Don’t Bomb Iran

Nov 2006: Israel’s deputy defence minister Sneh says it “isn’t as much Ahmadinejad’s deciding to launch an attack” as the mere existence of an Iranian “capability” to build bombs that would “kill the Zionist dream without pressing a button” and must be prevented “at all costs”. He said by making making Jews feel unsafe in Israel, they would not settle there or would leave - which reflects the fear that Arab Israelis will soon outnumber Jews in the ‘democratic’ Jewish state. Official statements indicate Israel considers ‘capability’ to mean the ability to enrich uranium, a capability is has already - or is about to achieve. Sneh says a pre-emptive military strike is the last option after diplomacy, but doubts sanctions will work.
The full interview is here. Extract from relevant JTA November 17 2006 article is below

Netanyahu: ‘It’s 1938, Iran is Germany’ below.

Ron Kampeas

LOS ANGELES –

[...]
Netanyahu’s harsh message comes on the heels of an equally strong warning given by Israeli’s deputy defence minister, Ephraim Sneh, who said in an interview with the Jerusalem Post that the Iranian nuclear program must be stopped “at all costs”. Sneh said that a pre-emptive Israeli military strike against Iran is a “last resort” but “even the last resort is sometimes the only resort”.

In the most dramatic comments to date by a senior government member on the Iranian nuclear program, the former IDF brigadier-general described an untenable scenario of Israel “living under a dark cloud of fear from a leader committed to its destruction”.

He said he was afraid that, under such a threat, “most Israelis would prefer not to live here most Jews would prefer not to come here with their families and Israelis who can live abroad will. People are not enthusiastic about being scorched.”

Thus the danger, Sneh elaborated, was that Ahmadinejad would “be able to kill the Zionist dream without pushing a button. That’s why we must prevent this regime from obtaining nuclear capability at all costs.”