Joe Klein reacts to the Telegraph scoop:
Well, that may explain a few things. A certain amount of overcompensation, for starters. I mean, in the annals of self-hating Jewry, this really makes David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel--so accused by Bibi Netanyahu--look like pikers. In any case, we await Ahmadi-Nejad's verdict on all this. Perhaps he'll revise his views about the Holocaust (though I doubt it). But if things get too embarrassing for him in Iran, he now has a backup plan--since his mother was, presumably Jewish too, there's a place for him in the country he calls the Zionist Entity. Shalom, Mahmoud!
Juan Cole shrugs:
The revelation in Iran doesn't change anything; Ahmadinejad does not make his critiques of Israel with reference to his own heritage but on the basis of a radical interpretation of Khomeinist ideology. The latter in its full form is only a little over 40 years old, so for everyone in Ahmadinejad's age cohort, it is an adopted ideology for those who adhere to it, not an inherited one.