Israeli experts disagree on whether the Jewish state is better off with Mahmoud Ahmadinjad as Iran’s president, or with his challenger Mir-Hossein Mousavi. While Mousavi is seen as more moderate than the incumbent, many experts think this actually makes him a greater threat – because the danger he poses is harder to see. Mossad director Meir Dagan told the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee last week that “if the reformist candidate Mousavi had won, Israel would have had a more serious problem because it would need to explain to the world the danger of the Iranian threat.” As prime minister in the late 1980s, Mousavi was among the initiators of Iran’s military nuclear program, explained veteran analyst Ron Ben-Yishai in a recent article on the Hebrew language website Ynet. “He was the one who began the clandestine program for acquisition of know-how and equipment for nuclear weapons production from Pakistani scientist Abd-el Kadr Khan.” In addition, Mousavi made it clear on the eve of the recent elections that he would continue Iran’s nuclear program as President, meaning that his election probably would not cause Iran to give up its military nuclear ambition.
