A photograph of the Iranian president holding up his identity card during elections in March 2008 clearly shows his family has Jewish roots.
A close-up of the document reveals he was previously known as Sabourjian – a Jewish name meaning cloth weaver.
The short note scrawled on the card suggests his family changed its name to Ahmadinejad when they converted to embrace Islam after his birth.
The Sabourjians traditionally hail from Aradan, Mr Ahmadinejad’s birthplace, and the name derives from “weaver of the Sabour”, the name for the Jewish Tallit shawl in Persia. The name is even on the list of reserved names for Iranian Jews compiled by Iran’s Ministry of the Interior.
Experts last night suggested Mr Ahmadinejad’s track record for hate-filled attacks on Jews could be an overcompensation to hide his past.
Ali Nourizadeh, of the Centre for Arab and Iranian Studies, said: “This aspect of Mr Ahmadinejad’s background explains a lot about him.
“Every family that converts into a different religion takes a new identity by condemning their old faith.
“By making anti-Israeli statements he is trying to shed any suspicions about his Jewish connections. He feels vulnerable in a radical Shia society.”
A London-based expert on Iranian Jewry said that “jian” ending to the name specifically showed the family had been practising Jews. . . .
The Iranian leader has not denied his name was changed when his family moved to Tehran in the 1950s. But he has never revealed what it was change from or directly addressed the reason for the switch.
Relatives have previously said a mixture of religious reasons and economic pressures forced his blacksmith father Ahmad to change when Mr Ahmadinejad was aged four.
If Obama realy believes the Russians will help him to talk Iran out of nukes if he only throws them the U.S.’s staunchest European allies, Poland and the Czech Republic, he is more naive than Jimmy Carter. It’s even worse if it is just a cover to give him a reason to ditch the missile shield plans that took Bush so much effort to work out with the Czechs and Poles.
President Obama’s non-response to the Iranian regime beating and killing opposition supporters prompted the U.K.’s Telegraph to call him a coward worse than the Germans – which must be quite an insult in Britain:
The Obama administration’s response to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s fraudulent election victory is cowardly, lily-livered and wrong. The White House’s refusal to officially question the result or even condemn the brutal suppression of opposition protestors, is undermining America’s standing as a global power, and is little more than a face-saving, cynical exercise in appeasement that will all end in tears.
Vice President Joe Biden, while expressing “some real doubt” about the election, summed up the administration’s position on Sunday’s Meetthe Press - “we’re going to withhold comment… I mean we’re just waiting to see.” Waiting to see what Mr. Biden? More savage beatings of opposition supporters including women? The further arrest of hundreds of opposition leaders? Even greater suppression of the press and free speech?
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton basically said the same thing in a pathetic statement on Saturday, declaring “the United States has refrained from commenting on the election in Iran,” while White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, who thinks nothing of savaging domestic opponents, meekly noted the administration was “impressed by the vigorous debate and enthusiasm this election generated.”
As blood flows on the streets of Tehran, the United States government remains as silent as a Trappist Monk. It is highly embarrassing when even the German government is showing more backbone than the White House. In contrast, the Germans, who shamefully happen to be Europe’s biggest exporters to Iran, strongly denounced the crackdown on protestors, as have a number of European governments. Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier condemned the “brutal actions” against demonstrators, and summoned the Iranian Ambassador to Berlin in protest. . . .
It’s about time the Obama administration dropped this ludicrous policy of “engagement” with Tehran, and started focusing on halting the rise of a nuclear-armed Iran, as well as building up America’s defences in the face of a highly dangerous rogue regime. That includes moving forward with a global missile defence system as well as actually increasing defence spending instead of cutting it. It would also be wise for this administration to actually stand up for human rights rather than brushing them under the carpet when Iran, North Korea or China pops up.
Obama’s deafening silence over the Iranian election is a disgrace. According to The New York Times, the president “did not even convene any high-level White House meetings or conference calls on Sunday”. That’s not the mark of a leader but a clear display of weakness. It’s a sad day when the greatest power in the world withholds criticism of a brutal, tyrannical and illegitimate regime for fear of upsetting its rulers.
At least when Obama is silent, he is not apologising for America.
