Dr. Ebadi, I want to welcome you back here and say to you that this committee had been studying Iran for a year, and last summer, as we were about to recess, when the demonstrations were starting, we chose to pause: our report would not have been complete unless we addressed the changes that appeared to be happening. We also understood as a committee that the repression would probably escalate.
Personally, I understood from media reports that your office was closed. We were very concerned, each of us here, about the ramifications for you. We know that on the world stage you have presented a case for the Iranian people in a way that has captured the interest of governments and people as a whole.
I'm pleased today to hear that you're optimistic about the green movement growing, and I agree with you. I spent time in Saudi Arabia in the 1970s--six months, in fact--and returned to Canada. Over the period of that 30 years, I have come to know a number of Muslims, and the practice that I see in their lives does not compare to the practices that we're hearing about in Iran from the government quarters.
One of the things that has seized this committee is Ahmadinejad's call for the genocide against Israel. Of course, some believe that, like a magician, he's using that to distract away from what he does to his own people, and others are very concerned that there's a reality that he's seeking nuclear weapons with the intent to use them.
What would be the reaction of the people on the ground, the members of the green movement, to this call to genocide?