Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s most recent call for the destruction of the State of Israel is particularly “ominous” in light of Tehran’s continued quest for nuclear capability, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) warned Thursday, after the Iranian leader excoriated American candidates and elected officials for “kissing the feet of the Zionists” while meeting with their counterparts in Israel.
Addressing a group of ambassadors from Islamic countries in advance of “al-Quds” (“Jerusalem”) Day, Ahmadinejad said the “annihilation of the Zionist regime” is not just a Palestinian issue, but the “key for solving the world problems.”
“Any freedom lover and justice seeker in the world must do its best for the annihilation of the Zionist regime in order to pave the path for the establishment of justice and freedom in the world,” Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying.
“It has now been some 400 years that a horrendous Zionist clan has been ruling the major world affairs,” Ahmadinejad said, asserting that the Zionists are “behind the scenes of the major power circles, in political, media, monetary, and banking organizations in the world.”
“In his bluntness, Ahmadinejad cuts through the false dichotomy of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism when he uses the term ‘Zionist’ to describe alleged Jewish control of the world for 400 years,” said ADL director Abraham Foxman.
“Ahmadinejad’s most comprehensive anti-Semitic speech yet,” Foxman said, adding that while the message itself has been heard before, Ahmadinejad’s words had “more ominous overtones and should be taken seriously as the Iranian regime continues on its march toward a nuclear weapon.”
Referencing Mitt Romney’s visit to Israel last week, Ahmadinejad said that that the influence of the “Zionist regime” is so profound that “the presidential election hopefuls must go kiss the feet of the Zionists to ensure their victory in the election…. If the people’s votes really counts in those countries, why then a candidate must go to kiss the feet of a clandestine Zionist minority, sacrificing the entire prestige, chanted mottoes, and values of their system before the Zionists, and justifying the entire criminal acts of that regime?”
Foxman said that Ahmadinejad’s remarks were “filled with anti-Semitism and expressions of contempt for Israel and its leaders” and called them the “hallmark of the hate-filled and irrational nature of the Iranian regime.”
