MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Fidel tells Iranian president to stop slandering Jews and understand ‘anti-Semitism’
Cuban revolution leader Fidel Castro Cuba's former leader Fidel Castro has urged Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to stop slandering the Jews, according to an article published on the US website The Atlantic on Tuesday.
The ageing revolutionary devoted much of a five-hour conversation to the issue of anti-Semitism, wrote Jeffrey Goldberg, who interviewed Castro in the Cuban capital Havana.
Castro told The Atlantic that the Iranian government should understand the consequences anti-Semitism.
“This went on for maybe two thousand years,” he said. “I don't think anyone has been slandered more than the Jews. I would say much more than the Muslims. They have been slandered much more than the Muslims because they are blamed and slandered for everything. No one blames the Muslims for anything.”
He added: “The Jews have lived an existence that is much harder than ours. There is nothing that compares to the Holocaust.”
Asked by Goldberg if he would repeat his comments to Ahmadinejad, Castro said. “I am saying this so you can communicate it.”
Following the interview, Goldberg spoke about his impression of the thinking behind Castro's comments. “I think he [Castro] realizes he's gone too far in certain criticisms of Israel”, Goldberg said.
”I think he wants to be a player in this issue; and I think he's genuinely offended by Holocaust denial.“
Ahmadinejad has publicly called the Holocaust ”a myth”, claiming Jews exaggerated the Nazi genocide to win sympathy from European governments.
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Read all commentsIn 1975 Cuba - together with dozens of Muslim states - sponsored Resolution 3379, a resolution which equaled Zionism with racism. It would be interesting if the interviewer had brought up this matter.
Sep 08th, 2010 - 05:44 am 0I think MercoPress should look into how this Atlantic interview more deeply.
Sep 08th, 2010 - 07:21 am 01. Ahmadeinjad is not antisemitic or critical of Jews. More than most people he is very careful to distinghuish between the very deep rift between Judaism and Zionism - the latter being an athestic ultranationalistic political ideology which unfortunately reminds us of national-socialism.
2. If Mr Castro wanted to communicate with the leaders of Iran, all he needs to do is to pick up the phone. Tbe relations between Castro and Ahmadinejad is good - as is the relations between Cuba and Iran.
3. In the unlikely event that Castro really wanted to communicate this to Iran - why not use his “reflections” column at granma? Why would Castro suddenly trust the propaganda machinery of the greatest, nay only, enemy his country has?
Case closed.
First and foremost, The Atlantic is not “a US website”, it is a serious and prestigious magazine more than one hundred and fifty years old, Fidel doesn't give interviews to simple “websites”.
Sep 08th, 2010 - 11:25 am 0And I think Fidel is absolutely right on this one. Ahmadeinjad should stop slandering the jews. Period.
Ahmadeinjad may be “friends” or have “good relations” with Castro, Lula, Chavez, Ortega and other leaders in Latin America, but it is a folly, nothing but hot air, Latin America does not approve of Iran's repressive culture, specially against women.
enito,
Please don't justify your anti-semitism by trying to diferentiate zionism from judaism, they are not opposed, and zionism will never equate to nazism or islam, it is not repressive of minority rights, it respects women, freedom of religious, free speech and civil rights.
Zionism is compatible with democracy and consensus. Ahmadeinjad and Islam are not.
Zionism is compatible with modernity, Ahmadeinjad and Islam are not.
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