Ahmadinejad Clarification On Israel

Ahmadinejad Clarification on Israel

An informed commentator writes:

Regarding his views of the Holocaust and other issues that have been discussed on this forum, the IRI President has offered some explanations. Part of it reads:

“One must distinguish between Zionism and Judaism. The Jews have always lived in security and prosperity in Islamic lands, and they have always had freedom of religion, and will continue to have, however, Zionism itself is a western concept and a colonialist one that was established by the British in the region with secularist goals and fascist methods. Zionism now with the help and leadership of Americans and part of Europe, is massacring Muslims. The basis upon which they have created Zionism is the issue of the massacre of the Jews by the German army. About the number of the victims of this, there are two official and unofficial views in Europe, however, these views have never been the subject of a scientific debate. …… Ethnic cleansing in our view is condemned.”

The complete report in Persian is availed at the site of Iranian Labor News Agency

Let’s get this straight. So Ahmadinejad would condemn the Holocaust as a form of ethnic cleansing if he believed it had occurred? And he believes that no “scientific” (i.e. scholarly or academic) findings have nailed down the course of the Holocaust? I mean, this is wilfull ignorance on a Himalayan scale. But, may one conclude that he doesn’t call for Israeli Jewish noncombatants to be killed? Would that not be ethnic cleansing, which he says he is against?