ETERAZ

Both Palestinians and Iranians ought to seriously worry if Mofaz clinches the Kadima Party leadership and the Israeli premiership (though to be frank I doubt Livni, who is ahead of Mofaz in the polls, would be much of an improvement). Polls also show that if an election were called Likud's Benjamin Netanyahu, who repudiates the land for peace consensus, would win by a significant margin. 

Not only has Mofaz called for the total obliteration of Iran on a number of occasions, but while he was head of the military in the course of the second intifada called for a death toll of 70 Palestinians a day. Such sentiments are not only highly offensive, but obviously if realized, tantamount to ethnic cleansing and genocide (just as were Ahmadinejad's, though we can of course quibble over semantics, transitive and intrasitive verbs all day). Though I don't speak Hebrew, I haven't as of yet heard any arguments attempting to explain away the raw brutality of Mofaz's remarks through recourse to the intricacies of Hebraic grammar. If anyone knows of any I'd be interested to read them...

Whether Mofaz is more bark than bite is yet to be seen. He may well have more in common with his nemesis (and erstwhile hamvatan (compatriot); Mofaz is Iranian-born btw) Ahmadinejad than he is aware (funnily enough Ahamdinejad was born in 1956 and the Mofaz family immigrated to Israel in 1957, so they overlapped one another's presence in Iran, if Wikipedia's dates are to be trusted, by just one year). Ahmadinejad of course has become notorious for his many stupid and ill-conceived pronouncements, which partly play to his local constituency, but are more concerned with carving out an internationalist and transnational role with him at the helm of the Islamic and developing worlds. Though some of what he has said has undoubtedly resonated with the Arab street, according to one poll making him the second most popular leader in the Islamic world after Hizbullah's Hassan Nasrallah, much of Ahamdinejad's rhetoric has done considerable damage to Iran's interests at home and abroad and on the whole has failed dismally. Mofaz may too do the same, making ominous and dangerous threats, which perhaps only power can moderate. At present not much is clear and we'll have to wait and see what'll be the outcome of Israel's leadership contest...

Iran root of all evil - Israeli MP

From correspondents in Jerusalem

August 06, 2008 06:51pm

ISRAELI Cabinet minister Shaul Mofaz, a contender to succeed the prime minister, denounced his native Iran on today as "the root of all evil" and said its nuclear programme constituted a threat to world peace.

Mr Mofaz was speaking a day after he launched a campaign for a party leadership election next month that will lead to the replacement of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Opinion polls show that Mr Mofaz, a deputy prime minister and transport minister, is a frontrunner in the contest to lead the centrist Kadima party but trails Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

Mr Olmert, dogged by a corruption probe, said last week he would step down once a successor for the party leadership was chosen.

"The Iranians are the root of all evil," Mr Mofaz said in an interview on Israel Radio, adding that Tehran's nuclear programme would pose "a threat to Israel's existence".

He urged the West anew to impose stiffer sanctions on Tehran to pressure Iran to stop a nuclear programme that Israel believes is intended to produce atomic weapons.

Iran says the developments are for civilian purposes only, to produce energy.

Israel is widely believed to have assembled the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal which experts say comprises as many as 200 warheads.

Israel does not discuss its nuclear capabilities under a "strategic ambiguity" policy designed to ward off enemies while avoiding the sort of provocation that can trigger arms races.

Mr Mofaz, who was born in Tehran before many Iranian Jews moved to the new state of Israel, accused his native country of trying "simply to bide its time," by rejecting Western proposals to stop enriching uranium.

"This has been the Iranian strategy for years, to bide their time and continue with their enrichment," Mr Mofaz said.

Mr Mofaz, a former head of the Israeli military, has been one of Israel's most outspoken ministers against Iran.

While he supports diplomacy to resolve the standoff with Tehran, Mr Mofaz said in June an Israeli attack to halt the project may be "unavoidable" unless a deal was reached.

Israel's security Cabinet met behind closed doors today to discuss its intelligence assessments that Iranian-backed Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon have been rearming with rockets since a 2006 war.

Some 1200 Lebanese and 159 Israelis died in that month-long war.

Israel launched an air campaign and then invasion after Hezbollah staged a lethal cross-border raid against a military patrol.

Security officials said ministers discussed reports the guerrillas were seeking to obtain anti-aircraft missiles to fire at Israeli warplanes that fly over Lebanese territory on reconnaissance missions.

Originally published here in heraldsun.com.au...