The Mennonite Central Committee, one of the religious groups which broke bread with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during his recent visit to New York, has issued a statement about that encounter.

Much of what they say beggars belief.

• “Our work in Iran, including these meetings with its president, focuses on building bridges of peace between countries that see each other as enemies.”

Do Americans and Iranians really view each other as enemies? Given that Iran is a repressive theocracy ruled by a man with the title of “Supreme Leader,” it makes no sense to talk about “public opinion” there. In those spaces which the state has not been able to fully control - the dissident bloggers, for example, or the heroic strike waged by bus drivers in Tehran which resulted in the imprisonment of their leader, Mansour Osanloo - there is a clear indication that it is the mullahs, and not the United States, who are perceived as the enemy by many Iranians. And don’t forget the moving scenes in Tehran after 9/11, when thousands marched in dignified sympathy with the victims of the Al Qaeda atrocities.

• “President Ahmadinejad knows that MCC, which has partners and programs with both Israelis and Palestinians, believes the Holocaust is an historical fact and one of the great tragedies of the 20th century and that we want him to change the way he talks about it.”

There is no purpose in debating with Holocaust deniers. To do so debases not just the Holocaust, but our very standards for determining truth. It also misses the crucial point: Ahmadinejad denies the Holocaust not because he subscribes to an “alternative narrative,” or because he knows something we don’t. He denies it because he’s an antisemite. He is predisposed to denial, in much the same way that the Institute for Historical Review is.

• “We believe that the president’s public comments have moderated somewhat over the past two years.”

So getting up at the UN and declaring that “Zionists” control the world’s financial and monetary centers is evidence of moderation? If anything, that remark, as well as the disgraceful applause which greeted the speech containing it, is evidence of a shift in the other direction.

• “He supports the ‘one-state’ solution, a political resolution in which Israelis and Palestinians elect a single government to represent both peoples.”

Is that why he backs Hamas and Hezbollah, organizations pledged to the genocide of the Jewish population in Israel? Is that why Iran proceeds apace with its nuclear program? I said it last week, and I’ll say it again: Ahmadinejad knows that the referendum could only take place if an attack on Israel was successful. And if that nightmare scenario was realized, a referendum would be the last item on the agenda of the theocrats who would take power.

“People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes,” George Orwell wrote, “and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome.” A most apposite observation, and one that rings especially true in the case of the Mennonites.