The Scripps-Howard news agency has published an editorial arguing that if Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas wants the United Nations to recognize the PA as a state, he should tell Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to “shut up.”
The editorial by Dale McFeatters stated that Ahmadinejad should be on Israel’s payroll because his blatant threats to eradicate Israel work to the Jewish state’s interests.
On “Al Quds” day last Friday, when Iran officially mourned Jerusalem’s being under Israeli sovereignty, Ahmadinejad said, "Recognition of a Palestinian state is the first step in the liberation of the entire Palestine."
McFeatters noted, "He did not mention what would happen to the Jewish inhabitants of the former Israel, but given Iran's treatment of its own religious minorities like the Baha'is, it's not a happy thought to dwell on.”
Ahmadinejad for more than two years has been making unprecedented candid remarks that Israel “should be wiped off the map,” comments that have been met with disgust among Western nations but which also are taken seriously as Iran tries to develop nuclear capability.
Abbas has abandoned the “peace process” in favor of seeking unilateral recognition of the Palestinian Authority, but McFeatters wrote that “Ahmadinejad's incendiary and murderous rhetoric may make some wavering nations think twice about endorsing a resolution of independence, and those who do quietly resolve to do nothing to bring it about.”
He added, “The Mideast nations are keenly aware that Ahmadinejad, safely insulated from Israel by Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, is in essence only offering to hold the Palestinians' coat if they get into a fight with Israel.”