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Remember the quote [SIZE=-1]"Israel must be wiped off the map", attributed to Ahmadindjad? How about [/SIZE][SIZE=-1]"There is no doubt: the new wave of assaults in Palestine will erase the stigma in [the] countenance of the Islamic world."?
Turns out that Ahmadinejad never said either one, but statements he did make were purposely edited to what you see above. What did he actually say?
1) In the case of [/SIZE][SIZE=-1]"Israel must be wiped off the map", the actual quote was "[/SIZE][SIZE=-1]this regime that is occupying Palestinian land must vanish from the page of time." What does this mean? According to all experts in Farsi, including the right-wing service MEMRI, Ahmadinejad is not referring to wiping Israel off the map at all, but Israel's occupation of Jerusalem. Jerusalem itself is contested by both Israel and the Arab world, and this is what he was referring to. In his speech, Ahmadinejad told how the Shah, the Soviet Union, and Saddam had all passed in time. He then says that Israeli control of the West Bank and the eastern half of Jerusalem will also pass.
2) In the case of [/SIZE][SIZE=-1]"There is no doubt: the new wave of assaults in Palestine will erase the stigma in [the] countenance of the Islamic world", the acutal quote was [/SIZE][SIZE=-1]"I have no doubt that the new movement taking place in our dear Palestine is a wave of morality which is spanning the entire Islamic world and which will soon remove this stain of disgrace from the Islamic world." The words "new movement" were replaced by "assaults", and "stain of disgrace" were replaced by "stigma", and then the claim was made that the inserted word "stigma" meant Israel.
Of course, in both cases, Ahmadinejad's words were edited to something else by those who have a vested interest in going to war against Iran.
This goes back to the concept of "Noble Lies" espoused by Machiavelli, Karl Marx, and also Irving Kristol, the father of Neoconservatism, in which the people must be lied to in order for good things to be done.
Here is my question. If what we are about to do is so good, then why do our leaders need to lie to us at all?
Note: I ran this by the president of our company, who IS Iranian, and who strongly believes that Israel can coexist in the Arab world. He went to a site which contained Ahmadinejad's speeches (in Farsi), and confirmed to me that the words were indeed edited from their original content. He has no axe to grind either. He is Baha'i, and was persecuted by the Islamists in Iran, before escaping and coming here in the early 1980's. He would like nothing more than to see the downfall of the Islamists in Iran, but questions the necessity for lies to accomplish those ends. As he told me, "We cannot be them, otherwise we are no better than they are."
Article is here.
[/SIZE][SIZE=-1] [/SIZE]
Turns out that Ahmadinejad never said either one, but statements he did make were purposely edited to what you see above. What did he actually say?
1) In the case of [/SIZE][SIZE=-1]"Israel must be wiped off the map", the actual quote was "[/SIZE][SIZE=-1]this regime that is occupying Palestinian land must vanish from the page of time." What does this mean? According to all experts in Farsi, including the right-wing service MEMRI, Ahmadinejad is not referring to wiping Israel off the map at all, but Israel's occupation of Jerusalem. Jerusalem itself is contested by both Israel and the Arab world, and this is what he was referring to. In his speech, Ahmadinejad told how the Shah, the Soviet Union, and Saddam had all passed in time. He then says that Israeli control of the West Bank and the eastern half of Jerusalem will also pass.
2) In the case of [/SIZE][SIZE=-1]"There is no doubt: the new wave of assaults in Palestine will erase the stigma in [the] countenance of the Islamic world", the acutal quote was [/SIZE][SIZE=-1]"I have no doubt that the new movement taking place in our dear Palestine is a wave of morality which is spanning the entire Islamic world and which will soon remove this stain of disgrace from the Islamic world." The words "new movement" were replaced by "assaults", and "stain of disgrace" were replaced by "stigma", and then the claim was made that the inserted word "stigma" meant Israel.
Of course, in both cases, Ahmadinejad's words were edited to something else by those who have a vested interest in going to war against Iran.
This goes back to the concept of "Noble Lies" espoused by Machiavelli, Karl Marx, and also Irving Kristol, the father of Neoconservatism, in which the people must be lied to in order for good things to be done.
Here is my question. If what we are about to do is so good, then why do our leaders need to lie to us at all?
Note: I ran this by the president of our company, who IS Iranian, and who strongly believes that Israel can coexist in the Arab world. He went to a site which contained Ahmadinejad's speeches (in Farsi), and confirmed to me that the words were indeed edited from their original content. He has no axe to grind either. He is Baha'i, and was persecuted by the Islamists in Iran, before escaping and coming here in the early 1980's. He would like nothing more than to see the downfall of the Islamists in Iran, but questions the necessity for lies to accomplish those ends. As he told me, "We cannot be them, otherwise we are no better than they are."
Article is here.
[/SIZE][SIZE=-1] [/SIZE]