Not Surprising, Still Scary

David Aaronovitch:

In any case [Iranian President Ahmadinejad] spoiled the picture last week by not once, but twice, committing himself and all good Muslims to wiping Israel off the map and consigning those Middle Eastern leaders who so much as recognised the Jewish state to the “fires of the Ummah”. Diverse the Iranian press may be (though you take a considerable risk), but reports from the Iranian capital during the anti-Israel demos there suggested that the state-controlled radio and TV did sterling service by showing non-stop pictures of Israeli atrocities, then covering a state-sponsored event at Tehran University, while suppressing all mention of the international response to Ahmadinejad’s remarks.

But what did it signify? Nothing, apparently. Some Western observers pronounced it to be not much more than an uncharacteristic rhetorical flourish from the otherwise ascetic president. “The fact,” said one, “that the Iranian regime is hostile to Israel is hardly news.” It was a silly miscalculation from someone who didn’t, in any case, have the power greatly to influence anything.

This view suggests that Ahmadinejad is — in political terms — a moron. Maybe we should now expect some zoomorphic cartoons from the same brilliant satirical minds that have always cast George Bush as a chimp. And maybe not. But the hopeful notion that — protests made — we can assume that he doesn’t really mean it, won’t appeal much to even the most sunny Israeli nor to that country’s most critical supporters. When it comes to men offering to wipe Jewish things off the map, it seems prudent to take them at their word.

From a column which also uses, in the same sentence, "George Galloway" and "Assad-licking."

And, by the way, David, Steve Bell won't ever draw that Ahmadinejad cartoon, but the Iranian opposition already has.