[JTA] Uriel Heilman - Iran's president had his big day at the UN Tuesday, giving a speech slamming Zionists and replete with classic anti-Semitic motifs: The Zionists are murderers, deceitful and dominate global finance despite their "minuscule" number. Then Ahmadinejad went on CNN to talk with Larry King about how the Zionists start wars, have no religion, and are "uninvited guests." King was outmaneuvered by Iran's president when it came to Israel's right to exist and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. King should have pointed out that Jews are indigenous to the holy land, and not a European people - to say nothing of the fact that half of Israel's Jews are immigrants or children of immigrants from the Middle East; that Jews continually lived in Palestine/Israel since the last Jewish state there 2,000 years ago; and that Israel is a democratic nation of all its citizens and not just its Jews (Israeli Arabs have the vote, too). When Ahmadinejad was talking about Palestinian suffering, King could have pressed him about the Arab attacks against Israelis that perpetuate the conflict - and Palestinian suffering. The point is to understand the context for the suffering of the Palestinian side and its root causes: the refusal of powerful Palestinians to give up their war against Israel.
2008-09-26 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive