In his weekly Canadian Jewish News media analysis column “According to Reports,†Paul Michaels, CIC Director of Communications, parses an interview with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and finds the leopard has not changed his spots.
Recent headlines in Israeli and Canadian newspapers seemed to tell of a remarkable development: “Iran will honor any two-state decision made by Palestinians” (Jerusalem Post, April. 26); “Ahmadinejad ‘fine’ with two-state solution” (Ynetnews, April 26); “Iran prepared to back Palestinian deal with Israel, Ahmadinejad says” (Globe and Mail, April 27); “Iranian president appears to recognize Israel’s right to exist for first time” (National Post, April 27).
If true, these reports indicate a revolutionary change in the thinking of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who had just come from the United Nations’ anti-racism conference in Geneva where he once again vilified Israel.
The only problem is that the journalists’ interpretation of Ahmadieinejad’s intent was simply incorrect. The headlines reflect a misunderstanding of an interview with Ahmadinejad on ABC’s This Week (April 26).
Host George Stephanopoulos tried to pin Ahmadinejad down on whether he would support a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians that would result in a two-state solution.
At first, Ahmadinejad would only say that Iran supports the “legal rights” of the Palestinian people, code for the “right of return” of the Palestinians to present-day Israel, which would amount to the destruction of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people. Stephanopoulos plowed on, asking again: “If the Palestinians sign an agreement with Israel, would Iran support that?” Ahmadinejad answered: “Whatever decision they take is fine with us.”
Many in the media took these words as a breakthrough in Iran’s adamant refusal to recognize Israel.
However, Jim Lederman, senior Israel analyst for Oxford Analytica, explained during a conversation that “since the time of [former Palestinian Authority President Yasser] Arafat, the term ‘a decision of the Palestinian people’ has been a code word for a vote in which all Palestinians, including refugees and expatriates, such as those living in Central America, Brazil, Nigeria and the United States, could take part. Stephanopoulos, like most journalists who are unfamiliar with the local culture and the political code words that are used, was unable, despite all his efforts, to explain to his audience the true meaning of Ahmadijnejad’s words.
“The result of such a vote, involving millions of people, on particularly sensitive subjects such as the ‘right of return’ would be predetermined.”
Meanwhile, as reported by news service AFP (“Iran should act to back two-state solution: U.S.,” April 28), “[U.S.] State Department spokesman Robert Wood said the United States wanted Iran to ‘play a positive role in the region, which up until now it hasn’t.’ “‘If Iran wants to show goodwill, it should encourage those forces that it supports that are opposed to a two-state solution to cease their opposition and work constructively toward helping us reach that two-state solution,’ he said.”
Even the AFP story contradicts itself regarding Ahmadinejad’s intentions. The lead paragraph states that Iran’s president “said Tehran could accept a two-state solution.” Later, it notes: “Ahmadinejad did not specify if Iran would recognize Israel if there were a two-state solution creating an independent Palestine.” Indeed, Ahmadinejad never spoke directly about accepting Israel.
As far as playing a “constructive role in the region,” Iran stands accused by moderate Arab states of fueling Hezbollah’s destabilizing designs in Lebanon, underwriting Hamas’ and Islamic Jihad’s radical rejectionism in Gaza, and, most recently, seeking to undermine Egypt’s stability by funding Hezbollah cells on Egyptian soil.
In “Iran’s New Target: Egypt,” (Wall Street Journal, April 28), Abdel Monem Said Ali, director of the Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo, wrote about Tehran’s growing thirst for influence and power in the Arab Middle East.
Iran, wrote Said Ali, is making a “determined effort to sabotage Egypt’s attempts at regional stability…Egypt’s persistent attempts to bring about peace in this arena and its encouragement of other Arab countries to follow its path with Israel threaten to deprive Iran of the single most potent issue that it can exploit to further its radical agenda. Thus Tehran seeks to undermine the prospects for this peace.”
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