Radiating Confusion

Another day, another Iranian statement against Israel.

What makes this one different is the fact that it might contain a pretty strong – if unintentional – illusion to Iran’s nuclear program.

According to Ynet:

General Mohammad Ali Jaafari, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, has sent a letter of condolence to Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah following the assassination of the organization’s senior commander Imad Mugniyah, saying he believed “the cancerous bacterium called Israel” would vanish soon, the Iranian news agency Fars reported Monday.

According to Jaafari, “I am convinced that with every day that passes Hizbullah’s power increases, and in the near future we will bear witness to the disappearance of this cancerous bacterium, Israel, by the radiation of Hizbullah’s fighters.”

JPost has a similar reading:

“I am convinced that with every passing day Hizbullah’s might is increasing and in the near future, we will witness the disappearance of this cancerous growth Israel by means of the Hizbullah fighters’ radiation [therapy].”

Ha’aretz, on the other hand, is reporting differently:

“In the near future, we will witness the destruction of the cancerous germ of Israel by the powerful and competent hands of the Hezbollah combatants,” Jafari was quoted as saying.

Of course, I went to the source, the Iranian news agency Fars, but could not find the quote.

Interestingly enough, the Arab news outlets are using the more benign language. For instance, Al Bawaba and Khaleej Times quote Jaafari as referring to “the able hands of the soldiers of the community of Hizbullah.” Gulf News has the same wording used by Ha’aretz, while Lebanon’s Naharnet avoids the wording altogether, directly quoting the words “In the near future, we will witness the destruction of Israel, the aggressor, this cancerous microbe Israel.”

The question is why do we have this discrepancy? Have Ynet and the Jerusalem Post allowed their imaginations to run wild, and used this specific wording to conjure up fears of a nuclear attack by Iran? Or did they take this wording from the Fars website, and the Arab news agencies are purposefully using less severe language?

If any of my readers who know Arabic can go to the Fars Arabic site and see if they can locate the quote, I would be very interested in the proper translation.

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