Council of Churches. What a surprise!
World Council of Churches leader: the Israel/South Africa apartheid analogy again

United Nations : Again: Antisemitism, welcomed and cheered, Anne Bayefsky

Source: EYE on the UN

"Tuesday, September 23, 2008 will go down in history as the day the United Nations General Assembly provided a platform for a head of state to spew unadulterated, vile antisemitism - and the assembled nations of the world clapped.

The United Nations has become the largest global purveyor of antisemitism in the world today. In the full knowledge that the president of Iran denies the Holocaust and advocates the destruction of the U.N. member state of Israel, the U.N. invited him to mount the dais and gave him a megaphone [full speech here].

Dictators have pontificated at the General Assembly before. Terrorists like Yasser Arafat have come and gone. But in the halls of an organization founded on the ashes of the victims of the Holocaust, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's effort to promote another Holocaust from center stage stands alone.

While the United States and Israel left their ambassadorial seats empty, here is the Jew-hatred greeted by enthusiasm at today's U.N.:

"The dignity, integrity and rights of the European and American people are being played with by a small but deceitful number of people called Zionists. Although they are miniscule minority, they have been dominating an important portion of the financial and monetary centers as well as the political decision-making centers of some European countries and the U.S. in a deceitful, complex and furtive manner. It is deeply disastrous to witness that some presidential or premiere nominees in some big countries have to visit these people, take part in their gatherings, swear their allegiance and commitment to their interests in order to attain financial or media support(...)

This means that the great people of America and various nations of Europe need to obey the demands and wishes of a small number of acquisitive and invasive people. These nations are spending their dignity and resources on the crimes and occupations and the threats of the Zionist network against they will (...)

Today, the Zionist regime is on a definite slope to collapse, and there is no way for it to get out of the cesspool created by itself and its supporters."

Antisemitism often masquerades as anti-Zionism - a denial of the right to self-determination only for Jews. At least Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did us the service of making the undeniable connection between the two. Disputing the legitimacy of the state of Israel, he said:

"In Palestine, 60 years of carnage and invasion is still ongoing at the hands of some criminal and occupying Zionists. They have forged a regime through collecting people from various parts of the world and bringing them to other people's land by displacing, detaining and killing the true owners of that land... The Security Council cannot do anything and sometimes, under pressure from few bullying powers, even paves the way for supporting these Zionist murderers (...)"

In its entire history, the United Nations General Assembly has never adopted a resolution dedicated to denouncing and combating the scourge of antisemitism in all its forms. Now we know why. Less than half of U.N. members are fully free democracies and among them there is no consensus that discrimination and demonization of Jews and the Jewish state is wrong.

On the contrary, at the U.N. vicious antisemitism is met by a round of applause."

Juan Cole on distinguishing between anti-Zionism and antisemitism, Harry's Place

Buenos Aires urges Tehran to extradite former President Rafsanjani

"Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the Argentine President, asked Iran to hand over for local trial former President Rafsanjani and several other citizens suspected of masterminding the bombing the AMIA Jewish centre in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people. "I would ask the Islamic Republic of Iran in accordance with international law ... accept that Argentine justice can put on trial ... those citizens who have been accused," she told the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Argentina wants of the former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani to be arrested along with seven other Iranians and a former Hezbollah guerrilla leader on accusations of planning the blast. Interpol has issued arrest orders for six of the suspects but the agency cannot force a county to make arrests. Iran on the other hand has continuously refuted taking part in the attack and puts the blame on the United States for framing the Islamic Republic. The attack on the AMIA occurred in 1994, and the bombing incident remains unsolved."

Source: ESISC

The irony of inviting Ahmadinejad to Turkey, Fresno Zionism blog

An little irony for the Turks, from Fresno Zionism blog

"Ha’aretz reports:

"Israel has officially protested against the planned visit of Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Turkey next week.

Israel’s ambassador to Turkey, Gabi Levy, presented the protest to officials in Ankara, and the Turkish ambassador to Israel was summoned to Jerusalem."

"Israel is disappointed that Turkey has invited for an official visit a leader who denies publicly the Holocaust, and thus grants him legitimacy," was the message given to the Turkish ambassador to relay to his government."

Will the Turks will see the irony in being asked to shun a Holocaust denier, when they themselves officially deny that their predecessors committed genocide against the Armenians?

Israel and American Jews have been caught between a rock and a hard place in regard to the Armenian Genocide. I’ve written a number of posts on the subject.

The Turkish government has its reasons for not admitting that the Young Turks, and later the Turkish Nationalists, murdered about a million and a half Armenians during and after World War I. The Israeli government also has its reasons for not wanting to irritate the Turks. Even the US administration seems to feel that Turkey is too strategically important to annoy by using the word ‘genocide’ to describe the events. But the truth is the truth. (...)
.

