JERUSALEM -- Now that everything in Israel is dominated by the political bombshell dropped by Ariel Sharon -- who quit the Likud, formed his own party and caused new elections -- it is easy to forget that, just a while ago, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made the statement about eliminating Israel. This declaration should not be taken lightly or pushed aside too quickly.
When he made that statement, by sheer coincidence I was reading Ian Kershaw's biography of Adolph Hitler. I had thought that I already had read everything on Hitler, World War II and the Holocaust. Still, I found myself mesmerized by this two-volume, fascinating account of how one man grabbed a whole nation and led it on a disastrous track of hate and violence, destroying Europe and causing the death of millions, including one third of the Jewish people.
What struck me in particular was a statement that Hitler made on Jan. 30, 1939, in the German parliament, the Reichstag. He said that in the course of his life he had made several prophecies, only to be ridiculed. However, he said, "Today I will once more be a prophet: If the international Jewish financiers in and outside Europe should succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world war, then the result will not be the Bolshevizing of the Earth, and thus the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe!''
This statement, which was later referred to by Hitler's lieutenants as ''The Führer's Prophecy,'' became the sinister guideline for genocide. There was no need anymore for Hitler to issue a specific directive about the massacre of the Jews. Everybody in high position in the Nazi regime, trying to ''aim at the Führer's will,'' did their best to murder the Jews, whenever the opportunity presented itself.
Few people in 1939 took Hitler's ''prophecy'' seriously. Unfortunately, even when the terrible news of the Holocaust reached the West, many tended not to believe them, until it was too late.
Now, Ahmadinejad is no Hitler, and 2005 is not 1939. The world has presumably learned the hard way that appeasing fanatic tyrants can only backfire. And Jews, who now have a state of their own, are not helpless. That's why it is mind-boggling to realize how easily such statements can still be made, and by no other than the president of a state that is a member of the United Nations -- an organization created in 1945 to ''maintain international peace and security,'' according to its charter.
There was a wave of protest all over the free world. Muslims, however, mostly kept their mouths shut, except for some mavens who rushed to assist the Iranian president, trying to soften his harsh message. ''He is just talking,'' they explained. ''He doesn't really mean it.'' Yet a weak later, Ahmadinejad not only repeated his threat, but even launched a big rally under the slogan: "The world without Israel.''
It was heartening, therefore, to get an e-mail from my Palestinian friend Walid Salem, director of the Panorama Center in East Jerusalem. In a message that he sent out, he condemned the Iranian president's statement. ''Is this the tolerant Islam that I and all the average citizens know? The Islam that recognizes the other?'' No, concludes Salem. "The blind ideology has nothing to do with Islam. It only creates the opposite of what Islam calls for. It creates hatred and religions wars.''
Walid Salem is a brave man, and I salute his courage. In the general Islamic silence, his voice thunders. But until he and his like become the dominant figures in the Arab and the Islamic world, we shouldn't sit idle.
That Israel will defend itself against any threat, goes without saying. Flying with the Israeli Air Force for 37 years, I know that those wishing to destroy Israel will eventually bring destruction upon their own people. But the Iranian threat is aimed not only at Israel.
American flags are as frequently burned in Tehran as are Israeli ones. And once the Iranians have nuclear bombs and the missiles to launch them, the whole of Europe will be threatened. This is a ticking time bomb, which the free world must defuse now, before it's too late.
Threats of aggression and mass murder, if not checked in time, can become self-fulfilling prophecies. If you don't believe it, read Kershaw's book on Hitler, especially the second volume: Nemesis.
This article was first published in The Miami Herald on November 25, 2005. http://www.miami.com
The opinions expressed herein are the author's own personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect those of the Israel Democracy Institute.