Report: Israeli Minister Says 'We Will Attack Iran' if Nuke Program Continues

[HAL 9000 96]

So is there actual proof Iran (beyond what people suspect) is really in the process of obtaining WMDs or do we want to support another desert adventure (that will never happen) with "faulty" and "misinterpreted" intel???

[AlHayatZween 2]

So is there actual proof Iran (beyond what people suspect) is really in the process of obtaining WMDs or do we want to support another desert adventure (that will never happen) with "faulty" and "misinterpreted" intel???

wondering the same thing...

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

It's time Israel took care of its own enemies itself, like it used to. The US won't invade and occupy another country on your behalf for a very long time, Israel.

Anti-Semite !

[ready4ONE 5,400]

Are you the wife of this Mahmoud?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Ahmadinejad

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

Are you the wife of this Mahmoud?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Ahmadinejad

That wasn't very nice.

[Nagishkaw 510]

Are you the wife of this Mahmoud?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Ahmadinejad

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

Are you the wife of this Mahmoud?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Ahmadinejad

[zqt3344 21]

Iran is such a compassionate and kind and loving and caring country, they only seek to have peace and live in harmony with the rest of the world and would never do anything to harm any Christians from the western part of the world. There is even a new vacation package they are offering in Iran to the rest of the world. Allah Akbar!

Report: Israeli Minister Says 'We Will Attack Iran' if Nuke Program Continues

AP

June 3: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert speaks at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference in Washington.

JERUSALEM — Israel will attack Iran if it doesn't abandon its nuclear program, a Cabinet minister hoping to replace embattled Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was quoted Friday as saying.

Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz also said Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad "will disappear before Israel does," the Yediot Ahronot daily reported. Ahmadinejad has called repeatedly for Israel's destruction.

Mofaz's spokeswoman did not immediately return a call seeking comment on the remarks, which were much more explicit than anything Olmert himself has said. Olmert has gone no further than hinting that Israel was prepared to use force against Iranian nuclear facilities, saying only Tuesday that "the Iranian threat must be stopped by all means. "

According to the newspaper report, Mofaz — a former chief of staff and defense minister — has concluded that international sanctions haven't curbed Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

"If Iran continues its nuclear arms program — we will attack it," the newspaper quoted Mofaz as saying. "The sanctions aren't effective. There will be no choice but to attack Iran to halt the Iranian nuclear program."

There is a precedent for Israeli military action: In 1981, Israeli planes destroyed an unfinished Iraqi reactor.

An Israeli military strike against Iran would have U.S. backing, Mofaz was quoted as saying.

In Washington this week, Iran dominated Olmert's meetings with U.S. President George W. Bush, the Israeli leader told reporters. And Bush sought to reassure Israelis who are worried about the U.S. commitment to keeping Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb, saying, "It's very important for the world to take the Iranian threat quite seriously, which the United States does."

Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful and designed to produce energy.

Mofaz's bellicose comments on Iran coincide with the launching of his campaign to replace Olmert as head of Israel's governing Kadima Party if a corruption probe pushes Olmert out of office. Mofaz is carving out a hawkish position, and earlier this week, spoke out against returning the Golan Heights, captured in the 1967 Mideast war, to Syria.

Syria and Israel recently disclosed they have resumed peace talks, with Turkey as go-between.

A recent poll of Kadima members showed the more centrist Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni easily besting Mofaz in a party leadership race.

Police are investigating Olmert on suspicion of bribe-taking, campaign funding violations and money laundering.

Olmert has said he would only resign if indicted. So far, no charges have been brought against him, but a key witness in the corruption scandal has accused the prime minister of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, in part to finance a lavish lifestyle.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,363606,00.html

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

Iran is such a compassionate and kind and loving and caring country, they only seek to have peace and live in harmony with the rest of the world and would never do anything to harm any Christians from the western part of the world. There is even a new vacation package they are offering in Iran to the rest of the world. Allah Akbar!

On what do you base your comment ?

To my knowledge, Iran has not invaded another country in more than 2 centuries (unlike the U.S. and two of its Middle Eastern buddies.) Iran has never toppled a U.S. government, or looted U.S. oil (unlike the U.S.'s repeated conduct in the region.) Nor has the Iranian leader claimed that "God" told him to invade another country (unlike the American president.)

