Oppressive Political Rhetoric

Oppression can some in many forms, for many different reasons, and from many different types of people.  At a recent UN conference, Iranian President Ahmadinejad was confronted about Iran's alleged nuclear program. The nation's president again asserted that the program was only being used for uranium enrichment, which would then be used for electricity production, and then avoided the issue entirely and mainly spoke on foreign affairs, policies, economical and international issues, and security. Shortly thereafter, the president made the following set of statements:

-"The pretext (Holocaust) for the creation of the Zionist regime (Israel) is false ... It is a lie based on an improvable and mythical claim,"  (told to worshippers at Tehran University at the end of an annual anti-Israel "Qods (Jerusalem) Day" rally) (**)

-"Confronting the Zionist regime is a national and religious duty."(**)

...

-"This regime (Israel) will not last long. Do not tie your fate to it ... This regime has no future. Its life has come to an end," he said in a speech broadcast live on state radio. (** )

These statements are oppressive, not to mention extremely insensitive and offensive, to the world's Jewish population. Denying the existence of a major and traumatic event in the history of an entire people is cruel and unjustified, and will quickly burn many bridges. Germany called Ahmadinejad a disgrace, and White House spokesmen said that the comment only serves to "further isolate Iran from the rest of the world." And I totally agree with that. Ahmadinejad made an unnecessary and offensive comment to promote his own goals, and that served no other purpose than to offend people and make a vain attempt at garnering support through those few countries that have it out for Israel. 

The leader of Iranian-backed Hezbollah went on to say ""Our belief and creed ... remain that Israel is an illegal entity, a cancerous tumor, that must cease to exist," Nasrallah said in a televised address." (** ). The language and implication used and made in this statement alone shows the amount of Anti-Semitism present in Iran and affiliated countries. This is also partly why there is large concern over Iran's nuclear program, because these harsh statements were also made partly to distract from Iran’s true goals with the program.

**All statements with a (**) following it are cited from (http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/09/18/us-iran-idUSTRE58H17S20090918 )

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