Ahmadinejad called Israel "a corrupt, anti-human organized minority group  standing up to all divine values."

"Today, confronting the existence of the fabricated Zionist regime is  in fact protecting the rights and dignity of all human beings," said  Ahmadinejad, with a black and white scarf many Palestinians wear around his  neck.

Iran and Israel have been bitter enemies for decades. Khamenei has called  Israel a "cancerous tumor" that must be wiped out.

"This is a threat to wipe out the state of Israel," Rabbi Hier said. "We  should take these people at their word."

Tensions between Iran and Israel have intensified since 2005, when  Ahmadinejad said in a speech that Israel will one day be "wiped off the  map."

But Rabbi Hier said he does not "subscribe at all with those who say this is  a legitimate form of rhetoric."

"The only way to stop what's happening in Iran is for at least the United  States and her allies to say, 'How long are we going to sit by and take this  threat?'" he said.

The Iranian president has also described the Holocaust, when 6 million Jews  were killed by German Nazis and their collaborators during World War II, as a  "myth."

"Most intellectuals in 1939 and 1938 did not think Hitler was serious, they  thought they knew better, but they didn't know better, and we paid a dear price  that we were not on the right side of history," he said.