When Iran will distribute portable nuclear bombs to fanatics in Lebanon and in the USA, you will review your simplistic "analysis"!! The truth is that you have this left Israeli idea that peace is paramount, even at the expense of allowing Iran to have nukes. Mofaz is one of the few who knows the Iranians and who understands the real danger a nuclear Iran would be. But, rest assured, Utopian pacifist, Olmert and his group of weak ministers will not take the only action that Israel should take that is to massively bomb Iran. Nor the USA! And one day, you the writer of this article, you will complain in another article that now Hezbollah has nuclear bombs pointing to Israel and that we should have bombed Iran when it was still possible!!!

Ynet has been promoting the leftist view quite frequently i see..

While several nukes are exploded hundreds if not thousands of feet over Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jerusalem and Ashkelon, and hundreds of thousands of Jews burn like so much toast or hamburgers..AND Iran targets our 5th fleet vessels in the Gulf, who are attempting to allow oil tankers, AND the Arrow Missiles hit perhaps 10% of Iranian, Syrian, perhaps Egyptian, and the non-existent Iron Dome tries to thwart 20,000 Kassams, morters and Katys, AND the entire Arab-Muslim world mobilizes for the "Final Jihad", the "Mother of all battles", AND 1.3m Israel-Arabs raise their still hidden Hez flags, while cleaning up the remaining Jews..and Dimona is hit by Shahads..this author will then say, "I was so wrong..excuse me, I am sorry that we Jews are like the Hittites, extinct". Hitler said: if the Allies wage war, the Jewish necks will be broken. 6m Jews perished within 5 years. 2 Iranian Nukes will do the same in 20 minutes. Answer: Hit Iran's nukes now, now, now, now, now. no mercy, no regret, no apologies.

such an "analysis" without conclusions, is like a bull without balls - what's the point? if the "problem" is iranian imperialist ambitions, how do you propose to stop them? and if threats and military action aren't the solution, then what would you propose instead, unconditional surrender? without balls, a bull just a big hamburger-in-waiting.

that easy to say but what do you suggest instead?

You may now dig your head back into the sand, whilst others work to avert the nuclear threat.

Assuming that the writer is right and Iran is no threat to Israel, once Iran will have reach its objectives of power thanks to its nukes, they will turn against Israel. The writer is contradicting himself because if Iran supports and funds terror against Israel a nuclear Iran will continue to attack Israel but on a larger scale. The real truth is that Israel is already at war with Iran and that a nuclear Iran will be a stronger opponent. Israel has the tools to stop Iran nuclear program and must used them before it's too late.

Yoram Kaniuk, who knows what the explanation for irrationality is? Why does Iran threaten to 'wipe israel' from the map? Perhaps it is to divert attention from their internal struggles, but perhaps it is from the same irrational source that drove other regimes in the past. Regardless, the scary thing about your article is that you don't seem to think about this. You don't even present two sides. You just say 'this is what Iran really wants.' This is like people in 1939 saying that 'Germany really wants Czecheslovakia and Poland, but they're not interested in England, or France, or Russia, or the Jews.' This is like saying in 1990 that Saddam Hussein would never attack Kuwait because he has enough oil. How do you know? Maybe you are right, but what if you are wrong? What if you are both right and wrong - Maybe Iran does only want to control the Persian Gulf, but believes it has to get rid of Israel in order to feel comfortable enough in the region to grab the Persian gulf. Thought about that? So many possibilities, but you only present one very biased side in your article.

No one in Iran is that delusional. Even this regime. A logical analysis of the chronological chain of events since 2003 clearly indicates that the regime’s main objective is survival. Let's stop the nonsense.

All that the author said could be said of Saddam's Iraq, and now he's gone along with his terrorist Baathist regime. Iran's regime just likes to bark out loud. Saddam made the same kind of threats, yet that didn't stop us going after him. Bottom line: Iran will be dealt with one way or another. It is a matter of time. No amount of words and threats from Iran mean anything. If anything, they only demonstrate how nerve racked they are about a conflict with the devastating military force of Israel and/or the US.

"There are certainly proper ways to hinder this process.." Like what? Trying to convert the ayatollahs to catholicism? Telling Ahmadinejad that the Mahdi is not quite ready yet to come back...? Stop importing pistachio from Kerman?

Mr Kaniuk speaks neither as a strategic expert nor as someone who knows Iran and its muslims. The history of shiite antisemitism in Iran goes back a long time and Jews there were persecuted, slaughtered, and converted by muslims. Even defensless children were thrown in the air and muslim swords were held below them to catch them when they fall. Kaniuk's simplistic equations are insulting to anyone who knows the geography and topology involved. Iran is such a large country, and fanatical, that they can believe they will survive a nuclear confrontation. If a few nukes hit Israel's cities, it is basically the end of Israel, but Iran can absorb quite a few nukes, and allow a few million of its huge population to be martyred. They did this already in the conventional and not so conventional warfare with iraq for 8 years, where over 1 million were killed. Since then, the population of Iran has grown even more. There is of course, an element of bluff involved. Iran's misiles have not been proven for long range accuracy. nor is it clear if they can detonate a nuclear weapon at long range. When Hitler wrote he wishes to destroy Jewry, the kaniuk's of those days reacted like he does today - in denial. As Santayana said, he who does not learn form history is condemned to relive it.

