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<h1><font size=4><b>Dr. Lawrence Davidson: Iran’s President (Tries to)
Speak
Out</b></font></h1>
<img src="http://www.intifada-palestine.com/wp-content/themes/headlines/images/ico-time.png" width=14 height=14 alt="[]">
</b></h1><font size=3>23. Sep, 2010<br>
<a href="http://www.intifada-palestine.com/2010/09/dr-lawrence-davidson-irans-president-tries-to-speak-out/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.intifada-palestine.com/2010/09/dr-lawrence-davidson-irans-president-tries-to-speak-out/<br>
<br>
</a><b>by Dr. Lawrence Davidson<br><br>
</b>Iran’s president Ahmadinejad was at the United Nations on September
21, 2010 to address the Millennium Development Goals Summit. What he had
to say was, as usual, a mixed bag of worthwhile insights and questionable
assertions. We will get to some of them in a moment. But first something
odd. As soon as the Iranian president took the podium and began speaking
the audio feeds supporting the UN translators started to have “technical”
problems. It is a sign of the suspicious world we live in that few astute
observers are ready to believe that explanation without further proof. On
the other hand, very few media outlets even commented on the glitch.
Al-Jazeera, however, did prosaically refer to the incident as
“<a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/09/201092116192899599.html">
Ahmadinejad lost in translation</a>.”<br><br>
According
to<a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6107339">
a written transcript of his speech</a>, and apropos of the subject of the
summit, the Iranian president stated that the global decision making
bodies such as the UN Security Council, International Monetary Fund,
World Bank, and the like are unjustly monopolized by aggressive and
hegemonic great powers. And, if you really want to know why poverty
persists in the modern world you have to take a long and hard look at the
avaricious economic policies of those same powers. Actually, he has a
point on both scores. It would be easy to produce the evidence for these
assertions but much harder to get anyone of authority to listen. Thus,
the hall in which he was making his address (sans translation) was nearly
empty and he got very little media coverage. Ahmadinejad might very well
complain that he was “talking to the wall.” This time, at least, the
problem is with the wall and not the speaker.<br><br>
There are other claims, all substantially true, that the Iranian
president may soon be making for the one hundredth time (he speaks to the
General Assembly on Thursday the 23<sup>rd</sup>). He will probably tell
the world body
<a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/layout/set/print/content/view/print/326379">
all or some of the following</a>:<br><br>
1. That Iran has no nuclear weapons program and there is no hard evidence
to the contrary.<br>
2. That his country is pursuing the development of a peaceful nuclear
energy program which is legal under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
to which it is a signatory.<br>
3. That on September 6, 2010 the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) verified, yet again, that no declared nuclear material in Iran has
been diverted for military use.<br>
4. That the total amount of Iran’s enriched nuclear stockpile is for
domestic energy and medical isotope programs.<br>
5. That all of this is safeguarded by the IAEA.<br>
6. And, finally, that any recently observed “lack of full cooperation” on
Iran’s part is a product of persistent U.S. and European hectoring about
the alleged insufficiency of the fairly good cooperation they have got.
In other words, the West has created a self-fulfilling prophecy in this
regard. If you continuously question a people’s character, don’t expect
them to fully cooperate with you.<br><br>
Despite a policy of insisting that if Iran wants to “come back into the
international community” its government must prove a negative, there was
this week<a href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/39211693"> a glimmer of reason
</a>coming out of Washington. President Obama publically stated
<a href="http://english.farsnews.com/printable.php?/nn=8906301215">
http://english.farsnews.com/printable.php?/nn=8906301215</a>that “we
don’t think that a war between Israel and Iran, or military options,
would be the ideal way to solve this problem.” Given the American media
distortions on the topic of a “nuclear Iran,” President Obama ought to
repeat this obvious, common sense fact every day of the week
indefinitely.<br><br>
Getting back to Amadinejad, I think it is fair to say that the man does
head a <i>civilian controlled</i> government that can be quite ruthless
and any claims that his regime does not target peaceful protesters are
false. On the other hand, it is equally as accurate to say that he is not
the crazy person the Zionists and their allies make him out to be. For
instance, he repeated
<a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17925.htm">his
assertion that he is not anti-Semitic</a>, although he certainly is
anti-Zionist. Unfortunately, he does question the extent of the Holocaust
and for various historical and political reasons that is enough to earn
him the anti-Semitic label here in the West. But, while he is factually
wrong about the Holocaust, his disavowal of anti-Semitism is believable
for two reasons: one is that attacking the Zionist nature of the Israeli
state, which is what the Iranian president does, is not the same as
attacking Jews. Zionists may claim it is but they too are factually
wrong. There are an increasing number of Jews worldwide who see Zionism
as just a racist political ideology and absolutely not a stand-in for
their Jewishness. The second point is the relatively prosperous and
stable position of the 25,000 Iranian Jews. If Ahmadinejad was such a
flaming anti-Semite, these people would not be in as good a shape as they
are.<br><br>
The political hype in the U.S. over Iran is, in good part, a combined
product of Zionist and neo-conservative political pressure, media
irresponsibility, and periodic indiscretion on the part of the Iranian
president–the latter unfortunately feeding the former. And, we can rely
on Israel and its supporters to keep calling for the destruction of
Iran’s nuclear program as some sort of litmus test for world peace.
Israel’s Defense Minister, Ehud Barak, told Fox News recently that
“<a href="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/SendMail.aspx?print=print&type=0&item=139733">
history will judge the [Obama] administration</a>…on whether Iran has
nuclear weapons or not.” It is a red herring, Ehud. Go home, make a truly
just peace with the Palestinians, and you will grow old safely and die in
bed.<br><br>
Sensibly, President Obama seems to be backing away from all this hype. He
knows that it represents the same formula worldview used against Iraq in
the run up to the invasion of that country. He probably got pressured to
replay it by Congressional supporters of Israel and Ron Emmanuel. It is a
dangerous game to play, even for the sake of a president’s domestic
politics. The Iraq invasion resulted in the death of over one million
people. Who wants to do that again? Well, it appears that the Zionists
and the neo-cons do!<br><br>
Let us hope that the Democrats do well in this November’s elections. If
they do, we may see an Obama more insistent on real peace policies when
it comes to places like Iran and Israel. Then he can call in the
opposition (including his Democratic “blue dogs”) and tell them that, if
they want to reduce the world’s population, it would be easier and
cheaper and quite a bit saner, to promote contraception rather than
bloody war.<br><br>
Lawrence Davidson<br>
Department of History<br>
West Chester University<br>
West Chester, Pa 19383<br>
USA <br><br>
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