Conflation of Israel and Zionism with Jews and Judaism has long stifled policy debate concerning the Middle East, with critics of Israel, whether Jewish or not, often being accused of anti-Semitism. It has now begun to impact international relations on a larger scale and lies at the root of the now-routine characterization of Iran as a new Nazi Germany and of its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as a new Adolf Hitler. When the US Representative at the United Nations walked out of the General Assembly last September, he gave two reasons for his refusal to hear the Iranian president speak: He "denies the Holocaust" and "wants to wipe Israel off the map." These allegations appear to give Israel and the United States a moral justification to prepare a military strike against Iran. This is why their claims deserve closer scrutiny.

"Holocaust Denial"

The BBC has quoted Ahmadinejad as saying: "If European countries claim that they have killed Jews in World War II ... why don't they provide the Zionist regime with a piece of Europe." While the "if" is obviously provocative and even indecent, neither this nor numerous other quotes suggest that Ahmadinejad is a Holocaust denier. Rather, he objects to Israel's invocations of the Nazi genocide as its raison d'etre and makes his own political use of its memory: He seeks to test the limits of freedom of speech in the West and to highlight the plight of the Palestinians. He has attempted to expose a double standard: Why can cartoons deemed insulting to the Prophet Mohammed be published in Western media while it is illegal in several European countries to question the Holocaust? Why have Palestinians (Muslims and Christians as well as anti- and non-Zionist Jews) been made to pay for crimes committed by Europeans in Europe? Ahmadinejad is overtly anti-Zionist, but has emphasized that he is not anti-Jewish. Had he in fact been an anti-Semite, he likely would have harassed the powerless local Jews in Iran rather than challenge a nuclear-armed regional superpower.

"Wipe Israel Off the Map"

In his Oct. 29, 2005 speech, when Ahmadinejad reportedly first made the remark, the word "map" did not even appear. He reiterated one of Ayatollah Khomeini's old anti-Zionist diatribes saying that Israel "must vanish from the page of time." According to the Associated Press, the Iranian president said that "the Zionist regime will be wiped out soon, the same way the Soviet Union was, and humanity will achieve freedom." Just as the Soviet Union was not wiped out in a hail of nuclear weapons, Ahmadinejad does not suggest using force to bring about the demise of Israel. Nor would this be remotely realistic since Israel is believed to enjoy an overwhelming military superiority over any combination of Arab and Muslim states.

His words may amount to no more than the prayer "for the peaceful dismantlement of the Zionist state" uttered regularly by Jewish anti-Zionists. If Jews can voice this opinion and no one accuses them of wanting to "wipe out the Jewish people" or "bring about a second Holocaust," why can't Ahmadinejad voice the same opinions? The religiously-inspired Iranian president predicts the end of the Zionist regime, but he does not threaten a massacre of the inhabitants of Israel. While Iran may incite and even arm Shiites elsewhere, the last time Iran attacked another country was over three centuries ago. Moreover, the Iranian president is not an absolute ruler: He must contend with checks and balances of a theocratic and democratic nature.

Who Is Irrational?

The two emotionally-charged allegations hurled at the Iranian president have spread all around the Western media. This disinformation has certainly helped prepare public opinion for a military strike--by the United States or Israel--against oil-rich Iran, a disquieting remake of the scare of Iraq's illusory weapons of mass destruction that triggered the attack on that country four years ago. The image of the Iranian president as a Holocaust denier who threatens to "wipe Israel off the map" becomes instrumental in stirring up the hysteria.

Predictably, the Israel lobby, aligned with Israel's right wing, has played an important part in this play. The AIPAC annual meeting last spring made Iran its special target and reportedly featured giant screens alternating clips of Adolf Hitler denouncing the Jews and the Iranian president vowing to "destroy Israel." The show ended with a fade-out of the post-Holocaust vow "Never Again." Within months, these images have become commonplace.

Intellectuals appreciate precision. Policy-makers need it no less. They should not mistake opposition to Zionist uses of the Holocaust for attempts to deny this historical event; they should not mistake a wish to see the Zionist state disappear for a threat to massacre millions of Israeli Jews. We must control our knee-jerk reactions to skillful politicians who know how to push our sensitive buttons. We must make sure that our governments act prudently and rationally, particularly when dealing with leaders they accuse of irrational recklessness.

--Yakov M. Rabkin is Professor of History and associate of CERIUM, the Centre for International Studies at the University of Montreal; his most recent book is A Threat from Within: A Century of Jewish Opposition to Zionism (Palgrave Macmillan/Zed Books, 2006).