In colloquial western terms, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a wacko. Alas, his heart – in such a different way than that of the famed medieval Jewish poet Yehuda HaLevi – faces east.

As he speaks in New York City today at the United Nations every five-year Nuclear Proliferation Treaty Review Conference, take a glance at past choice statements (courtesy The Israel Project, http://www.theisraelproject.org).

• Sept. 15, 2005: “With respect to the needs of Islamic countries, we are ready to transfer nuclear know-how to these countries.” (In other words, he wants to do for nuclear technology what Starbucks has done for coffee – available anywhere, any time for the right price.)

• Oct 26, 2005: “Israel must be wiped off the map.” (This makes him the only world leader threatening to annihilate another U.N. member’s existence.)

• Sept. 24, 2007: “In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals like in your country. We don’t have that in our country. In Iran, we do not have this phenomenon. I don’t know who’s told you that we have it.” (That one is so funny and bizarre that it’s always worth rereading.)

• June 3, 2009: “The identity of the liberal democracy has been exposed to the world by its protection of the most criminal regime in the history of humanity, the Zionist regime, by using the big deception of the Holocaust.” (That’s a semi-round about way of saying that the Holocaust was as real as the moon being made of cheese.)

So who could be surprised on Monday when the Intemperate Tyrant of Tehran added this to the list:

“The Zionist regime too consistently threatens Middle Eastern countries with its nuclear arsenal.”

Actually, Mahmee, Israel has long held by its policy of “nuclear ambiguity,” only offering this statement: “Israel will not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons into the Middle East.” That’s not quite a threat. Nor is Israel threatening to destroy all of Iran. It would, however, like your country to stop arming Hezbollah and Hamas.

So why does Ahmedinejad keep doing it? Quite simply, it’s because his bosses – the mullahs who really run the country – let him do it. In part, that’s because he’s likely a distraction from their tyrannical rule. Indeed, while they claim allowing a multi-party, multi-candidate elections (unlike in Syria, Egypt, etc.), candidates in Iran must be approved – and can be removed if the mullahs disagree. And last June we saw how protestors of the Iranian presidential election were beaten and even killed.

Meanwhile, Ahmadinejad is continuing the revolutionary spirit for his bosses happy while trying to drain attention from common disgruntlement at the rising fuel and food prices caused in part by somewhat porous international sanctions. (At least they have a minor effect.)

He’s even thinking long-term. If Israel or the United States militarily hit what are certainly nuclear weapons research installations, he’s hoping the sympathy aroused by the likely civilian casualties will rally the country toward him.

And if his government is on the verge of being toppled, he and his bosses know they can still count on important military commanders – with all of their loyal soldiers (those paid off as well as faithful believers), not to mention heavy arsenals. That will create serious damage before the flag of democracy ever waves of Tehran (a not-so-likely scenario to start).