UNITED NATIONS – As world leaders expressed shock at the latest “appalling and reprehensible” statement by President Ahmadinejad yesterday, Iran-watchers in Israel said Tehran’s Holocaust denial and suggestions that the Jewish state be moved to Europe are part of a broader pattern of hostility.

Prime Minister Sharon’s spokesman, Raanan Gissin, told The New York Sun that the Ahmadinejad statement reflects deeply ingrained sentiments in the wider Middle East. And a scholar specializing in Farsi culture, Menashe Amir, said Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism have always been part and parcel of the Islamist regime that has ruled Iran since the 1979 revolution.

An Iranian-produced film questioning the veracity of the Holocaust is expected to be broadcast soon on Iranian state-owned television and on the Lebanese al-Manar TV, owned by the Iranian terrorist proxy organization Hezbollah, Mr. Amir said. The French Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy has visited Tehran several times, as has the British denier David Irving. “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” the classic anti-Semitic fraud, is a best seller in Iran, and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, the group that Mr. Ahmadinejad belonged to since early life, teaches that Jews control America’s banking and Hollywood.

“Some European countries insist on saying that Hitler killed millions of innocent Jews in furnaces and they insist on it to the extent that if anyone proves something contrary to that they condemn that person and throw them in jail,” Mr. Ahmadinejad said at a news conference in Mecca yesterday, according to the Iranian news agency IRNA. “Although we don’t accept this claim, if we suppose it is true, our question for the Europeans is: Is the killing of innocent Jewish people by Hitler the reason for their support of the occupiers of Jerusalem?

“If the Europeans are honest,” he added, “they should give some of their provinces in Europe – like in Germany, Austria, or other countries – to the Zionists, and the Zionists can establish their state in Europe. You offer part of Europe and we will support it.”

Yesterday’s statements followed Mr. Ahmadinejad’s earlier call to “wipe Israel off the map,” which alerted world leaders to the danger of Iran’s race to acquire nuclear weapons.

In Washington, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said that yesterday’s statement further underscores “why it’s so important that the regime not have the ability to develop nuclear weapons.” State Department spokesman Adam Ereli called it “appalling and reprehensible,” and said it does not “inspire hope among any of us in the international community that the Government of Iran is prepared to engage as a responsible member of that community.”

In Paris, Chancellor Merkel said that Germany, “With our historical responsibility in mind,” rejects the Iranian outburst. She promised to do “everything to make it clear that Israel’s right to existence is in no way endangered.”

Secretary-General Annan noted that last month the General Assembly passed a consensus-based resolution – with no Iranian objection – rejecting any Holocaust denial. Mr. Annan was “shocked” to see Mr. Ahmadinejad’s quotes, his spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said.

But Mr. Gissin told the Sun that the Iranian leader is not alone. “He knows that he will receive backing from many in the Arab world,” the Sharon spokesman said. “He says what others think but do not dare say.” Speaking in Israel, Mr. Gissin added, “Just for the record, we have been here much longer than his forefathers.”

The Farsi-language broadcaster and Iran analyst Mr. Amir told the Sun that while Mr. Ahmadinejad’s statement yesterday was unprecedented in public rhetoric by the leadership, it reflected “the basic Iranian attitude toward Jews.” Mr. Ahmadinejad is not unaware of the world’s outlook on his statements, he added, but he believes the outrage benefits Iran.

“He deliberately challenges the world,” Mr. Amir said. “Ahmadinejad believes that the West is in decline and that Islam is fresh and on the rise.” While the new president has failed to improve the economy, he needs to highlight outside enemies, Mr. Amir said. “The deeper the economic crisis becomes, so will his belief that international confrontation helps the mullah regime,” he said of Mr. Ahmadinejad.

Iran has become part of the Israeli election campaign, with the vote expected at the end of March. After Mr. Sharon said that while Israel is “not helpless” in the face of Iran’s nuclear threat it would rely for now on international diplomacy, his Likud rival Benjamin Netanyahu challenged him, and called on him to adopt the “Begin legacy.” The reference was to Prime Minister Begin’s decision to bomb Iraq’s Osirak nuclear plant in 1981. Mr. Gissin said that the difference was that at the time Israel was alone in warning of the Iraqi threat, and that now the world agrees that a nuclear Iran is dangerous.