Monday, November 13, 2006

Does Iran want Israel extinct?


When an Iranian hears of Iran's desire to "wipe Israel off the map", he can't help bursting to an annoyed laughter. Truth is Iranian culture is not much condusive to "extermination" policies. For thousands of years it has not been so and there is in fact a certain level of pride in Iranians that when the ancient world exterminated Jews, the Persian kings were those who aided the Israelites (see the book of Ezra). Iranians know there is a wide gap between Islamic Republic's rhetoric and the reality of its interests and ideology. The Iran Israel Cold War is an excellent article by Trita Parsi, a scholar in advanced international policy, explaining why.

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