Prof. Cole: Write The Editor, Ahmadinejad Didn’t Mean It
Michael Rubin at NRO’s The Corner reports that academics and policymakers, like Professor Juan Cole, are bending over backwards to deny that Ahmadinejad doesn’t really call for Israel to be wiped off the map:
Today, the National Iranian American Council—a lobby group advocating the normalization of ties between the United States and the Islamic Republic—published this analysis, which ends:
The proper translation of Ahmadinejad’s quotes has been the subject of some debate. Kucinich argued that the translations used in the bill were either misquoted or out of context, offering alternative translations from the New York Times to convey his point.
It’s a line which originated with Juan Cole, a University of Michigan professor, has peddled. Indeed, Cole wrote:
I have a suggestion for my readers. Every time you see a newspaper article that alleges that Ahmadinejad said that Israel should be wiped off the face of the map, please write the editor. Say that this idiom does not exist in Persian, and that what Ahmadinejad actually said was, “This occupation regime over Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time.” And you can cite me.
Perhaps one can quibble over how to render a translation. Here, the Islamic Republic provides its own clarification. In its official translations, it headlined Ahmadinejad’s call to “wipe Israel off the map.”
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