Today vs. 1935: Hyperbole or Prescience?

The quarterly publication International Economy asked a number of analysts whether they agree or not with former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Newt Gingrich that (in IE‘s words) “the present-day global situation bears a striking resemblance to 1935, with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s pursuit of nuclear weapons capability - not to mention his anti-Jewish sentiments - strikingly similar to Adolf Hitler’s quest in the 1930s for weapons superiority.”

Newt Gingrich is not alone in comparing Ahmadinejad to Hitler; German Chancellor Angela Merkel has also done so, and so have I. I did so on the grounds of both being “equipped with a totalitarian ideology and a mystical belief in their own mission” – a deadly combination. That said, two differences make me hesitate about comparing today’s situation with 1935. Hitler was the absolute ruler of an immensely powerful country, while Ahmadinejad is but one leader of a second- or third-ranking state. Therefore, they represent substantially different dangers. Hitler and his allies could threaten global dominance. Ahmadinejad can only threaten to do discreet harm, such as against Israel and in the oil markets.
Daniel Pipes, a historian, has led the Middle East Forum since its founding in 1994. He taught at Chicago, Harvard, Pepperdine, and the U.S. Naval War College. He served in five U.S. administrations, received two presidential appointments, and testified before many congressional committees. The author of 16 books on the Middle East, Islam, and other topics, Mr. Pipes writes a column for the Washington Times and the Spectator; his work has been translated into 39 languages. DanielPipes.org contains an archive of his writings and media appearances; he tweets at @DanielPipes. He received both his A.B. and Ph.D. from Harvard. The Washington Post deems him “perhaps the most prominent U.S. scholar on radical Islam.” Al-Qaeda invited Mr. Pipes to convert and Edward Said called him an “Orientalist.”
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I recently witnessed something I haven’t seen in a long time. On Friday, August 16, 2024, a group of pro-Hamas activists packed up their signs and went home in the face of spirited and non-violent opposition from a coalition of pro-American Iranians and American Jews. The last time I saw anything like that happen was in 2006 or 2007, when I led a crowd of Israel supporters in chants in order to silence a heckler standing on the sidewalk near the town common in Amherst, Massachusetts. The ridicule was enough to prompt him and his fellow anti-Israel activists to walk away, as we cheered their departure. It was glorious.