Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad caused quite a stir at a United Nations conference in Geneva Monday. After Ahmadinejad referred to Israel as a “cruel and repressive racist regime,” delegates from France and several other European nations walked out.

In his speech, the first from a government official at the conference, Ahmadinejad also suggested that the U.S. invasion of Iraq was part of a Zionist conspiracy and that the West had “resorted to military aggression to make an entire nation homeless under the pretext of Jewish suffering.” Ironically, if all-too-characteristically, Ahmadinejad called people protesting his remarks ignorant.

The United Nations was founded in 1945 to promote international cooperation and peaceful resolution of conflicts after the most destructive war this world has ever seen. Only three years later, the state of Israel was created as a result of the same war, a safe haven for a people that’s been oppressed for centuries.

Since then, neither entity has lived up to its full potential. The U.N. hasn’t put an end to war or genocide. Israel has gotten itself into its fair share of hot water after its many wars with neighboring states.

But both organizations stand for something. They represent a world striving to right its own wrongs. They were forged by a generation of visionaries determined to make a safer future for their children.

Men like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stand for something, too. They choose to look back at our past, not to learn from our mistakes, but to repeat them. Their outlook is one of hatred, racism, and ignorance.

In a battle between these two opposing world views, those who spew hatred will lose. The world grows closer every day, and every day brings with it new hope that humanity will come to live as one.

Leaders of free nations are right to condemn Ahmadinejad’s remarks. But they should not let his grandstanding distract them from their business. They must continue to work for shared solutions to shared problems. By rising above his ignorance, they can show the world why hope is better than hate.

Nathaniel French is a sophomore theater studies double major. He can be reached for comment at [email protected].