Ahmadinejad Meets Ultra-Religious, Anti-Zionist Jews

Source: Al-Manar TV, 25-9-2008
A day after being accused of making anti-Semitic comments at the United Nations, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met a group of ultra-religious Jews who seek the dismantling of the state of "Israel".
"Zionism has greatly weakened and, God willing, it will be destroyed soon and then all Jews, Muslims and Christians can live peacefully with one another," Ahmadinejad told nearly a dozen rabbis from Neturei Karta International on Wednesday.
The group is a small anti-Zionist organization that says it adheres strictly to the Torah, the Jewish holy book, which it says forbids the establishment of a Jewish state before the coming of the Messiah. It supports Palestinian sovereignty over the Holy Land and financial restitution for past losses.
Marty Irom, spokesman for the non-profit group the "Israel" Project, which promotes security and peace in "Israel", said Neturei Karta was a "very tiny fringe group that represents only themselves." He said such meetings gave Ahmadinejad an "air of legitimacy which he should not have."
Ahmadinejad railed against "Zionist murderers" in his speech at the UN General Assembly, dwelling on what he described as Zionist control of international finance.
"That we have the honor and privilege to meet with such a distinguished person who understands the difference between Zionism and Judaism is for us a tremendously happy occasion," the group's senior Rabbi, Moshe Ber Beck, told Ahmadinejad.
Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss, spokesman for the group, said Ahmadinejad was no enemy of the Jewish people, that many thousands of Jews lived in Iran without persecution and that the Iranian president was not a Holocaust denier.
Ahmadinejad spoke about World War II in general terms as "one of the most abhorrent acts" in history. "Numerous crimes occurred against everyone," he said.
Ahmadinejad ended by praying with the rabbis, saying: "God, please nullify the propaganda waged by the Zionists, and let them lose hope, and make victorious your deserved people."