http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20051215/HOLOCAUST15/TPInternational/Africa
Israel raises alarm over Iran
By MARK MACKINNON
Thursday, December 15, 2005
JERUSALEM -- Israel called yesterday for the international community to wake up to the threat posed by Iran after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the Holocaust was a "myth" and suggested the Jewish state be relocated outside the Middle East.
The outlandish statements come amidst growing debate in Israel over the need to prepare for a pre-emptive strike to ensure Tehran doesn't develop nuclear-weapons capability.
Mr. Ahmadinejad, giving his third anti-Israel speech in a week, told a crowd in the southeastern Iranian city of Zahedan that "they have created a myth in the name of Holocaust and consider it to be above God, religion and the prophets." The remarks were carried on live television.
The Iranian President, who in October called for Israel to be "wiped off the map," said earlier this week that if Germany and Austria were consumed by guilt over the Holocaust, the state of Israel should be established on their soil. Yesterday, he developed that suggestion to include other possible locations for the Jewish state, including Canada.
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"If you committed this big crime, then why should the oppressed Palestinian nation pay the price?" he asked rhetorically. "This is our proposal: If you committed the crime, then give a part of your own land in Europe, the United States, Canada or Alaska to them so that the Jews can establish their country."
Israel quickly lashed out at the latest remarks, saying they were further proof of why the world must ensure the Islamic republic does not develop nuclear weapons.
"The repeated outrageous remarks of the Iranian President unfortunately indicate the mindset of the ruling clique in Tehran and also indicates the real policy agenda of that extremist regime," said Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israel's Foreign Ministry.
"What is really worrying for us is the combination of extremist ideology, this distorted view of reality, when that's combined with nuclear weapons, that's something no one in the international community can feel good about."
Mr. Ahmadinejad's speech came one day after the chief of Israel's armed forces said that Iran's nuclear program would reach a point of no return -- the enrichment of uranium -- by as early as March, although it is still likely years away from producing a nuclear weapon.
Iran insists its nuclear program is for civilian purposes only, but as it has progressed there has been rising talk in Israel of destroying Iran's nuclear facilities in a military strike.
London's Sunday Times newspaper reported this week that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had ordered the military to prepare for a military strike against Iran at the end of March. The Israeli government denied such an order, but the idea has wide public support in the country.
Benjamin Netanyahu, who is expected to lead the right-wing Likud Party into elections scheduled for early next year, recently said that Israel must make "a courageous decision, as it did in 1981."
In 1981, Israeli warplanes destroyed the Osirak reactor in Iraq just before it was to come on line, knocking out Baghdad's nuclear program.
In a recent presentation to the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee of Israel's parliament, the head of military intelligence, Major-General Aharon Ze'evi, said: "If Iran's nuclear efforts are not halted by the end of March, 2006, there will be no more reason for diplomatic activity."
This week, the Israeli military's chief of staff, Dan Halutz, raised the possibility that if Iran developed nuclear material, it might pass it on to militant groups, such as Hamas, that are dedicated to the destruction of Israel.
Such statements have sparked calls in Israel's hawkish right-wing press for the country to develop a plan for a unilateral strike against Iran's nuclear program.
"Diplomacy with regard to Iran's nuclear program will not work until the regime there changes," columnist Sever Plocker wrote this week in the mass-circulation Yedioth Ahronoth daily newspaper. "Israel will have no choice but to take military action in order to prevent this nightmare from coming true -- a radical Islamic country armed with nuclear weapons."
Mr. Regev said Israel was committed to the diplomatic route "at the moment" and was hoping international pressure would force Iran to drop its nuclear ambitions.
He expressed hope that Mr. Ahmadinejad's remarks would speed the referral of Iran's nuclear program to the United Nations Security Council.
The Iranian leader's tirade also drew wide and immediate international condemnation. Canada called in the Iranian charg� d'affaires in Ottawa to complain about the President's remarks.
"These statements are irresponsible, contrary to Canadian values, and have no place in the discourse of member states of the United Nations," Prime Minister Paul Martin said in a statement. "To cast doubt on the Holocaust and to suggest that Israel be 'moved' to Europe, the United States or Canada is completely unacceptable to the Canadian people."
B'nai Brith Canada called on Canada to censure Iran diplomatically, and said the government should use its influence to mobilize support for a special session of the UN Security Council to discuss Iran.
Mr. Ahmadinejad's remarks are likely to cause some embarrassment within reformist circles in Tehran, where influential politicians are said to be urging the country's religious leadership to rein in the brash rookie President, who was the surprise winner of elections in June.
However, Mr. Ahmadinejad, who views nuclear technology as Iran's right, seemed unconcerned about what effect his speech might have on negotiations.
"I assure you that we won't step back one inch from our nuclear rights," the President told the crowd, drawing chants of "Death to America!"
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