"It does sound to me more like a politician whistling in the wind"

Exactly. He is expressing some wishful thinking that the Israeli system should fail and be replaced by something else, just like American politicians frequently express wishful thinking that the present Iranian system will fail and be replaced by something else.

People who interpret such statements as Ahmadinejad's as a literal war threat are also expressing a sort of wishful thinking of their own, because they are the very people who are searching around rather desperately for a good enough excuse to get public support behind launching another unprovoked pre-emptive war...this time on Iran.

Yes, the Krushchev statement was likewise interpreted in the most inflammatory and paranoid fashion possible at the time by various people who wanted to inflame the Cold War situation, draw attention to themselves, and land some more big, lucrative military spending contracts.

This sort of nonsense goes on all the time, and it's 99% propaganda. They will search every speech the Iranians make for any shred of an excuse to justify building a greater crisis. They will ignore and not report on moderate things that are said by Iran, because it would not help advance their cause.