I take issue with the universal condemnation of Ahmadinejad. Though I agree he is no saint, much of the vitriol directed his way seems to be motivated by a one-eyed support of Israel which I believe is a monumental stumbling block to progress in the region.
Let's have a look at some of things he actually said:
Following the Second World War, they resorted to military aggression to make an entire nation homeless under the pretext of Jewish suffering...In fact, in compensation for the dire consequences of racism in Europe, they helped bring to power the most cruel and repressive racist regime in Palestine.
Not the most tactful use of language I agree. But of course, this is deliberate. The atrocites perpetrated against Jewish people in the second world war and throughout Western history are indeed horrific. But I sympathise with the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who were forcibly ejected from their land and remain oppressed to this day. They would surely feel like they are innocent victims of historical redress, and slaves to a colonial power which continues to deny them autonomy.
This is a highly contentious point, but I believe it is defensible. But the Western extablishment seems unwilling to peer beyond their partisan support of Israel to at least consider this contratrian view. I have little time for this sort of empty condemnation, which serves only to alienate Iran and polarise discourse on the issue.
Furthermore, check this out:
Ladies and gentlemen: What are the root causes of US attacks against Iraq, or invasion of Afghanistan? Was the motive behind the invasion of Iraq anything other than...to expand their sphere of influence, seeking the interest of giant arms manufacturing companies, affecting another culture with thousands of years
of historical background, eliminating potential and practical threats of Muslim countries against the Zionist regime?
This is nothing more than a version of the standard liberal critique of Bush foreign policy. But Ahmandinejad said it. So it must be obnoxious and vile I guess.
Israel has been vigourously defended and protected for more than sixty years years now by a Western orthodoxy that fails to acknowledge the scope of the problem and the multiplicity of blame for the deadlock. It is time to seriously consider voices from the other side. Ahmandinejad is no crackpot, his ideas truly represent a legitimate narrative of the middle-eastern tragedy.