<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[The Dish]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[http://dish.andrewsullivan.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[Andrew Sullivan]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://dish.andrewsullivan.com/author/sullydish/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[Ahmadinejad&#8217;s Quote]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[
<p>Jeffrey Goldberg <a href="http://jeffreygoldberg.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/04/questions_about_ahmadinejads_f.php">provides</a> a long list of the Islamist&#39;s statements on Israel. It&#39;s a good complement to <a href="http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/04/wiped-off-the-map.html">this</a>. Reading them all, it becomes quite clear to me that Ahmadinejad does indeed want Israel to cease to exist, but equally clear that he is not speaking of dropping a nuke on it. This one I hadn&#39;t read before:</p>
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<p>December, 2006: &quot;I want to tell [Western counties] that just as the Soviet Union was wiped out and does not exist anymore, so will the Zionist regime soon be wiped out and humanity will be free.&quot;</p>
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<p>As we know, Russia now exists and the Soviet Union was not destroyed by nuclear arms. And if this is the process by which he hopes Israel will disappear, I see no reason to fear an Iranian nuclear attack on Israel (and on one of the most sacred sites in Islam). And since that is Netanyahu&#39;s rationale for launching a war, it seems weaker to me now than it did before. It is also worth noting that one foreign minister in the Middle East has actually explicitly and unequivocally proposed <a href="http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/04/netanyahus_egypt_problem.php">bombing another country</a> &#8211; Israel&#39;s.</p>
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