Iran’s nuclear ambitions seen similar to Holocaust

JERUSALEM — Iran’s reported drive to make an atomic bomb has become an existential threat to Israel that some Israelis are likening to the Holocaust — especially with the United States appearing to back away from confrontation with Tehran.

The alarmists include Aharon Appelfeld, a leading Israeli author who as a child survived the Nazi killing of 6 million Jews.

“For the first time since I’m in the country, I feel that we face a real existential danger,” Mr. Appelfeld said.

The memory of the Holocaust is a central element in Israel’s collective consciousness, a memory made more acute by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s denial that the Holocaust happened.

“It’s 1938,” said former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “and Iran is Germany, racing to arm itself with atomic bombs.”

Addressing a Jewish audience in Los Angeles this month, Mr. Netanyahu added his voice to a growing sense of alarm in Israel about Iran’s seemingly inexorable march toward nuclear capability.

In his address, Mr. Netanyahu referred to Mr. Ahmadinejad’s repeated calls for wiping Israel off the map.

“Believe him and stop him,” Mr. Netanyahu said in the speech. “This is what we must do. Everything pales before it.”

Israel has half assumed, half hoped that if international pressure on Iran to halt its nuclear development fails, the United States would in the end use military force.

In recent weeks, however, a war-weary Washington seems to be backing away from a confrontation.

In a meeting with French President Jacques Chirac, President Bush said that he would “understand” if Israel chose to attack Iran’s nuclear installations.

To Israelis, that sounded like he would prefer it over an American attack. There was likewise little comfort from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s remark that the U.S. lacked sufficient intelligence on Iran’s nuclear facilities to carry out a strike at this time.

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger wrote recently that “military action by the United States is extremely improbable in the final two years of a presidency facing a hostile Congress.”

He, too, raised the possibility of a unilateral Israeli air strike.

Israel has apparently long been preparing such a strike. It acquired a large fleet of F-16 and F-15 warplanes and held intensive training exercises in anticipation of a confrontation with Iran.

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