Decision ‘08

Israeli Defense Minister: “Since Hitler We Have Not Faced Such A Threat”

Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said on Monday that the nuclear program being pursued by Iran was the most serious threat faced by Jews since the Nazi Holocaust.

…”Of all the threats we face, Iran is the biggest. The world must not wait. It must do everything necessary on a diplomatic level in order to stop its nuclear activity,” Mofaz told a conference on Iran at Tel Aviv University.

“Since Hitler we have not faced such a threat,” he added.

Does he exaggerate? Sadly, no:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday again criticized Israel and called on Jews to leave the Mideast and “return to their fatherlands” in Europe.

“We say that this fake regime [Israel] cannot … logically continue to live,” he said, according to a translator for The Associated Press.

This cannot stand…

Meanwhile, the United States has confirmed it’s about to strike…financially:

Ahead of this week’s U.N. Security Council deadline for Iran to abandon its nuclear activities and an expected report from nuclear watchdog Mohamed ElBaradei, U.S. officials have been mapping a plan to hit the defiant regime. But the attacks will be financial, not military. The U.S. and its European allies will ask the council next month for a resolution that would pave the way for political and economic sanctions. If, as expected, Russia and China threaten a veto or stall, the U.S. intends to work outside the U.N. to isolate Tehran “diplomatically and economically,” Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns said last week. “Countries that trade with Iran … ought to begin to rethink those commercial trade relationships.”

Among the plan’s first targets: Iran’s accounts and financial institutions in Europe. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met last week with the finance ministers of Britain and Germany, where, according to a U.S. Treasury study, Iranian-government banks operate branches to handle funds generated by the oil trade. The U.S. wants non-Iranian banks to stop facilitating Tehran’s money flow. A senior official involved in devising the strategy told TIME, “It’s about convincing financial institutions not to deal with bad guys, because they’re worried about their own reputations.”

2 Responses to “Israeli Defense Minister: “Since Hitler We Have Not Faced Such A Threat””

1 megapotamus Says:
April 24th, 2006 at 2:48 pm
There is little doubt that an Iran armed with just a few nukes on mobile missiles, assuming no anti-missile technology, could kill a larger fraction of global Jewry than Hitler could have hoped to lay his hands on in Europe. I see little reporting, however, on the technical hurdles in putting warheads on missiles even once all the U processing difficulties are overcome. I hate to say it just because it feeds the appeasement-mongers but it is a firm, factual assertion that Iran’s capabilities are far short of this now and will remain so for a term of some years. What we and Israel need to do above all is quicken anti-missile system deployment. Sure, they could barge one in but there are means for detecting that as well. The power of nukes is now a retail commodity. Delivery in tactical situations is another question. Thing is, if the mullahs do get their nuke and can just set off a conspicuous test there will be no will on this side of the Atlantic to keep the pressure on this now highly combustible creature, Iran. No will except for in the Bush White House, of course, but that will not be the Bush White House after a few years time; hardly an eyeblink in the millenial struggle Ossama and Co. yearn for and have prepared for.
2 Hoss Says:
April 29th, 2006 at 10:50 am
Oh come on Mark. Not recognizing that this is not unique rhetoric from Iran’s president shows lack of knowledge and history of the region. Many Middle Eastern governments and their average citizen on the street call for the same thing. I grew up hearing it every day. But not once have I ever heard the idea of equating the “destruction” of Israel as a discriminatory political system with the killing innocent ordinary Jewish people by those that call for Israel’s destruction. This is like saying, the desire to destroy Apartheid is equivalent to killing the whites in South Africa. It is inhuman and ridiculous equation. It is purposely misrepresented by the Neocons and their Zionist friends.

Tell me how many of you would defend the state of Texas for example if it decided to declare itself a Baptist state (or any religious identity) and started to displace non-Baptists for the purpose of creating a Baptist demographic majority. Wouldn’t that be a violation of the American value of separation of church and state, i.e. the first amendment? Wouldn’t the US Supreme Court declare such a move by Texas unconstitutional in a minute? If you agree, why would you find it unreasonable for middle easterners to reject Israel as a country that its main historical purpose is to establish a Jewish demographic majority even if it has to resort to force and intimidation of non-Jews? When you get this point then you’ll understand the conflict at its essence.

There are many ethnic and religious groups in the Middle East that managed to live together for centuries. We don’t need to encourage a Shia state in Iraq, Jewish state in Israel, or a Kurdish state in north of Iraq…etc. This is un-American. The Middle East has to translate its ethnic and religious diversity and pluralism into political democracy. We should help them by stop encouraging the division of power along sectarian and religious lines.

As to Iran, lets try to diplomatically resolve any trust issues with them. We will win the battle but we will lose the war if we decide to approach this problem militarily.
For those of you who care about hearing different sides of the story here is a link that can shed some light about Iran nuclear program history.

Click Here