Despite the endlessly-repeated mistranslation of Ahmadinejad's remarks about "the Zionist regime disappearing from the pages of history," Iran has not threatened to launch a "first-strike" attack on any other country. However, many explicit threats of attacking Iran have been made by the U.S. and its closest Middle Eastern ally.

In fact, Iran and the Arab countries have repeatedly called for the Middle East to be a nuclear-weapons-free zone. Only one country in the region refuses. It just happens to be the one and only country in the Middle East that actually *has* nuclear weapons, which it developed in a secret program in blatant disregard of the adamant opposition of two American presidents. It is the same country that refuses to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and refuses to allow international inspections of its nuclear facilities. It's also the same country that has repeatedly invaded its neighbors and continues to occupy their territory, violating more U.N. resolutions than any other country in the world, and on whose behalf the U.S. has vetoed the largest number of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

The same bunch who orchestrated the U.S.'s current disaster in Iraq are now tripping all over themselves to deny their responsibility for that debacle (some even deny that there is a debacle at all) while clamoring for another senseless squander of American blood and and treasure in Iran. And once again, the one country in the region that actually *has* nuclear weapons is cited as the main reason for the "need" to invade Iran.

But we're supposed to keep talking about the color of the carpet in the room, without mentioning the elephant crapping all over it.

[AlHayatZween 2]

you rock, WOM!

[ready4ONE 5,400]

The Israeli's have had nukes for decades, and were they inclined to use them have been through numerous armed confrontations and could have used them. They have not obviously. Why? Because they are not total nut jobs like the government in Iran. I would give Iran less than 24 hours after getting a nuclear device for trying to find someone, likely Israel, to use it on.

Sorry if my joke was not amusing. A google search turned up that Mahmoud. Hence my question.

None of what I say is a blanket condemnation of all Iranians, Palestinians, or any other people in the Middle East region. I do intend to condemn governments such as that of Iran, and the religious zealots who close minds to the possibility of any type of peaceful coexistence, regardless of if they are Muslim, Jewish, or Christian. It would be nice to see the region pull itself out of the Dark Ages, and off the cliff edge, at some point. Iran with nukes is no way to get there.

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

The Israeli's have had nukes for decades, and were they inclined to use them have been through numerous armed confrontations and could have used them. They have not obviously. Why? Because they are not total nut jobs like the government in Iran. I would give Iran less than 24 hours after getting a nuclear device for trying to find someone, likely Israel, to use it on.

Sorry if my joke was not amusing. A google search turned up that Mahmoud. Hence my question.

None of what I say is a blanket condemnation of all Iranians, Palestinians, or any other people in the Middle East region. I do intend to condemn governments such as that of Iran, and the religious zealots who close minds to the possibility of any type of peaceful coexistence, regardless of if they are Muslim, Jewish, or Christian. It would be nice to see the region pull itself out of the Dark Ages, and off the cliff edge, at some point. Iran with nukes is no way to get there.

On what do you base your claim that Iran is “closing minds to the possibility of peaceful coexistence” with those of other faiths ? Iran is home to the largest population of Jews in the Middle East outside of Israel – there is a seat in the Iranian Parliament specifically reserved for a representative from Iran’s Jewish community. And Iranian Jews are apparently so satisfied with their country that no amount of bribery from Tel Aviv seems to be able to lure them into moving away to Israel. They may travel freely – they even visit and do business in Israel -- and they return without any harassment from the government. If Ahmadinejad was really intent on murdering or oppressing Jews, wouldn’t it be pretty easy for him to start right at home ?

The government of Iran may be, in your opinion, “total nut jobs.” Plenty of people consider the governments of several other countries to be “total nut jobs,” including the current regime in Washington.

But reasonable people don’t try to use such opinions as sufficient cause for declaring war.

Nine countries currently have nuclear weapons – the U.S., Russia, the U.K., France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea, and Israel. You may well consider the leaders of at least a few of those countries to be “nut jobs” – several of them have extremely repressive regimes, or military dictatorships, or hostile relations with their neighbors, etc.

Yet none of these countries have actually used their nuclear weapons against another, save one -- that “enlightened” beacon of freedom, fairness, truth, morality, democracy and everything good –- the United States.

