"Wipe out Israel from the map"

In the past few months there has been some confusion about the words from Ahmedinejad, which is translated into "Wipe Israel off the map" or similar expressions.

I readily admit, that I have been a little confused on this too. I am not able to translate from farsi myself, and this is also generally rather difficult, it seems.

But I have found a source on this, which is quite interesting and has some weight: "What Ahmedinejad meant" by Jeff Weintraub.

I recommend that you read the full article, because this is not only a question about the translation in itself, taken out of context.

Personally, I think Ahmedinejad's words might in fact be correctly translated, but they are used to give the impression, that there is an immediate threat from Iran, which is probably not correct.

Still, it is important to be more than sceptical towards an anti-democratic religious regime having this kind of attitude towards another country (whatever country that might be).