Conflict Blotter

Haaretz’s always provocative Bradley Burston’s offers a fresh Israeli take on Ahmadinejad:

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is simply one of Israel’s premier diplomatic and security assets. His expressed views make Israel look pragmatic, clear-eyed, non-paranoid.

He has denied away the Nazi Holocaust as a myth. He has, as well, denounced Israel for Nazi-like actions. Referring to last year’s Lebanon war, he was quoted as saying “Just like Hitler, the Zionist regime is just looking for a pretext for launching military attacks” and “is now acting just like him.” And, just for good measure, he added: “What this regime is doing is even worse than Genghis Khan.”

We couldn’t have created the man if we had tried. He is everything we want in a neo-Haman nemesis. 

Ahmadinejad has certainly been an asset to an Israeli government seeking to convince world leaders that perhaps a nuclear Iran wouldn’t be such a swell development.