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Israel Ponders Iran Options

[UPI] Joshua Brilliant - At the yearly conference organized by the International Policy Institute for Counter Terrorism in Herzliya, experts noted Iran was developing missiles that could reach Western Europe. Retired military intelligence Col. Shlomo Mofaz warned that Iran has sleeper cells in Europe that it could activate within a very short time. The head of Tel Aviv University's Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, retired intelligence Col. Ephraim Kam, doubted Iran would attack Israel. Iran believes Israel has a nuclear capability and is "very much aware of the special relationship between the United States and Israel." Will that change once Iran has a nuclear bomb? "Not very likely," Kam said. "I strongly believe the Iranian radical regime will not be able to contain the popular demand, that comes from bottom to top, to change the nature of the regime." Kam was in a minority. For most Israelis, Iran's nuclear program threatens their very existence. "As crazy at it sounds, the current regime, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in particular, believes that the destruction of Israel is an attainable goal. The ayatollahs have said they are ready to pay a very heavy price in order to destroy Israel. In their thinking, the Christian West will be ready to tolerate the obliteration of the Jewish state in exchange for a long truce with the Islamic world," wrote Prof. Efraim Inbar, director of Bar-Ilan University's Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies.
2006-09-15 01:00:00
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