The blatantly anti- Semitic remarks recently made by Iranian Vice President
Mohammad Reza Rahimi at a United Nations-sponsored conference in Tehran provided
the world with a glimpse into the dogmatic creed of the ruling Ayatollahs in
Iran.
At a gathering last month ostensibly dedicated to the war on drugs,
Rahimi charged that “Zionists” are “the main elements of the international drugs
trade” and declared that the Talmud teaches to “destroy everyone who opposes the
Jews.”
Rahimi’s despicable remarks, which are reminiscent of the lies
spread by Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels, are in fact based on the doctrines
of the Ayatollahs which are taught in the schools and institutions run by the
Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
Rahimi, like Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, Defense Minister Ahmed Vahidi, Energy Minister Majid Namjoo and
other senior Iranian figures, rose through the ranks of the Revolutionary
Guards, where they imbibed the extremist Shi’ite ideology of the Ayatollahs.
After entering the political arena, they assumed critical positions in the
Iranian regime.
The Revolutionary Guards, which were established by
Ayatollah Khomeini after the 1979 Islamic Revolution to serve as a loyal
military force with the task of safeguarding the regime, went on to become the
strongest force in all of Iran. The Guards have their hands in everything, and
their control now extends to a variety of fields which include large banks, the
petroleum industry, charitable foundations, educational institutions, religious
courts and most importantly of all – Iran’s nuclear program.
THEIR
FAR-REACHING power was evident during the June 2009 riots in Iran in the wake of
allegations of fraud in the presidential elections, when the regime crushed
popular protests with an iron fist and did not hesitate to fire on their own
people in the streets for the crime of thinking differently.
The extreme
fundamentalist ideology of the Revolutionary Guards is the source of Iran’s
foreign policy. Their aspiration to build nuclear weapons, the anti-Semitism and
the struggle against Israel, along with opposition to the West and support for
terrorist organizations, all derive from the religious belief that Islam and the
rule of the regime must be imposed on the entire world as a means of bringing
about the appearance of the Shi’ite redeemer, whom they refer to as the “Zahure
Mahdi.”
CLEARLY, THE combination of nuclear weapons in the hands of the
Iranian Revolutionary Guards together with their fundamentalist ideology would
constitute a grave threat the likes of which the world has never known until
now.
When Iranian officials openly express their hatred for the Jews, and
utilize every podium to declare their intention to wipe Israel off the map and
erase Western culture, it should be obvious that under no circumstances should
they be allowed to obtain the nuclear know-how needed to implement such
designs.
Hence, Rahimi’s appalling remarks should serve as a wake-up call
to all those who until now did not wish to comprehend that a nuclear Iran would
pose the greatest threat to regional and international stability.
In the
1930s, it was the SS, and today it is the Revolutionary Guards. Then it was
Nazism, and today it is Khomeinism. The poison of Goebbels and Hitler against
European Jewry is now being spoken by Rahimi and Ahmadinejad. The Jewish people
have already learned the lesson that such words cannot be ignored. We made a
promise to ourselves and our children: “Never Again.” I can assure you that we
will stand by our promise.
The writer is Israel’s Minister of
Environmental Protection.
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