You're making an important point. Ahmadinejad is indeed simply mouthing the sentiment all around him, and that he has been believing for decades. But now he is a leader of a major Middle Eastern country, and this changes everything. Now this ugly sentiment is playing out, and being repeated over and over, on a world stage. So the world - beginning with Israel - cannot simply avert its eyes in disgust, including the Europeans. When Europeans take notice, their knee-jerk appeasement notwithstanding, then you know a loudspeaker has entered the calculation. The phrase "Never Again" means something, and the Israeli leadership knows exactly what it means. Ahmadinejad is purposefully pulling that chain, and he also knows the consequences - and yet he is doing it anyway, and no one is stopping him from doing it. This is new.
You can say that the Islamic regime has been like this since 1979 but his rhetoric has been a bit unusual