When the Roman legions finally breached the walled fortress with their battering ram after a three-month siege, they found Masada to be-of all things-quiet. Its approximately 1,000 defenders, including women and children, had killed each other or committed suicide rather than be taken prisoners of the Roman Empire and sold into slavery.

As quiet as they found the fortress, they were hardly surprised. Its defenders, after all, had been the Zealots, a fanatical political-religious faction with a strong propensity towards violence in its defense of Judaism.

But while their defeat at the hands of the Romans effectively ended not only the Zealots themselves but the Jewish state for next 1,900 years, the zealotry that their name inspires continues on in the Middle East-this time in the hands of Islamic fanatics.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in Iran, whose president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is the epitome of zealous fanaticism.

Ahmadinejad's zeal, however, is nothing new. It was formed practically at the knee of the Ayatollah Khomeini himself and furthered by his participation in the "student group" that took over the U.S. Embassy on November 4, 1979, starting the infamous hostage crisis.

Mr. Ahmadinejad denies this, of course, but some that were there for those 444 mind-numbing days in captivity swear it's true.

So says Don Sharer, an embassy naval attaché and hostage. "As soon as I saw the face, it rang a lot of bells . . . take 20 years off him. He was there," said Sharer upon the new president's election. Disturbingly, Sharer also related that he referred to the hostages as "pigs and dogs," that "deserved to be locked up forever."

Sharer wasn't the only one to put the Iranian President in the embassy during the crisis. Bani-Sadr, Iran's president at the time, has also placed him there.

In fact, he has adamantly affirmed that Ahmadinejad was indeed one of the "students" that took control of the embassy-even to the point of having played a key role.

"Ayatollah Khomeini's deputy, Ayatollah Khamenei, demanded of him [Ahmadinejad] a constant report on what is happening in the embassy," Bani-Sadr has said.

Clearly this was no run-of-the-mill student. But the passions of zealots are rarely ordinary.

From those fanatical beginnings, Mr. Ahmadinejad has risen to the top of what is not so much an Islamic government as a theocracy-one that seems to be working towards the restoration of a Muslim Caliphate ruled by brutal sharia law.

It is a dark and religiously motivated lunge into the past, and it doesn't include the state of Israel, since Iran's president has repeatedly threatened to "wipe it off the map."

Sadly, this is no mere zealot's prophetic wish, it is a vision that Iran is quickly attempting to make a reality.

In fact, just today, Iran claimed that it will be self-sufficient in nuclear fuel in 2007. It was an announcement that came only days after Ahmadinejad said his country was far from producing enough enriched uranium to fuel its Russian-built reactor at Bushehr.

It was a bold statement that took the world by surprise, since it was estimated that Iran had nowhere near the 54,000 centrifuges it would need to accomplish the feat.

Nonetheless, an emboldened Iranian President declared today, "Iran will produce its required nuclear fuel level next year."

"Pressure by the U.S. and Israel aimed at violating the rights of the Iranian nation will not succeed," he added, referring to international opposition to the program.

Even more ominously, Mr. Ahmadinejad also said this: "Our nation has found its place next to the eight countries of the nuclear club and they cannot do anything."

This all comes on the heels of his pronouncement last Monday that "The western powers created the Zionist regime in order to expand their control of the area. This regime massacres Palestinians every day, but since this regime is against nature, we will soon witness its disappearance and destruction."

"Israel," Ahmadinejad said "is destined for destruction and will soon disappear."

It is those remarks that make for an even more nervous Israel, which already has ample reason to worry.

And while it has prompted new discussions about a possible military intervention to stop the Iranian regime, the menace continues to grow despite the threat of sanctions.

Zealots care nothing for sanctions-especially today. They are like a modern-day siege engine without the threat of the walls actually coming down. They sound painful but do little to shake the determined from their paths.

But then again, it's hard to be shaken from your path when you are on a divine mission.

Unlike Masada's zealots, however, Mr. Ahmadinejad has no plans to go quietly.

Unfortunately, he wants to take down the whole Middle East with him.

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