The power of wishful thinking: 1

It looked like a little glimmer of good news from Iran when I picked up the little headline "Iran rebuff's President's anti-Israel remarks" on today's online edition of Ha'aretz, Israel's equivalent of The Guardian.

So the Iranian foreign ministry was begining to repudiate its own President Ahmadinejad's latest? His continuing anti-semitic calls for Israel to be wiped off the map...er, abolished....er, moved to Europe...or Canada or Alaska, or somewhere else, anyway? Because the holocaust, he says, is a myth.

Well, I could understand if the foreign ministry was trying to rebuff its own President. Because the reaction from the EU, the US and quite a lot of other countries is pretty hostile. And sanctions of different sorts are being discussed. From Israel, the response which probably most reflects the real feelings of the Israeli public is voiced by Shai. Keep talking, Mr President. You are the best advocate of Israel's case the Israelis could wish for.

Only clicking on the link to the Ha'aretz story shows us that this "rebuff's President's remarks" headline was the opposite of what the real story is. Far from repudiating his comments, the Iranian foreign ministry defends them and slaps the wrists of the EU and governments across the world as "emotional".

The Iranian foreign ministry spokesman put it so well:

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said the international reaction was overblown. "The West had a very emotional attitude about Ahmadinejad's comments. Westerners have to learn to tolerate other's opinion," he told a press conference, dismissing the European sanctions threat as "baseless and illogical."

Asefi said Ahmadinejad had done nothing wrong and was simply articulating Iran's position with regard to Israel.

There you are folks, you couldn't ask for a clearer statement than that, could you?

The official position of the Iranian government is that Israel should be wiped off the map and/or moved to Europe or Canada, or Alaska, and the holocaust is a myth.

I can understand that some people find this hard to credit. So much so that the power of wishful thinking might have got the better of them when it comes to looking for silver linings in very threatening clouds. It was probably just a slip by a hard-pressed Ha'aretz sub-editor early in the morning. But I can't help recalling with a smile this wonderful description of the Ha'aretz mind-set, which could so easily be a description of the Guardian equivalent:

Though its reporting staff is the most professional in Israel and its analysis the deepest, it also remains editorially, one of the last redoubts of an increasingly marginalized political position; the Left. More than a few of Ha’aretz’s readers have a love-hate relationship with the paper, incensed at times by its editorial positions but incapable of abandoning it…..

[a popular writer-Ed] wrote that Ha’aretz’s reporting on the Intifada constituted “anti-Zionism”. “ I think they are wrong and boring”, she complained, “ and that their working assumption is dishonest and estranged from the reality and the place where they live….”

When subscribers cancelled for political reasons, old Schocken would answer testily; “You don’t deserve to read my newspaper. You aren’t worthy of it.”

…It’s part of the paper’s aura, what it likes to believe about itself—an island of enlightenment and evenhandedness in a sea of turbulent emotionalism…

Comments

[Cynic]

While we're on about Haaretz here is a little expose' which should prove to be of interest given Peretz's economic adviser's outburst against Thatcher and Walmart:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/659389.html
"In wake of Haaretz report, Histadrut relocates Peretz farewell bash to `modest' K. Malakhi"

"The party in Peretz's honor had been slated for a huge rainproof tent that was to be erected on the lawn's of the Histadrut's Va'ad Hapoel building, and had been expected to cost more than NIS 1 million. Over one thousand guests were expected - all Histadrut staffers (for whom it was a required event), the major unions and various invitees from across the country."

While bringing the demagogic nature of the Trade Union and its ex-President to the attention of its leftist supporters the messenger of the left stops to laud himself on accomplishing results over and above the call to duty.

[ami]

This is a heartening comment on the issue by Bild. (wonky translation emailed to me by someone who is self taught in German.) What is the political orientation of Bild, does anyone know?
http://www.bild.t-online.de/BTO/news/2005/12/20/kom/kom.html

"Israel must disappear from the map of the Middle East! The Holocaust is a
fabrication of the West! The Jews should relocate to Alaska!" In almost all the countries of the world would such stupid proclamations be punishable by law.
Only the Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadineschad repeats them again and again. Actually, one might only be able to give a tired laugh to such insanity. But the man is powerful and dangerous! As next he wants to grab some atomic weapons. No wonder that the official indignation is so pronounced.
However, where are the chains of lights and demos of solidarity with Israel on our streets? Why is it that those who otherwise always protest with moral outrage about everything and everyone throughout the country and on the talkshows are not forming protests in front of the Iranian embassy?

Germany has great historical reason to give a loud protest against the evil
impertinences coming out of Teheran face on. Without such, all other protests are hypocritical.

[Venichka]

I'm not really an expert in the German Media, but I believe that Bild is the biggest-selling German daily : the (undated) circulation figure I have in front of me is 4.4 million.

As this would suggest, it is appoximately equivalent to a British tabloid - I've heard it compared to "The Sun". My German isn't if a sufficient fluency for me to comment whether his is a fair comparison - with the implication of trashniness - that this comparison carries or not.

What is probably of greater relevance is that is is (one of several leading newspapers in Germany) published by Axel Springer AG, who, uniquely as far as I am aware, have a well-known, set of corporate principles which, inter alia "promote reconciliation of Jews and Germans and support the vital rights of the State of Israel" as well as strong support for the USA
.
You can see the list of principles here: http://www.axelspringer.de/englisch/unterneh/frame.htm

[ami]

venichka: Thank you for the info.