Editorial: Can’t anybody see he’s trying to tell us something?

hen someone shows you who they really are, believe them. It's good advice in the schoolyard and in the workplace, but on the stage of history that truism is often ignored.

If there's anything in the world you could say for Adolf Hitler it's that he didn't try to hide who he really was. He published his plans for the Jews and for the world a number of years before he tried and failed to bring them to fruition. “Mein Kampf” is still available; anyone can read it and see how the evil Hitler laid out just what he hoped to accomplish. Britain's Chamberlain was an eternal optimist, or perhaps he just didn't read very well. He was convinced there could be “peace in our time” and for his naïveté, history has not treated him kindly. Of course, that was hardly the worst result of his folly. For not taking Hitler at his word, the world eventually went to war at the cost of twenty million lives, including six million Jews targeted for extermination.

Comparisons to Hitler usually strike us as hyperbole. Charges of Nazism are invariably overblown and inappropriate. Several years ago The Jewish Star was called “Nazi” for thoughts that appeared on this page. Nonetheless, descriptions of Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as “the new Hitler” seem right on the mark. Astoundingly, despite his persistent Holocaust denial, despite his open threats to destroy Israel, and despite his dogged pursuit of nuclear weapons, few seem to take him seriously. Or, seriously enough.

Even now that Iran has been revealed as constructing a second nuclear facility believed capable of producing weapon grade material, kept secret until just the other day, the UN is gearing up to demand another round of facility inspections. If history is any guide, and for heaven's sake, it ought to be, this effort will soon deteriorate to 'catch me if you can' pseudo-diplomacy, and empty threats by the world body.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's angry denunciation of the UN's tolerance for Holocaust-denial was welcome and heartening, but it's far from certain his speech did not fall on deaf ears.

The consequences of an Israeli military strike on Iran are sure to be heavy but unfortunately the consequences of Israel not attacking Iran's nuclear capabilities may be far, far worse.

That somber fact, in 2009, is a direct result of virtually the entire world’s foolish refusal to take Ahmadinejad at his word, even though he's clearly been telling us all exactly who he is.

When someone shows you who they really are, believe them. It's good advice in the schoolyard and in the workplace, but on the stage of history that truism is often ignored.

If there's anything in the world you could say for Adolf Hitler it's that he didn't try to hide who he really was. He published his plans for the Jews and for the world a number of years before he tried and failed to bring them to fruition. “Mein Kampf” is still available; anyone can read it and see how the evil Hitler laid out just what he hoped to accomplish. Britain's Chamberlain was an eternal optimist, or perhaps he just didn't read very well. He was convinced there could be “peace in our time” and for his naïveté, history has not treated him kindly. Of course, that was hardly the worst result of his folly. For not taking Hitler at his word, the world eventually went to war at the cost of twenty million lives, including six million Jews targeted for extermination.

Comparisons to Hitler usually strike us as hyperbole. Charges of Nazism are invariably overblown and inappropriate. Several years ago The Jewish Star was called “Nazi” for thoughts that appeared on this page. Nonetheless, descriptions of Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as “the new Hitler” seem right on the mark. Astoundingly, despite his persistent Holocaust denial, despite his open threats to destroy Israel, and despite his dogged pursuit of nuclear weapons, few seem to take him seriously. Or, seriously enough.

Even now that Iran has been revealed as constructing a second nuclear facility believed capable of producing weapon grade material, kept secret until just the other day, the UN is gearing up to demand another round of facility inspections. If history is any guide, and for heaven's sake, it ought to be, this effort will soon deteriorate to 'catch me if you can' pseudo-diplomacy, and empty threats by the world body.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's angry denunciation of the UN's tolerance for Holocaust-denial was welcome and heartening, but it's far from certain his speech did not fall on deaf ears.

The consequences of an Israeli military strike on Iran are sure to be heavy but unfortunately the consequences of Israel not attacking Iran's nuclear capabilities may be far, far worse.

That somber fact, in 2009, is a direct result of virtually the entire world’s foolish refusal to take Ahmadinejad at his word, even though he's clearly been telling us all exactly who he is.