Ahmadinejad at the U.N.

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Where's the outrage?

In the absence of outcry, he will have won.

Iranian extremist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has wangled invitations from various patrons of New York polite society this week, seeking "dialogue" and discussion, during the opening of the United Nations General Assembly. He is, after all, president of Iran.

But we should harbor no illusions about what the man is up to.

Ahmadinejad has revealed his agenda.

He is not just against Israel. He is against the Jewish community in its entirety.

He is not just against Israel. He is against the Jewish community in its entirety.

This was made plain by the dastardly speech delivered by the Iranian strong man from the platform of the General Assembly earlier this week. The text came straight from Joseph Goebbels.

The Iranian leader did not observe the polite distinctions of refined anti-Semites in Europe and elsewhere. He did not say that some of his best friends were Jews, even though the Israeli state should be considered a criminal regime.

Instead, taking advantage of the world financial crisis, he resurrected language from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and recycled the worst of Hitler's tropes.

He knows his moment, and, evidently, his audience.

Amadinejad announced that the Wall Street financial crisis was the fault of the Jews. Jews, writ large. True, he spoke of "Zionists." True, most Jews are, indeed, supporters of the state of Israel. But he attacked the Jewish community around the world for crimes they were said to have committed, with no relation to Israel.

He is rebranding a real and full-throated anti-Semitism. The nightmare sketched by Philip Roth, in his novel about the possible revival of the real thing, has come out from under the bed.

Listen to the Iranian president in his own voice of malevolence -- citing the "deceitful, complex and furtive manner" of people who live as Jews.

The Jews control the media. The Jews control financial centers. The Jews force politicians to hearken to their interests. The Jews are an "acquisitive and invasive people."

We have heard that voice before, and it did not end well.

For the sake of a reader who might be disbelieving, it is well to quote these paragraphs in full. This text was delivered before the diplomats from 190 countries. The United States and Israel had already left the room. No other country sought to make a point of order, to move to strike the remarks from the record as inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations or to leave the room in protest during the speech. On the contrary, his anti-Semitic hatemongering was applauded. The president of the General Assembly embraced Ahmadinejad after the speech was completed.

To their shame, U.N. member states' pledges of "Never Again" were betrayed by a singular lack of moral outcry. Have they learned nothing from the multitude of Holocaust education and genocide prevention programs they sponsored?

Ahmadinejad said to the United Nations assembly: "The dignity, integrity and rights of the American and European people are being played with by a small but deceitful number of people called Zionists. Although they are a 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."

And then the Iranian head-thug lamented that any political candidate might even talk to the Jewish community -- mimicking the phrase recently heard in American politics, about "what politicians do."

"It is deeply disastrous," said President Amadinejad, "to witness that some presidential or premiere [sic] 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 their will."

If he had used the word "Jew" instead of "Zionist," such sentiments would likely be barred from the Internet in many countries, as a form of hateful invective.

But Ahmadinejad is clever, and summons the spirit of European and Muslim anti-Semitism by casting this as an issue of the Jewish state.

He ends on that note. His "humane solution" to the Zionist problem is to have "a free referendum in Palestine for determining and establishing the type of state in the entire Palestinian lands."

The United States delegation to the 1919 Peace Conference was instructed that the Jewish home in Palestine should be recognized when it became a state in fact. Israel was admitted to the United Nations in 1949 as a Jewish state.

But in a world in which the recrudescence of anti-Semitism is always a safe bet, Ahmadinejad's proposal for a popular referendum, apparently to embrace the West Bank, Gaza, and Israel proper, would have a predictable consequence -- the elimination of a member state of the United Nations.

For the rest of this week, this violent man is making the rounds in New York City. Ahmadinejad has appeared on Larry King Live. He is attending a dinner at a New York hotel for a "dialogue" with Quakers, Mennonites, and Episcopal groups. He has met with these same groups three times before, and it has only served to embolden him.

Several years ago, as leader of the United Nations, Secretary General Kofi Annan warned of the "alarming resurgence" of anti-Semitism in the world. "It is hard to believe," he said, "that, 60 years after the Holocaust, anti-Semitism is once again rearing its head."

Annan was exactly right about the danger. His clarity should limit the charade of Ahmadinejad's visit.

In this week's hollow ceremonies of polite discourse, no one should be deceived about the malign intentions of the current leader of Iran, as he builds his nuclear weapon.

This article originally appeared in www.nationalreview.com

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