Survivors sometimes feel that denial is the final stage of extermination. First the physical forms of the victims were destroyed, and then their memories are erased. Most Jews are familiar with the rage that comes over them when confronted with Holocaust denial. But — at least in the West, if not in Iran or the Arab world — deniers are marginal. After all, the present government of Germany has officially accepted responsibility for the Holocaust.

One can imagine how Armenians feel — actually, you don’t need to imagine, they will tell you — when, almost 100 years after the fact, the Turkish government still insists — against the huge preponderance of historical evidence — that while something happened to the Armenians, it wasn’t genocide, the Turks were not responsible, and it might even have been the Armenians’ fault.

Turkey wants to join the EU. It would only be fair to ask them to follow the example of Germany."

.

TV proof that the Iranian regime is antisemitic

Source: Point of no return

"Until now the Iranian authorities have been careful to insist that they are not anti-Jewish, just anti-Zionist. Jews in Iran have all the rights other communities enjoy, and the government affords them security and protection.

This TV programme, however, crosses a red line into out-and-out anti-Jewish antisemitism and demonisation. Note the 'Jewish plan for the genocide of humanity', not the Zionist plan. It lashes out in all directions: even Hollywood is a vulgar Jewish conspiracy. Pseudo-experts, one of whom disparagingly refers to 'Jew-boys', trot out the usual theories based on the notorious Tsarist forgery Protocols of the Elders of Zion. This time, they suggest that the Jews, with their accolytes the Baha'is (seven have now been arrested as Israeli spies) and evangelical Christians, have a long-term plan to dominate Islam and conquer Iran.

You may laugh at the suggestion that peddlars of Harry Potter in dark alleys are spreading moral degeneration. You may comfort yourself that Iranian viewers are far too sophisticated to believe this rubbish. But that's what they said about Nazi propaganda in the 1930s."

Memri: 'The Secret of Armageddon' - An Iranian TV "Documentary" Claims That "a Jewish Plan for the Genocide of Humanity," Includes a Conspiracy for the Takeover of Iran by Local Jewish and Bahai Communities

Illustration: cover of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, contemporary Portuguese edition.

Europe and Iran - a protracted and barren monologue

The ever hopeful Europeans persist in their belief that a dialogue with the Tehran bazaris has already/will eventually bear fruit.
Martin Doerry and Henryk M. Broder interviewed Dutch author Leon de Winter "about his new novel, which is set in 2024, the threats mounting against Israel and the assimilation of Muslims in Europe" for Der Spiegel:

"SPIEGEL: The Europeans are trying to mediate in the conflict between Iran and the West. They keep returning to the negotiating table to prevent a possible nuclear threat against Israel…

De Winter: ... but what good does it do? Remember the so-called troika, the foreign ministers of Germany, France and the UK: Joschka Fischer, Dominique de Villepin and Jack Straw. They flew to Tehran and back, drank tea and coffee with Iranian politicians and negotiated over the Iranian nuclear program. Imagine that: three respectable European intellectuals negotiating with guys who grew up in the Tehran bazaar and would sell them their own watches! That's the kind of results that it produced. They told us that they had pursued a constructive dialogue but had not yet attained their objectives, and so they said that negotiations had to continue … And these three educated, sensible, and critical European intellectuals went along with this! And then, in the fall of 2003 -- in other words five years ago -- they held a press conference: We've reached our goal! Actually, nothing has happened, no agreement, absolutely nothing.

SPIEGEL: What do you think the Europeans are doing wrong?

De Winter: They are chasing illusions. At the time, I met Fischer during a reception at the headquarters of Springer Verlag (publishing house) in Berlin, and he came to me and asked: "What do you have against me? Why do you write such negative things about me?" I said: "I have placed so much hope in you, but you have disappointed me." And he was really taken aback. I tried to explain the situation to him. He had to be told that the Iranians weren't taking him seriously; they were making a fool of him. Fischer's response to this was that we had to pursue a dialogue and return to the negotiating table again and again.

SPIEGEL: But Fischer was right. What would have been the alternative?

De Winter: We could have told them: If you don't stop, we'll wipe you out!

SPIEGEL: You can't really mean that.

De Winter: Yes, I really do. I would have told the Iranians that if they don't halt their nuclear program today, we'll put the fear of God into them tomorrow. And they would have stopped because that's a language they understand. You can't go to these people and say: "Listen, if you renounce generating nuclear power, we'll help you produce something else. And if you don't do that, well, we'll be very, very sad." "Okay," is definitely what the guys in Tehran would say "That's a threat that we take seriously, and we'll meet your demands." What a ludicrous idea.

SPIEGEL: That is, with all due respect, the slightly simplified worldview of a novelist who lives in nice, little Holland and doesn't have to make such decisions. A foreign minister has responsibilities and has to be more cautious in his judgments.

De Winter: But we know who we are dealing with here. These people pursue their objectives with all possible means. If we wait to see what happens, then we have already accepted their ground rules. We are placing our fate in the hands of fanatics and fundamentalists. When you deal with diplomats from Iran or politicians from the Middle East, you cannot act as if you were dealing with the state governor of Hesse or Bavaria! It's another world. You cannot negotiate without threatening to use force, especially if you want to prevent the development of nuclear arms by people who are practically longing for the apocalypse."

Read the whole piece : 'The Europeans Are Chasing Illusions'

Israel Is 'Canceled' in Berlin, WSJ editorial

Editorial in the WSJ

"Iranian calls for the destruction of Israel are almost routine these days. But for a former official of the Islamic Republic to call for the destruction of the Jewish state in the city where the Holocaust was planned adds a repugnant twist – especially as the German government sponsored the event that gave the man from Tehran a Western stage.

At a conference on the Mideast in Berlin on Wednesday, Muhammad Javad Ardashir Larijani said the "Zionist project," which has "created only violence and atrocities," should be "canceled." Mr. Larijani, a former deputy foreign minister, is the brother of Iran's former nuclear negotiator and current parliamentary speaker, Ali Larijani.

The conference organizers, the Peace Research Institute of Frankfurt, made a clumsy attempt at damage control. "We very much regret that the feelings of several Israeli participants were hurt," the institute said in a statement, making it sound as if the problem was with oversensitive Israelis rather than with the Iranian's call for the destruction of their country. While the institute said that it rejects Mr. Larijani's comments, it still defended the decision to invite him.
The institute says it wants to provide a "forum where politicians and experts can exchange positions – also controversial ones." But calling for the destruction of a country isn't "controversial" – it's beyond the realm of civilized debate. To give such views a "forum" is to give them legitimacy."

Related:

Germany admits financing Larijani forum, by Benjamin Weinthal

Berlin forum calls for Israel's destruction, by Benjamin Weinthal

Germany admits financing Larijani forum, by Benjamin Weinthal

Reported in TJP:

"The German government has admitted it was deeply involved in funding last month's conference here on the Middle East, and reports indicate it suggested inviting former Iranian deputy foreign minister Muhammad Javad Ardashir Larijani to speak at the gathering, where he called for the destruction of Israel.

At the Third Transatlantic Conference - whose stated purpose was to address "common solutions" in the Middle East - Larijani said the "Zionist project" should be "canceled" and argued that Israel "has failed miserably and has only caused terrible damage to the region."

Jens Plötner, a spokesman for German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, told The Jerusalem Post over the weekend that the Foreign, Economics and Research ministries and Chancellor Angela Merkel's office transferred funds to the Hesse Foundation for Peace and Conflict Research, which he said had proposed inviting Larijani. The grant was made from a fund for "civil society projects." (...)

Bernd W. Kubbig of the Hesse Foundation, the principal organizer of the conference, refused to provide the Post with a transcript of the event in which Larijani said, "Denial of the Holocaust in the Muslim world has nothing to with anti-Semitism. And President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has never denied the Holocaust."

However, Ahmadinejad has consistently questioned the authenticity of the Holocaust, and he invited well-know Holocaust deniers to the "World without Zionism" conference held in Teheran in 2005.


Critics charge Kubbig with placating a regime that wishes to destroy Israel. "The idea that today the Iranian regime would like to complete the Nazis' job is bad enough; even worse, however, is German cooperation with this," said Nasrin Amirsedghi, an Iranian intellectual who fled the Islamic Republic and now lives in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. (...)

A weeklong investigation by the Post indicates that the German government has been intensifying its business and political relations with Iran in 2008. With the exception of 2007, Germany has remained Iran's No. 1 European Union trade partner over the years. Economists attributed the decline in 2007 to private-sector complications in Iran, and not to German political policy.

In the first quarter of 2008, Iranian-German business mushroomed to €1.35 billion, an 18% increase when compared with the first four months of 2007. Germany supplies a technology-starved Iran with sophisticated equipment for its energy sector and growing infrastructure. Total German export trade to Iran has consistently hovered around €4b. each year.
Merkel has talked about tightening the economic screws on Iran, but her informal policy to discourage trade has not curtailed the strong economic ties between the countries.

