In private, Israeli officials appeared to be hoping for an Ahmadinejad victory even before the polls opened, despite his vitriolic criticism of Israel, his denial of the Holocaust and his apparent eagerness for a nuclear weapons programme.
Israeli newspapers quoted several senior officials anonymously saying that a win for Ahmadinejad would help Israel because, as they saw it, none of the candidates differed very much on policy and Ahmadinejad's strong language and blunt actions made him easier to criticise internationally. "Considering the circumstances, he is the best thing that ever happened to us," one foreign ministry official was quoted as saying in the popular Ma'ariv newspaper last Friday.
Ben Caspit, a Ma'ariv columnist, put it even more bluntly that morning: "If you have friends in Iran, try to convince them to vote for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today … There is no one who will serve Israel's PR interests better than him."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/18/iran-election-protests-middle-east
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