As I said, Iran has not invaded another country in more than 200 years, nor has it threatened any “first strike” against another country. In contrast, the U.S. has done both, repeatedly. So has Israel.

You are avoiding the obvious about what influences Israel’s choice of which weapons to use in its various conflicts. Historically, Israel has had little need of resorting to nuclear warfare – it has always faced military forces that are far weaker and much more poorly-equipped. Israel is heavily armed with the very latest high-tech conventional weaponry (some of it quite illegal, such as cluster bombs) which it has never hesitated to use on Arabs/Muslims – most recently laying waste (again) to Lebanon. Thanks to the generosity (willing or unwilling) of the American taxpayer, tiny Israel is considered to possess the 4th or 5th best-equipped military force in the world.

Frankly, the most compelling reason for Israel not to have used its nukes in the past is “location, location, location.” All of the countries Israel has warred with are close neighbors. To use nuclear weapons in its own back yard would be suicidal, and *that* is the plain and simple reason it has not used them in Gaza and the West Bank and Lebanon and the Golan Heights and the Sinai. If and when Israel decides to use nuclear weapons, all it requires is a target a “safe” distance away from itself. Like Iran.

And along those same lines, consider that nukes could not be used to attack Israel without nuking the Palestinians, along with millions of Jordanians, Lebanese, Syrians and Egyptians. Ahmadinejad is one of the biggest supporters of Palestinian rights – why would he deliberately murder them all (not to mention all those other Muslims) ? It makes no sense.

To repeat, Israel is the only Middle Eastern country which has invaded and occupied another country’s territory, has violated and continues to violate more U.N. resolutions than any other, refuses to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty or allow international inspectors into its nuclear weapons facilities, and continues to threaten its neighbors with military attacks. Iran has done nothing of the sort. Yet for whatever reason (which you haven’t substantiated with any sort of logical argument) you perceive Iran as the “crazy” one.

Unlike Iran, Israel has already been led by two terrorists with prices on their heads. Former Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir once led the terrorist Stern Gang (Lehi) and (among other things) ordered the assassination of a United Nations diplomat. Former Prime Minister Menachem Begin led the Irgun, a terrorist gang that (among other things) bombed the King David Hotel, killing nearly 100 people.

The bounties set by the British government on these two terrorists were £40,000 ($500,000 in today’s money) on Menachem Begin “Dead or Alive,” and £20,000 (the equivalent of $250,000 today) on Yitzhak Shamir “Dead or Alive.” And they've never been rescinded -- during Begin’s historic state visit to London, the British government had to force a temporary Bill of Indemnity through Parliament so that nobody might try to collect.

In addition, many current and former members of the Israeli military don’t even dare to visit several European countries (including the U.K.) because they’re wanted for war crimes and would face immediate arrest.

If anything, it’s Israel’s own nuclear arsenal along with its extensive conventional weapons, and especially its track record of belligerent behavior, terror and war crimes against its neighbors, that are by far the biggest motivations for other countries to try to develop similar weapons – not because of irrational “hatred of Israel,” but quite understandable concerns about self-protection from and deterrence of Israeli attacks. This is the elephant in the room that you are not acknowledging.

Still, according to the IAEA, the CIA, the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran, and scores of other intelligence experts, Iran has *no* nuclear weapons program. In fact, if you look at the Bush administration’s spurious claims, they all track back to either Iranian ex-patriot opposition groups of questionable credibility (can you say Ahmed Chalabi ?) or the usual gang of neo-con warmongers following precisely the same script they used to manipulate Americans into supporting the Iraq War – lies, misinformation, and the fear factor.

Of course that’s just to get the attack started. When the weapons of mass destruction aren’t found, the script will simply morph just as it did in the case of the misbegotten Iraq war – switching to various other buzz words like bringing democracy, liberating gays and women, fighting terror, and whatever other meaningless marketing catch-phrases they can come up with. The only surprise is that there’s anyone left who actually still believes in these con artists.

[HAL 9000 96]

So is there actual proof Iran (beyond what people suspect) is really in the process of obtaining WMDs or do we want to support another desert adventure (that will never happen) with "faulty" and "misinterpreted" intel???

Bumpy bumpy