Kucinich Defends Ahmadinejad

From Opinion Journal, Best of the Web
By James Taranto

By a vote of 411-2, the House Wednesday approved a resolution "calling on the United Nations Security Council to charge Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with violating the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and the United Nations Charter because of his calls for the destruction of the State of Israel."

Both of the "no" votes came from fringe presidential candidates: Ron Paul, an isolationist Republican, who almost always dissents from such resolutions; and Dennis Kucinich, a far-left Democrat. The National Iranian American Council, which National Review Online's Michael Rubin describes as "a lobby group advocating the normalization of ties between the United States and the Islamic Republic," explains Kucinich's vote:

Kucinich cited faulty information leading up to the Iraq War as grounds for concern about the accuracy of Ahmadinejad's comments, offering alternative interpretations to what was presented in the bill of the text. . . .

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.

But as Rubin notes, Tehran's official broadcast network, IRIB, reported Ahmadinejad's remarks on its Web site under the headline "Ahmadinejad: Israel Must Be Wiped Off the Map":

Ahmadinejad on Wednesday called for Israel to be "wiped off the map."

"The establishment of the Zionist regime was a move by the world oppressor against the Islamic world," the President told a conference in Tehran entitled "the world without Zionism." . . .

"As the Imam said, Israel must be wiped off the map," said Ahmadinejad, referring to the late founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Imam Khomeini.

Addressing some 4,000 students gathered in an interior ministry conference hall, Ahmadinejad also called for Palestinian unity, resistance and a point where the annihilation of the Zionist regime will come.

Maybe Kucinich should give up his unlikely quest to be president and go to work as a translator for IRIB.