Siemens, the electrical giant, maintains a robust yearly trade of between $500m. and $1b. with Iran. The German company Wirth, according to Emanuele Ottolenghi, director of the Transatlantic Institute in Brussels, "sold tunnel-boring equipment to Iran for its Ghomroud water project." While such heavy earth-moving machines can be used to build underground nuclear weapons facilities, the German government approved the deal for the machines, which critics consider to be a telling example of "dual-use" equipment."

Related:
Berlin forum calls for Israel's destruction, by Benjamin Weinthal
Wiesenthal Center: Sue ex-Iranian Official

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's first visit to Europe - sickening

It's my fault, by Stephen Pollard

"Almost all the coverage of the UN's woeful food summit in Rome has been about Robert Mugabe. But it also marks the first visit to Europe of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. And guess what he chose to speak about (guess 'who', I should say)?

Me.

Not just me of course. Quite a lot of other people like me, too. People who are Zionists, that is. By which he means Jews:

The people of Europe have suffered the most harm from Zionists and today the costs of that falsified regime, whether political or economic, are on Europe's shoulders...I do not believe my statements [at the conference] will cause any problems. People love what I say because they are trying to save themselves from the oppression of Zionists.

In some parts of Europe his second point might just be met with knowing nods.

And on Sunday his foreign minister made clear what should be done about it (as Tom Gross points out):

Iran's foreign minister is the latest senior Iranian politician to join President Ahmadinejad in threatening Israel. In a speech on Sunday, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki called on the world's Muslims to work to "erase" Israel, reports the Gulf Daily News in Bahrain.

In April, a senior Iranian army commander also threatened Israel with "elimination."

I'm not sure what is more sickeningly ironic to hear at a food summit - the thoughts of a brutal tyrant such Robert Mugabe or a would-be genocidal murderer such as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Tough call."

As Israel marks Holocaust, future looms dark, by Con Coughlin

In The Daily Telegraph

"One former Israeli cabinet minister this week likened the danger posed by Iran's attempts to acquire nuclear weapons to the Holocaust. "Sixty-five years after Auschwitz, we cannot allow someone who wants to wipe Israel off the map to obtain the tools to get away with it," said Ephraim Sneh, Israel's former deputy defence minister.

The reality of the potential Iranian threat has been graphically brought home by revelations about last September's Israeli air strike against a top-secret military facility in northern Syria. At first Israelis took great pride in the ability of their air force to conduct such a daring mission undetected.

That has been replaced by deepening concern over the revelations that the Syrians were close to setting up a nuclear facility that could have produced two bombs worth of plutonium within a year.

The question many Israelis are now asking is that, if the Syrians, whose every move is closely monitored by Israeli spy satellites, were able to achieve so much progress with their nuclear programme, how much does the West really know about the true extent of the Iranian programme, much of which is hidden away at secret locations in remote areas of the country?

Most Israelis will try to banish such gloomy thoughts as they set about anniversary celebrations; but deep in their hearts they know they will need all the courage and fortitude that has got them this far if they are to withstand the grave challenges that still lie ahead."

Swiss coincidence

Earlier this month we had this from Switzerland:
Swiss blasted for anti-Israel UN vote


And now - what a happy coincidence - we have this:
Iranian-Swiss gas deal irks Israel. Foreign Ministry summons Swiss ambassador to Israel for urgent meeting following signing of major agreement to provide gas between Switzerland and Iran

Pope Benedict XVI criticises Iranian leader

Ruth Gledhill in the Times reports that Pope Benedict XVI pledged to help fight resurgent anti-semitism in Europe. The Pontiff also criticised Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who questions the Holocaust and wants Israel wiped off the map:

“The Pope hit out at Iran as he pledged to help world Jewish leaders in their fight against anti-Semitism.

Pope Benedict XVI told leaders of the World Jewish Congress that Iran was “an issue of big concern” to him.

At a meeting at the Vatican, the Pope spoke of his concern about rising anti-Semitism and described how he wanted to use educational tools to counter the hatred of the Iranian leadership towards the Jewish people and Israel.

Maram Stern, secretary general of the World Jewish Congress, said after the audience: “We thanked the Holy Father for everything he did for the Jewish people, and more importantly what he will do.”

Speaking to journalists in Rome, he said the Pope had “recognised the question of Iran as an issue of big concern for him.”

Members of the congress discussed the critical problem of “resurgent anti-Semitism” in Europe. Britain itself has seen a marked rise in anti-Semitism, linked to increasing anti-Zionism and to events in the Middle East.

In a statement after the audience, the congress said members of the delegation “called on the Pontiff to take action against those in the Church who wanted to do damage to the close and positive relationship between Christians and Jews”."

This trend is also confirmed by Gérard Israël, who heads the Commission for Catholic-Jewish relations in France. In an interview, he stated: “I have no hesitation in saying that today the Catholic Church is Israel’s best friend, and almost an ally.”