Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad once again used the global stage of the United Nations to distort the history and current issues of the Middle East. Ahmadinejad makes a mockery of the peace and cooperation that is the mission of the United Nations. This was Ahmadinejad’s fifth appearance at the U.N. General Assembly, and it follows his anti-Israel, anti-United States pattern.
The Iranian president told the General Assembly, “How can one imagine that the inhuman policies in Palestine may continue; to force the entire population of a country out of their homeland for more than 60 years by resorting to force and coercion.”
Ahmadinejad simply rejects the facts that the Palestinians were offered their own state 60 years ago, and the Arab world chose instead to attack Israel. And he omits the fact that Iran has done nothing to encourage the Palestinian people to pursue peace and instead uses the Palestinian issue to incite hatred of Israel.
His wholesale mischaracterization of Israel’s defensive operation in the Gaza Strip in December 2008 and January 2009 is an abomination. Israeli citizens endured eight years of Hamas attacks – some 10,000 rockets and mortars – that led Israel, after much forbearance, to defend its people.
With Iran working furiously to weaponize its nuclear program, Ahmadinejad’s bullying is more ominous than ever. “Ahmadinejad’s bluster can no longer be dismissed as empty threats,” B’nai B’rith President Moishe Smith said. “With Iran inching closer to transforming its uranium enrichment program into a nuclear weapons program, we must carefully parse what Iran says and does.”
B’nai B’rith commends those delegations that walked out in protest as Ahmadinejad took to the podium. It is that kind of principled stand against a nation that threatens the security of the world that can potentially help reign in the Tehran dictatorship.
“Iran is the largest state-sponsor of terrorism in the world,” B’nai B’rith International Executive Vice President Daniel S. Mariaschin said. “And Iran’s brutal government cracks down on all voices of opposition, even fellow Iranians, as witnessed in the June election that many have termed fraudulent. For Ahmadinejad to assert before the General Assembly that Iran held democratic elections is preposterous and an affront to truly free societies. Because of the threat that Iran poses to international peace, the United Nations, and all responsible governments, must do all they can to ensure Iran does not achieve weapons-grade nuclear material.”
Ahmadinejad’s U.N. address, coming on the heels of the trilateral meeting on Middle East peace between President Obama, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, only underscores the belligerent and rejectionist attitude of the Iranian president.
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