Israel should consider killing Ahmadinejad, Israeli official says

Nov 24, 2008

The Hebrew media is all abuzz with a report from Australia's Sidney Morning Herald on Sunday. The Herald quotes former Israeli Army Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon as saying "all options," including killing Iranian leader, must be considered to defeat the regime in Tehran

"We have to confront the Iranian revolution immediately. There is no way to stabilize the Middle East today without defeating the Iranian regime. The Iranian nuclear program must be stopped. All tools, all options, should be considered."

According to the article, asked whether "all options" included taking out the Iranian leadership by military strikes, including on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Yaalon replied, "We have to consider killing him."

"I was chief of staff during Operation Iraqi Freedom (the US invasion of Iraq in 2003) and I was surprised the US decided to go into Iraq instead of Iran … Unfortunately, the American public didn't have the political stomach to go into Iran. Military intervention (in Iran) would not be one strike. It needs to be a sustained operation … Any military strike in Iran will be quietly applauded by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the Gulf states. It is a misconception to think that the Arab-Israeli conflict is the most important in the Middle-East. The Shiite-Sunni schism is much bigger, the Persian-Arab divide is bigger, the struggle between national regimes and jihadism is much bigger. And I can't imagine the US will want to share power in the Middle East with a nuclear-armed Iran."

In response to the article, Yaalon said he did say the Iranian regime could be defeated through political, diplomatic and economic means, but with a military strike being the last resort.

Labor party parliament member Ophir Pines said Yaalon's political statements were good for election season maybe but were irresponsible and "will set the Middle East on fire, lead to the international isolation of Israel and interfere with efforts to thwart Iran's nuclear program."

But whenever an Israeli army official makes comments like there, you can believe that everyone, including Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is listening and wondering.