Mister Moleman and his Friends

Whenever the subject is Iran, I find my thoughts drifting back to the 1930’s, and I realize I am becoming a Munich bore.  But I can’t help it.

Mr. Ahmadinejad (I started to write Herr Ahmadinejad, but I am really trying to lay off on the sarcasm) was interviewed in Der Spiegel [here] yesterday by a German reporter who pulled refreshingly few punches. 

What first grabbed my interest was Mr. A on the subject of the rights of the Palestinians.

Ahmadinejad: We are defending more than the basic rights of oppressed Palestinians. Our proposal for resolving the Middle East conflict is that the Palestinians should be allowed to decide their own future in a free referendum. Do you think it right that some European countries and the United States support the occupying regime and the unnatural Zionist state, but condemn Iran, merely because we are defending the rights of the Palestinian people?

I flashed back to Churchill’s magnificent speech in Commons opposing Chamberlain’s Munich agreement.  (It will be a most hopeful sign when this great oration is once again studied in both civics and literature classes.)

Churchill:  We in this country, as in other liberal and democratic countries, have a perfect right to exalt the principle of self-determination, but it comes ill out of the mouths of those in totalitarian states who deny even the smallest element of toleration to every section and creed within their bounds.

 This is a point that I wish our Apologist-in-Chief could wrap his mind around.

And there is more of Mr. A’s poisonous statesmanship.

Ahmadinejad: I believe that we must get to the root of the problem. If one doesn’t consider the causes, there can be no solution.

SPIEGEL: Does getting to the root of the problem mean wiping out Israel?

Ahmadinejad: It means claiming the rights of the Palestinian people. I believe that this is to everyone’s benefit, to that of America, Europe and Germany. But didn’t we want to discuss Germany and German-Iranian relations?

SPIEGEL: That’s what we are talking about. The fact that you deny Israel‘s right to exist is of critical importance when it comes to German-Iranian relations.

Ahmadinejad: Do you believe that the German people support the Zionist regime? Do you believe that a referendum could be held in Germany on this question? If you did allow such a referendum to take place, you would discover that the German people hate the Zionist regime.

SPIEGEL: We are confident that this is not the case.

We must hope that Der Spiegel’s confidence is not misplaced.   But it does make one wonder if Mr. A hasn’t cleverly put his finger on a sore spot that gives him a sense of confidence in his present policy.

For there appears to be a greater level of anti-Israel sentiment today throughout the West, including the US, than there has been at any time since WWII.  It is certainly most pronounced at our elite universities, where a referendum on support for Israel could not possibly pass.  Walt and Mearsheimer, Juan Cole and the MSA, the Chomskyites and the rest of the academic left, would have a field day denouncing it.  Imagine the “debate” on the Huffington Post, or the Daily Kos.  

And where else might a pro-Israel referendum fail? Throughout Western Europe, with its bully-left/bully-Muslim coalition, the more interesting question might be: Who would have the courage to campaign publicly FOR it?   How many ordinary Britons, in the home of the Balfour Declaration, would stand up for it?  In Britain or Canada, with their increasingly ludicrous hate-speech codes, would support for Israel be declared anti-Muslim hate-mongering?

 I’m probably over-reacting.  But I wonder if Mr. A hasn’t himself been studying the 1930’s.  I’ll bet he knows what the term “Fifth Column” means.