On the eve of Yom HaShoah, the day that Jews worldwide remember the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust while most of the world stood by or actively aided the Nazis, Israel’s Shaul Mofaz spoke at Yale yesterday of the Iranian attempt to commit the second Holocaust, and Israel’s refusal to allow it.
“The Iranian regime is the number one threat to mankind in the 21st century. It is a multi-dimensional, multi-armed threat, which increases every day, every hour.”
Taking the diplomatic route at this time is the best thing to do, he said, “But we must set two timetables – one for rating the Iranian progress and the other to rate the effects of the sanctions. Should those two prove mutually exclusive, we mustn’t exclude any of our options.
“We have to be ready for any scenario,” he continued. “This is a historical time in human history, in the life of a nation, of a people. The Jewish people know this better than everyone. No leader will be able to say, ‘We didn’t know, we didn’t understand.’ This time the entire world, and Israel in it, will have to take the initiative and do whatever it takes to make sure the next generations will enjoy a future of peace and prosperity.”
Time is running out, he warned his audience, and the sanctions must be enforced: “Appeasement has not proved an efficient policy and in the Middle East it is perceived as weak… The situation in Iran is dire and I believe that in that kind of a reality the change can grow from within.
Unlike so many of the fools in the world who insist that Iranian nuclear ambitions are peaceful, Shaul Mofaz pointed out something he has that they don’t: He was born in Iran.
“As someone who was born in Iran and is closely watching it, I can assure you that the Iranian people do not share their regime’s aspirations. I am a great believer in the power of the Iranian people. Iran is no stranger to revolution… The Iranian regime is trying to maneuver its long-term aspirations with the need to survive. We believe that only heavy international political and financial pressure – which would reflect the contradiction between the two – could make Iran change course.”
Mofaz spoke to Iranians on a radio call-in show, and I’m sure he knows what he’s talking about to a large degree regarding the Iranian people. But that was a long time ago (five years, in fact), and his hopeful signs from then haven’t turned into anything concrete. And Iranian polls indicate that the Iranian people, in whom Mofaz places so much confidence, think they should be able to attain nuclear weapons.
But Mofaz gets the bottom line.
“This is a threat to the very existence of the Jewish state. The (uranium) enrichment program is the pivotal point which will set the course for nuclear development. The coming year is critical – our assessments show it is a matter of months, less than a year, before Iran gets hold of enrichment technology and will be able to create uranium suitable for a nuclear bomb.”
Yes.
I was going to point out that Gen. Mofaz perhaps knows a bit more about Iran than others being a native. But I see that you pointed that out 5 years ago.