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"Ahmadinejad Is Preparing Another Holocaust
For Israel" -- Benjamin Netanyahu
"Believe him and stop him," the Israeli opposition leader said of
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. "This is what we must do.
Everything else pales before this." In extraordinary interviews on
Monday and Tuesday Likud leader, and former Israeli Prime Minister,
Benjamin Netanyahu told a luncheon audience and a radio interviewer,
"It's 1938 and Iran is Germany. And Iran is racing to arm itself
with atomic bombs."
Netanyahu repeatedly told delegates to the annual United Jewish
Communities General Assembly in Los Angeles, which attracts 5,000
participants, "It's 1938 all over again."
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President Ahmadinejad, in a series of talks -- perhaps responding
to the increasing clamor from Israeli politicians currently visiting
Washington and the U.S. -- declared that Israel was destined to
"disappearance and destruction" and that Iran had full nuclear
capability. "Time is running in our favor," he said.
The General Assembly, an umbrella organization of American Jewish
communal organizations is a traditional pilgrimage for Israeli
politicians of all shades of opinion.
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According to an account by Peter Hirschberg, in Wednesday's Haaretz
(An Israeli newspaper), Netanyahu amplified his remarks in an interview
on Army Radio on Tuesday night. Netanyahu insisted that Israel had the
capability to wipe out Iran. "I don't want to analyze the capability
required to eliminate [the Iranian nuclear] threat, but this capability
exists...This capability is eroded over time, and if we wait years then
obviously this capability would not exist anymore...but right now I
disagree with the claim that nothing can be done against Iran."
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When asked by Israeli radio host Razi Barkai if Bush could afford
embarking on another "military adventure" after Iraq, Netanyahu
replied, "... Israel would certainly be the first stop on Iran's
tour of destruction, but at the planned production rate of 25
nuclear bombs a year... [the arsenal] will be directed against 'the
big Satan,' the U.S., and the 'moderate Satan,' Europe."
"Iran is developing ballistic missiles that would reach America,
and now they prepare missiles with an adequate range to cover the
whole of Europe," he added
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"No one cared then and no one seems to care now," he said, again
drawing on the Nazi parallel - Netanyahu warned that Tehran's
nuclear and missile program "goes way beyond the destruction of
Israel - it is directed to achieve world-wide range. It's a global
program in the service of a mad ideology." "What happens in Iran
affects what happens in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, not the
other way round," he said.
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"There is still time. All ways (to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear
weapons) must be considered. We can't let this thing happen."
Current Prime Minister Ehud Olmert drew fire from Democrats Monday by
publicly praising the war in Iraq after meeting with President Bush, who
is trying to divert attention from the recent elections and the
deteriorating situation in Iraq. Clearly many Israeli leaders are
panicked that the political fallout from the anti-war tsunami will
weaken U.S. resolve. And an emboldened Amadinejad is giving them good
reason. Expect a major PR effort to lobby for action against Iran.
It's a scary tinderbox.
Blake Fleetwood
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