Daily Beast - Well, of course Benjamin Netanyahu doesn't think Iran's president-elect, Hassan Rowhani, is a "moderate." He—and his right-wing supporters—have been mocking the term from the get-go, often putting in square quotes, as if "moderate" wasn't, by definition, a relative term. It turns out that on what should be an issue of importance to Netanyahu and pro-Israel advocates everywhere, the man may actually fit the designation: Rowhani, given the opportunity, chose to eschew the Iranian regime's usual hard-line rhetoric (something of an understatement) against Israel. "Iranian leaders have often called Israel a 'cancerous tumor' that 'should be wiped from the pages of time,'" the New York Times's excellent Tehran bureau chief Thomas Erdbrink reported. "But on Friday, the country's incoming president, Hassan Rowhani, struck a more moderate tone, by merely calling the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands 'a sore.'"
Iran's president elect Hassan Rowhani (L) (Majid Saeedi / Getty Images) / Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) (Oded Balilty - Pool / Getty Images)
Yet before that translation of Rowhani's remarks became apparent, an errant reading of the quote circulated widely after a pair of Iranian state-affiliated news agencies reported it. The misquote, as reported in Mehr, a state-run outlet, initially read: "Israel is a wound on the body of the world of Islam that must be destroyed" (alternatively translated as "should be removed"). Reuters picked up the remarks, citing the Iranian news agency, and Netanyahu and many of his supporters quickly ran with it. "Rowhani's true face has been revealed earlier than expected. Even if they will now rush to deny his remarks, this is what the man thinks and this is the plan of the Iranian regime," said Netanyahu in a statement posted on Facebook. "These remarks by President Rowhani [sic] must rouse the world from the illusion that part of it has been caught up in since the Iranian elections." His right-wing supporters quickly followed suit.
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