Why do you make this absolute false accusation? The Persians are the true ancestors of that land. They are not even Arab or Muslim The Iranians are just Shiite Muslims that stole the land off the Persians. Their history is not ancient! The Ayatollah hasnt been around for that long! I refuse to allow the Iranians to steal the Persians history !

Never underestimate religious fundamentalism, especially here in the Middle East. When it comes to the theocracy of Iran, logic plays second fiddle to ideology...

He really knows what hes talking about. Pretty surprising to see an Israeli with such a great perspective. For years the Iranians have been a mere memory for the world. It seems like the world has forgotten the US imposed Iran-Iraq war, or all the economic sanctions and embargoes. Just give Iran a little respect, cut a deal, and let them live normally. Thats the only way you will see a revolution happen. The people of Iran will not support the countries which tried to starve them and imposed an 8 year war on them. The Iranian people have long understood the power of compassion and were the 1st people to introduce human rights to this world. Help the people out and the people will love to bring you into their country. After all, we are a very hospitable people =)

What Iran is determined to get is control over the flow of oil to the West. With the US out of Iraq every oil producing country from S. Arabia, the Emirates and east to Asia will fall domino effect to her control. To achieve this she has developed her long range rockets with atomic weaponry on the way. Israel is 100% a red herring because if Iran really attacked Israel it would mean attacking the only country that could reply in kind - and perhaps even harder. Iran could do without this. So all this talk against Israel is a boxer's feint. It is also a familiar warfare tactic to make the enemy think you are about to attack in one direction and actually attack where the other side is not prepared. So Ahmadinejad prays for Obama. His prayers will probably be answered. In the meantime most of Europe and all the Gulf States are hoping Israel will attack and do the dirty work for them. I'm glad that's not going to happen.

I almost stopped reading the article when I read a personal attack in the first paragraph. Seeing the second jibe I concluded that the article was written to attack Mofaz and that the Iranian content was merely a platform. The writer should reread his articles and check if they contain a pettiness which undermines them. Mike

We should fight and beat to the ground the Hizbullah first and then Hamas, so that when we will have to deal with Iran the north front and the south front are pacified. Hamas continue to insist they are never going to recognize Israel and never going to make peace. So what is there to talk about with them? It is evident that negotiating with Hamas and Iran cannot lead anywhere. Hizbullah's strengthening in Lebanon means that Israel's mortal enemy, Iran, has a stronger presence on Israel's northern border. Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Gillerman explained, "Weapons are flowing to Hizbullah, Lebanon is being torn apart and is bleeding... Iran is on our northern border, and, to some extent, on our southern border as well." The civilization of Islamic Iran : http://xrl.us/biz87

Nuclearization of Iran must be discussed in the context of the Islamic Revolution, which was dubbed by Ayatollah Khomeini not merely as a domestic anti-Shah upheaval in Iran, but as a global Islamic movement designed to extricate Islam from its submissive torpor and launch it to prominence as a world power. In this pursuit, Iran has become one of Israel’s most vehement enemies, framing its grievances around religious doctrine and anti-Semitic invective, making conflict with the Jewish state all the more insoluble. Indeed, injecting these elements into an already difficult political situation makes finding solutions seemingly impossible due the absolute demands made by defenders of their faith who refuse to negotiate or compromise as described at : http://xrl.us/bizzs

Is anyone thinking how and when a war with Iran will end. By bombing Iran, we start a war we could not end. Israel we will become the testing ground for every future Shihab from now to the next 30 years....

all israelis pack up there rags they came to palestine with and go back to your origenal home land , and your life will be spared ........

Iran is not interested in Israel, only tries to keep oil prices as high as possible Take Venezuellian Presiden Chavez He is not Mullah or Iranian, no religious motive, but still a showman frequintly bursting as if there is a war near against USA, He frequently treaten to stop oil exports to USA, in fact he is lapdog of US oil companies and enemy of third world countries sucking them by high oil prices and collaborator of US oil companies in robbing rest of the world Iran is only a little different, has some rightfull and justfied reasons but most of the noise comes from the same motivation:Rising oil prices Mofaz is also an oily minister, by his position related to oil companies and assistant player in harmony with IRAN,

My friend, I am a Persian and have many close Jewish relatives. None of the things you claim is accurate. I am sure there have been discriminations (against Jews and others, including Muslims, ethnic minorities, etc.) and I am sure there are many sick people there. But it is wrong of you to categorically demonize a nation by a bunch of lies. Jews have been living in Iran for thousands of years.

Easy to say, from the safety of the West Coast of the U.S. Lace them up every day over here and you might sing a different tune. My apartment building doesn't even have a functioning shelter, and if you saw the pics from Haifa 2 years ago, you'd see a fraction of what Iran could do to us. There is no military solution to ANY problem. All you do is postpone things.