Ahmadinejad’s remarks do not represent a discontinuity with past policy

I came across this whitewash from the Islamic Republic’s mouthpiece in Asia Times, Kaveh (Nokar of the neo-liberals) Afrasiabi writing on the Islamic Republic’s call, in form of a presidential message, for the wiping off of Israel:

How [Islamist] hardline politicians think that they can advance [the Islamic Republic’s] nuclear rights while simultaneously pursuing such counter-productive public diplomacy remains a puzzle. The continuation of such an approach, representing clear discontinuity with past diplomacy, irrespective of Ahmadinejad's initial promise of maintaining policy continuity, will only harm [the Islamic Republic’s] interests and bolster the position of global forces pushing for [the Islamic Republic’s] isolation and marginalization.

Representing clear discontinuity with past diplomacy? Were he not working hard for the return of the “moderates”, and thus the continuity of the Islamic Republic, Afrasiabi would not be lying through his teeth.

Parallel to the policy of destroying an Iran built by the Pahlavis, every single president of the Islamic Republic before Ahmadinejad has one way or another called for the destruction of Israel. During the presidency of the “moderate” anti-Iranian Islamist terrorist Mullah Khatami alone---the most moderate by Afrasiabi’s standards---hundreds of millions of dollars were transferred to the pockets of anti-Israeli Islamists such as the Lebanese Hizbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and others throughout the Middle East.

Thank God for scholars like Robert Spencer, who also points out:

Ahmadinejad wasn’t saying anything new, as he himself made plain by invoking the Ayatollah Khomeini: “As the Imam said,” the President reminded his hearers, “Israel must be wiped off the map.” In 1979, not long after the triumph of his revolution, Khomeini dedicated the last Friday of Ramadan as an international day of jihad against Israel — making it particularly fitting that Ahmadinejad reiterated this lust for genocide and terror during Ramadan.