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| Version 4 | Version 5 |
|---|---|
| Israel army chief contradicts Netanyahu on Iran | Israel army chief contradicts Netanyahu on Iran |
| (4 months later) | |
| The head of the Israel Defence Force (IDF) Lieutenant General Benny Gantz has made some striking remarks about Iran's nuclear ambitions in an Independence Day interview with Haaretz. | The head of the Israel Defence Force (IDF) Lieutenant General Benny Gantz has made some striking remarks about Iran's nuclear ambitions in an Independence Day interview with Haaretz. |
| Basically, Gantz says that although Iran is pressing ahead with its uranium enrichment programme, he does not think Iran's top leadership, under current circumstances, would take the risk of building a nuclear weapon. Here is the relevant quote. | Basically, Gantz says that although Iran is pressing ahead with its uranium enrichment programme, he does not think Iran's top leadership, under current circumstances, would take the risk of building a nuclear weapon. Here is the relevant quote. |
| If the supreme religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei wants, he will advance it to the acquisition of a nuclear bomb, but the decision must first be taken. It will happen if Khamenei judges that he is invulnerable to a response. I believe he would be making an enormous mistake, and I don't think he will want to go the extra mile. I think the Iranian leadership is composed of very rational people. But I agree that such a capability, in the hands of Islamic fundamentalists who at particular moments could make different calculations, is dangerous. | If the supreme religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei wants, he will advance it to the acquisition of a nuclear bomb, but the decision must first be taken. It will happen if Khamenei judges that he is invulnerable to a response. I believe he would be making an enormous mistake, and I don't think he will want to go the extra mile. I think the Iranian leadership is composed of very rational people. But I agree that such a capability, in the hands of Islamic fundamentalists who at particular moments could make different calculations, is dangerous. |
| This sounds very much like the analysis that has been coming from Gantz's US counterpart, General Martin Dempsey, in his efforts to restrain the Israeli government from taking military action. It sounds very unlike the sort of language that has been coming from Gantz's boss, prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, for instance in his Holocaust Memorial speech last week: | This sounds very much like the analysis that has been coming from Gantz's US counterpart, General Martin Dempsey, in his efforts to restrain the Israeli government from taking military action. It sounds very unlike the sort of language that has been coming from Gantz's boss, prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, for instance in his Holocaust Memorial speech last week: |
| Today, the regime in Iran openly calls and determinedly works for our destruction. And it is feverishly working to develop atomic weapons to achieve that goal. | Today, the regime in Iran openly calls and determinedly works for our destruction. And it is feverishly working to develop atomic weapons to achieve that goal. |
| In his Haaretz interview, Gantz all but calls on Netanyahu to calm down. He says: | In his Haaretz interview, Gantz all but calls on Netanyahu to calm down. He says: |
| The state of Israel is the strongest in the region and will remain so. Decisions can and must be made carefully, out of historic responsibility but without hysteria | The state of Israel is the strongest in the region and will remain so. Decisions can and must be made carefully, out of historic responsibility but without hysteria |
| The Iranian-Israeli analyst, Meir Javedanfar, has this take on the blatant conflict of views: | The Iranian-Israeli analyst, Meir Javedanfar, has this take on the blatant conflict of views: |
| This contradiction is a welcome development. The main reason being that it takes the hysterics out of Israel's public assessment of the Iranian nuclear program. No one in Israel wants a nuclear armed Iran. The problem is that Netanyahu's exaggerated view about the Iranian nuclear program and the holocaust which it would bring discredit many of Israel's legitimate concerns with regards to Iran. | This contradiction is a welcome development. The main reason being that it takes the hysterics out of Israel's public assessment of the Iranian nuclear program. No one in Israel wants a nuclear armed Iran. The problem is that Netanyahu's exaggerated view about the Iranian nuclear program and the holocaust which it would bring discredit many of Israel's legitimate concerns with regards to Iran. |
| Gantz's remarks come in the run-up to the planned May 23 talks in Baghdad, when Iran and the international community are expected to start talking about possible compromises to defuse the Iranian crisis. In a way that process, begun this month in Istanbul, is a means for the US and its partners to find enough common ground with Iran to forestall an Israeli attack. It now looks like Bibi's top general has publicly joined that effort. | Gantz's remarks come in the run-up to the planned May 23 talks in Baghdad, when Iran and the international community are expected to start talking about possible compromises to defuse the Iranian crisis. In a way that process, begun this month in Istanbul, is a means for the US and its partners to find enough common ground with Iran to forestall an Israeli attack. It now looks like Bibi's top general has publicly joined that effort. |
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