Chossudovsky: "Wipe Israel Off the Map"!!

The inflammatory statement that Israel should be "wiped off the map" attributed to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, "was never made" by him, a distinguished Canadian economist says. In a recently released book, entitled:  Towards A World War III Scenario: The Dangers of Nuclear War. To begin with, says Professor Michel Chossudovsky of the University of Ottawa, the words were not those of Ahmadinejad, when he uttered them on October 25, 2005. Rather, he was quoting the late Ayatollah Khomeini, and the point of Khomeinis thrust was not to wipe Israel, the nation,"off the map", but to change the Israeli regime, which is far different. "The rumor was fabricated by the American media with a view to discredit Iran's head of state and providing a justification for waging an all-out war on Iran," Chossudovsky writes. Examining the actual quote word by word, Ahmadinejad said in Farsi: "Imam ghoft een rezhim-e ishghalgar-e qods bayad az safheh-ye ruzgar mahv shavad." Readers will recognize the word "rezhim-e" which translates into English as "regime" and will note that the word "Israel" does not appear in the quotation. What Ahmadinejad did use was the specific phrase "rezhim-e" which is a reference to "the regime occupying Jerusalem." As for wiping Israel "off the map," the word "map" is "nagsheh," and it was not contained anywhere in Ahmadinejad's speech. "Nor was the western phrase wipe off ever mentioned," Chossudovsky writes. "Yet we are led to believe that Irans President threatened to wipe Israel off the map, despite never having uttered the words map, wipe out, or even Israel." The full Ahmadinejad quote translateddirectly into English is "The Imam said this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time!