COMMENTARY: Iranian President Sounds a Lot Like Hitler

c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Americans have a split personality about the importance of learning from history. In 1905, philosopher George Santayana warned: “Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.” But in a 1916 Chicago Tribune interview, automaker Henry Ford declared: “History is more or less bunk.” Surveys continually indicate […]

c. 2005 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Americans have a split personality about the importance of learning from history.

In 1905, philosopher George Santayana warned: “Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.” But in a 1916 Chicago Tribune interview, automaker Henry Ford declared: “History is more or less bunk.”


Surveys continually indicate that many Americans have a poor knowledge of history, little interest in the subject and, as a nation, an extremely short attention span.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s recent speeches about Israel, America, the Jewish people and the Holocaust are chilling in their similarity to the words and ideas of Adolf Hitler. Ahmadineajad’s remarks will test whether Santayana or Ford truly reflects American attitudes toward history.

Consider:

_ On Oct. 26 the Iranian leader told an audience of 4,000 students that “Israel must be wiped off the map … ” On Sept. 16, 1919, 10 months after the end of World War I, Hitler, already emerging as a dangerous leader, wrote: “The ultimate objective (of his anti-Semitic campaign) must, however, be the irrevocable removal of the Jews in general.”

_ On Oct. 28, Ahmadinejad said: “They (the United States and Israel) are cheeky humans, and they think that the entire world should obey them.” In the 1920s Hitler wrote in his book, “Mein Kampf,” that “The democracy (of the U.S. and other Western nations) is the deceitful theory that the Jew would insinuate. Namely, that all men are created equal.”

_ On Dec. 8, Ahmadinejad told reporters in Mecca: “Some European countries insist on saying that Hitler killed millions of innocent Jews in furnaces (death camp crematoria) … Although we don’t accept this claim, if we suppose it is true, our question for Europeans is: Is the killing of innocent Jewish people by Hitler the reason for their support to the occupiers of Jerusalem?”

_ On Dec. 14 the Iranian president claimed: “They (the Europeans) have created a myth in the name of Holocaust and consider it above God, religion and the prophets … give part of your own land in Europe, the United States, Canada or Alaska to them (the Jews) so they can establish their country.”

Tragically, much of the world, including many Americans, ignored or “explained” Hitler’s obscene writings. His poisonous words were frequently described as the German leader’s way of solidifying political power or were hyperbolic rhetoric intended for domestic consumption.

Despite reassurances that Hitler “didn’t mean it,” the catastrophic truth is that he meant every word, and “the irrevocable removal” became the mass murder of 6 million Jews during the Holocaust.


In an unnerving coincidence, there are about 6 million Jews currently living in Israel. While Nazi Germany never succeeded in building a nuclear weapon, Iran is actively working to achieve this frightening goal.

In addition, Iran has purchased 18 ready-to-assemble BM-25 missiles from North Korea. Ahmadinejad wants to increase the missiles’ range from 1,500 miles to 2,200 miles because Iran’s current rockets only have a range of 800 miles, still enough to reach Tel Aviv, Haifa and other areas of Israel.

Western reactions to Ahmadinejad’s hateful outbursts have been encouraging as the U.S., the European Union and especially Germany, have threatened economic sanctions against Iran. Even the United Nations, long a toxic fount of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish verbal assaults and one-sided resolutions, has condemned Ahmadinejad.

There has been no criticism of his remarks from Arab/Muslim leaders.

Back in the 1930s there were also calls to politically and economically punish Nazi Germany, but it never happened. Instead, in January 1939 a confident Hitler told the Czech foreign minister: “We are going to destroy the Jews … The day of reckoning has come.”

Because Iran produces what every nation desperately wants _ oil _ there are serious questions whether today’s responses to Ahmadinejad’s calls for mass murder will be any more effective than the tepid responses of Hitler’s day.

If BM-25 missiles ranging 2,200 miles and carrying nuclear weapons strike targets in Israel and Europe, Santayana will cry in his grave and millions of people will join him in death.


Like Hitler, Ahmadinejad means to do exactly what he has said.

MO/JL END RNS

(Rabbi Rudin, the American Jewish Committee’s senior interreligious adviser, is the author of the forthcoming book “The Baptizing of America: The Religious Right’s Plans for the Rest of Us.”)

Editors: To obtain a photo of Rabbi Rudin, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug.

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