Addressing students at a university speech in the supposedly moderate Islamic state of Indonesia, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the students that Israel "one day will vanish".
Agence France-Presse reports that "This regime one day will vanish," the leader said, complaining that when elections were held in the Palestinian territories "and supported by its people, liberalism did not want to recognize it".
The AP reports that Ahmadinejad, "who has previously said Israel should be wiped off the map, told a cheering crowd of students in Jakarta, Indonesia that Israel is 'a regime based on evil that cannot continue and one day will vanish.'"
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has said the world should not take Mr Ahmadinejad's threats lightly. She's right, typically, when a deranged head of state calls to eradicate the local Jewish population, he probably means it. I'm sure there are the usual suspects here willing to parse Ahmadinejad's words and explain how he isn't
really an anti-Semite and he isn't
really threatening Israel's existence.
I hope we don't get to where there is another war in Iran, possibly involving us, and possibly involving Israel. But while there is no shortage or (deserved) scorn for President Bush's foreign policy and war-waging, if it comes down to military action in Iran, we should not ignore just how much Ahmadinejad did to bring such action about.