Hitchens vs. Iran's Apologist

Christopher Hitchens takes Juan Cole to task for his Iranian apologetics in a must-read piece for Slate. Cole has apparently argued that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did not threaten the destruction of Israel. Hitchens imposes logic and reason, which Cole abuses on a regular basis, on the situation and comes to a different conclusion. Money quote:

One might have thought that, if the map-wiping charge were to have been inaccurate or unfair, Ahmadinejad would have denied it. But he presumably knew what he had said and had meant to say. In any case, he has an apologist to do what he does not choose to do for himself. But this apologist, who affects such expertise in Persian, cannot decipher the plain meaning of a celebrated statement and is, furthermore, in need of a remedial course in English.