LGFW is always happy to answer any little question Charles Johnson throws out on to the interweb. Here's his latest post attacking Juan Cole (not the first time by the way).
Anti-American professor Juan Cole has rather famously claimed that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was “misquoted” in his infamous “Israel must be wiped off the map” statement. Search Google for that phrase and you’ll find tons of lefty and Islamist web sites eagerly promoting Cole’s obfuscation.Well Charles, where shall we begin?
So how will the malevolent Juan Cole and his useful idiot followers explain this?
1. You assert that Juan Cole claimed that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was 'misquoted'. You're correct he did, and as Juan can actually speak and read Farsi (he's translates works in Arabic too) I'd take his word above yours.
2. By implication you're claiming that Ahmadinejad wasn't misquoted even though anyone able to read English would be able to see that the poster you use as 'proof' attributes the quote to Imam Khomeini, not Ahmadinejad.
3. Here's Juan Cole's take on the translation of Ahmadinejad's speech.
The phrase he then used as I read it is "The Imam said that this regime occupying Jerusalem (een rezhim-e ishghalgar-e qods) must [vanish from] from the page of time (bayad az safheh-ye ruzgar mahv shavad)."4. So in answer to your question Charles, easily.
Ahmadinejad was not making a threat, he was quoting a saying of Khomeini and urging that pro-Palestinian activists in Iran not give up hope-- that the occupation of Jerusalem was no more a continued inevitability than had been the hegemony of the Shah's government.
5. Charles Johnson calls Juan Cole malevolent. Bonus points for projection.
