Haaretz
Tevet 21, 5766
DAMASCUS - In a new
attack on the existence of Israel, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
has challenged Europe to take back the Jews who emigrated to Israel,
adding that no Jews would remain in Israel if Europe were to open its
doors.
Ahmadinejad delivered the challenge after arriving in Syria
for a two-day visit on Thursday. Addressing Europe, he asked: "Would you
open the doors of your own countries to these (Jewish) immigrants so that
they could travel to any part of Europe they chose?"
"Would you
offer the necessary guarantees that you would provide for their security
when they came to your countries and not allow another anti-Semitic wave
in Europe?" he added in an apparent reference to recent attacks on Jewish
cemeteries and properties in European states.
Ahmadinejad provoked
an international outcries last year when he said Israel should be "wiped
out" and that the Nazi Holocaust against Jews in World War II was a
"myth."
In his comments in the Syrian capital, which Iran's
official Islamic Republic News Agency reported Friday, Ahmadinejad
forecast that the West would not answer the questions he had posed but
would instead accuse him of "talking against global peace."
He said
Europe should welcome Jewish people to prove its sincerity in supporting
people's freedoms.
He added he was confident that no Jews would
remain in Israel if European countries allowed them to
immigrate.
Ahmadinejad left Syria late Friday to return to Iran.