Exterminating Israel not the solution
Iranian president's fiery statements aimed at causing rift in Arab nation
The first is the occupation of three Arab islands by the Islamic Republic of Iran: The Greater Tunb, the Lesser Tunb and Abou Musa, which belong to the United Arab Emirates. Despite repeated appeals by the small Gulf state to end the occupation and return the land to its real owners, Iran's leaders have refused to do so for different reasons, and perhaps strange ones.
Another example is that since he rose to power, the Iranian president has not missed an opportunity to attack Israel. He reiterates in front of any open microphone that he would do anything in order to wipe the Jews' state off the map.
But these remarks are an insult to intelligence. It should be made clear to Ahmadinejad and his group of tempestuous friends that the Palestinian Arab people, which has been suffering under the Israeli occupation for more than 40 years, is sick and tired of listening to this outdated rhetoric. Not only do his words of nonsense cause irreversible damage to the Palestinian problem, but they also serve the Israeli propaganda in the world.
The most important point on the Palestinians' part is that we do not wish to wipe Israel off the map, we do not wish to exterminate it. We have accepted its existence and internalized this historic fact. We wish to establish a secular and democratic Palestinian state, not a state of ayatollahs, alongside the State of Israel, as long as eastern Jerusalem becomes its capital and a just solution is found for the refugee problem, in accordance with the UN's resolutions.
Frontal collision in foreign policy
Mr. Ahmadinejad, please stop selling the Palestinian people different illusions and strange delusions. The Palestinian people have the moral and political duty to curb the ongoing Iranian attempts to cause a rift among the Palestinian organizations. The irony is that they must remember that they are the only people in the world without a state of its own, but with two governments.
The last example relates to Ahmadinejad's visit to Iraq several weeks ago, a visit defined by commentators as a historic visit by an Iranian president to Iraq, an Arab country occupied by Iran's No. 1 enemy, the United States of America. How can this frontal collision in the Islamic republic's foreign policy be explained: An Iranian president visits a country under the burden of the American occupation, and whose new leaders were appointed with the approval of the American government, and are incapable of conducing an independent policy without Washington's policy.
Mr. Ahmadinejad can be asked out loud: Does the road to launching an open or secret channel with the administration go through Iraq's leaders, who cooperate with your bitter enemies in America? And another question which cannot be escaped: Is this historic visit a result of the Shiite history in Iraq and Iran? And how can the Iranian leadership support the Iraqi Shiites, who have joined the American occupier, while Iran itself supports the Hizbullah organization, which opposes the US and Israel?
Any wise person will reach the conclusion that the historic conflict between the Arab nation and the Persian nation has yet to end, as Iran takes every measure possible to continue to split the Arab nation, which in any case is suffering from an overplus of secondary conflicts. And the proof is Egypt and Saudi Arabia's decision to send low-level official to the Arab summit in Damascus, where Iran was represented by its foreign minister.
Zohir Andreus is CEO of the Israeli Arab newspaper Ma-Alhadath
