Following are excerpts from a Friday sermon on "International Jerusalem Day" by Hashemi Rafsanjani, chairman of the Iranian Assembly of Experts and of the Expediency Council, which aired on Channel 1, Iranian TV, on October 5, 2007:

Hashemi Rafsanjani: Europe resolved a great problem – the problem of the Zionist danger. The Zionists, who constituted a strong political party in Europe, caused much disorder there. Since they had a lot of property and controlled an empire of propaganda, they made the European governments helpless. What Hitler and the German Nazis did to the Jews of Europe at that time was partly due to these circumstances with the Jews. They wanted to expel the Zionists from Europe because they always were a pain in the neck for the governments there. This is how this calamity fell upon the Muslims, especially the Palestinians, and you all know this history, more or less.

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The first goal was to save Europe from the evil of Zionism, and in this, they have been relatively successful.