On the eve of his annual jaunt to the UN General Assembly and possible contact with President Barack Obama, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad once again reiterated his denial of the Nazi Holocaust and launched a genocidal rant against the Jewish State. Flanked by the heads of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, who flew in to join in the Jerusalem(Quds) Day rally, Ahmadinejad sought to solidify his position as the Muslim world's #1 enemy of Israel by stating:
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 ... Confronting the Zionist regime is a national and religious duty.
And in a statement that is music to the ears of all Jew haters, the Iranian leader reiterated his regime's denial of the Nazi Holocaust-history's most documented crime: "The pretext [Holocaust] for the creation of the Zionist regime is false ... It is a lie based on an unprovable and mythical claim," he told a gathering at Tehran University.
The fact that Ahmadinejad launched this tirade on the eve of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, surrounded by the leaders from Gaza is an uncomfortable reminder to President Obama and other world leaders trying to fast-track Israeli Palestinian peace talks, that those efforts have no chance of success so long as Hamas -- a group whose founding charter calls for Israel's destruction -- remains in power in Gaza and opposes efforts by Palestinian Authority President Abbas.
But beyond the Israel/Palestine conflict, Ahmadinejad's performance dashes the Obama Administration's hopes that dialogue with this regime would yield practical results in the efforts to thwart Iran's pending nuclearization or signal any moderation in the regime's rhetoric.
We can only hope that President Obama will use the bully pulpit at the upcoming UN General Assembly to publicly embrace the people of Iran whose recent Twitter Revolution against Ahmadinejad's phony reelection signaled an uncaring world they want real change.