Peres likens Ahmadinejad to ‘modern-day Haman’Cyrus the Great was also invoked:
President stresses preference for non-military means to remove Iranian threat
By Asher Zeiger October 2, 2012, 10:32 pm 0 (The Times of Israel)
President Shimon Peres described Iran’s president as “a modern-day Haman,” during a meeting with Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef on Tuesday.
Despite comparing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the ancient Persian official who sought to eradicate all the Jews in the empire in the fifth century BCE, Peres said that “we would be happy to be rid of him through non-military means.”
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Peres said that the speech was proof of the Iranian leader’s “profound historical ignorance” and that Ahmadinejad needs to be taught a history lesson about the ancient Persian king Koresh, who “more than 2,500 years ago allowed the Jews … to return to Israel and rebuild their home.”See the Book of Esther for Haman, who was gotten rid of through military means (chapter 7), and Ezra 1:1-4 and Isaiah 45:1-4 for Cyrus/Koresh.
The use of the Book of Esther (e.g., here), Haman (e.g., here), and Cyrus (e.g., here with many links) for political purposes is not new.