My WAG: Although political Zionism existed long before WW2, many feel that the world’s sympathy for Holocaust survivors (and/or guilt/shame over the Holocaust itself) was a decisive factor in establishing the State of Israel in 1948. But if the Holocaust didn’t happen, then Israel no longer has a right to exist.
It seems to me that this sort of logic would appeal to Ahmadinejad et al, much more strongly than any “pride in the Nazis” suggested by the OP.