Leslie Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations:
[L]et’s begin the process of negotiations with Iran. It will be hard, long, and painful. But here’s my guess: Iran as a society is more middle class and more prone to democracy than any other country in that part of the world. Within ten years, Iran will be our closest ally in the region.
Turns out there’s a delegation of Hollywood actors and movie-makers in Iran right now, and for the mullahs this, of course, is a perfect opportunity to try to exploit the new U.S. administration’s gutless stance on the Islamic theocracy that borders on appeasement:
A team of visiting Hollywood actors and members of the movie industry including Annette Bening should apologise for films such as 300 and The Wrestler which have angered many in Iran, said the artistic adviser to Iran’s president today.
Javad Shamaqdari, the art and cinema adviser to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said members of the Iranian cinema community should not meet with representatives from the nine-member team until they apologise.
The group includes the President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Sid Ganis; actors Ms Bening, and Alfre Woodard; producer William Horberg; AMPAS Special Events Programmer and Exhibitions Curator Ellen Harrington; and Tom Pollock, the former Universal Pictures chairman.
According to the website of Iran’s Cinema Association, the group arrived on Friday in Iran. They met a group of Iranian artists on Saturday, and will be holding educational seminars in directing, screenwriting, acting, producing, marketing and film distribution.
Writing that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a true moderate, Iran’s regime loves Jews, and Jews living in Iran return the love in spades – this is simply unprofessional, writes Jonathan Tobin.
Not the usual unfaithful wives this time but two men accused of adultery and murder; a third one somehow made it out of the death pit but they’ll stone him later.
Amnesty [International] said in a report last year that Iran’s penal code allows execution by stoning as the penalty for adultery. The group said the law calls for stones “large enough to cause pain, but not so large as to kill the victim immediately.”
Bush deflected a secret request by Israel last year for specialized bunker-busting bombs it wanted for an attack on Iran’s main nuclear complex and told the Israelis that he had authorized new covert action intended to sabotage Iran’s suspected effort to develop nuclear weapons, according to senior American and foreign officials.
White House officials never conclusively determined whether Israel had decided to go ahead with the strike before the United States protested, or whether Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel was trying to goad the White House into more decisive action before Mr. Bush left office. But the Bush administration was particularly alarmed by an Israeli request to fly over Iraq to reach Iran’s major nuclear complex at Natanz, where the country’s only known uranium enrichment plant is located.
The White House denied that request outright, American officials said, and the Israelis backed off their plans, at least temporarily. But the tense exchanges also prompted the White House to step up intelligence-sharing with Israel and brief Israeli officials on new American efforts to subtly sabotage Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, a major covert program that Mr. Bush is about to hand off to President-elect Barack Obama.
Iranian authorities raided and closed down the BBC’s Tehran offices and, separately, in the spirit of goodwill to man, ordered Christmas trees banned from Iranian kindergartens.
You and I will conclude that appeasement doesn’t work. The British will just try again, harder.
The Iranian president, who, like all tyrants, takes himself very seriously, has a Christmas message for the people of Britain, and it’s all about change and hope. Yes, literally.
But how come this clown is speaking on British TV, delivering his soft propaganda straight into the minds of millions of Brits? Why, British TV invited him to speak to the nation, following the Queen’s Christmas speech.
Well, it could’ve been worse. They could’ve invited him to speak before the Queen’s speech. Or instead of. Maybe next year.
Granting Israel a nuclear guarantee essentially suggests the U.S. is willing to come to terms with a nuclear Iran. For its part, Israel opposes any such development and similar opposition was voiced by officials in the outgoing Bush administration.
“What is the significance of such guarantee when it comes from those who hesitated to deal with a non-nuclear Iran?” asked a senior Israeli security source. “What kind of credibility would this [guarantee have] when Iran is nuclear-capable?”
It is far from clear that this proposed policy — acquiescing to a nuclear Iran while reducing the certainty of retaliation — helps anybody. It may hurt everybody.
And Allahpundit reminds us that the Ayatollahs don’t care that Iran will be destroyed – they care about the Koran, not Iran:
All of this is premised upon the assumption that assured destruction would be enough to deter Iran from trying to decapitate Israel in the first place. Obama’s a lot more confident of that than I am.
Will the Israelis want to buy a beat-up, leaky umbrella that’s priced so steeply?
