Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail)

I share the outrage of Senators on the other side of the House at the remarks of the Iranian President but I would also suggest that Middle East politics is a murky stew of hatreds, prejudices and ignorance. In fact, the Iranian President is fuelling this ignorance. Of course the remarks should be condemned and I hope the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Dermot Ahern, will protest at official level, as he did on a previous occasion over a similar outburst about the state of Israel, to the Iranian ambassador. The protest could be more practical than that, however. People such as the Iranian President are happy in their own prejudices and, as Senator O'Toole said, the President is playing to a particular domestic political agenda. He is obviously losing and I am very happy that is the case.

It should be remembered that the President was elected primarily by those on the margins of Iranian society, to whom he promised a better life. That was the domestic political agenda. I have a more practical suggestion for a protest. As it is Christmas time, although that might not be acknowledged in a religious context by the Iranian President, people tend to do a lot of reading and watching of television. The civilised world, through its embassies based in Iran, should overwhelm the presidential office with Holocaust literature, including the hundreds of testimonies of victims. There are two particular movies that he should watch over Christmas, "Schindler's List" and "The Pianist". Then perhaps he might have some understanding of why there is such outrage and disgust in this part of the world at remarks denying the Holocaust ever happened. The president should also remember that Iran, Iraq and other countries were created as a consequence of the First World War, while the state of Israel was created as a consequence of what the allies saw in Belsen, Auschwitz, Mauthausen and Dachau.