Israel’s foreign minister and former head of Mossad say Iranian nuclear weapons would not pose an existential threat to Israel

November 22, 2007 9:09 am henrymunsonjr Iran and Israel

Leon Hadar, Look Who’s Downplaying Iran’s Nuclear Threat, AW, 11/22/2007

Indeed, according to a report published in Israel’s Ha’aretz newspaper, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said a few months ago in a series of closed discussions with other top Israeli officials that in her opinion Iranian nuclear weapons “do not pose an existential threat to Israel” (Ha’aretz, “Livni behind Closed Doors,” October 25, 2007). In their report, which received very little attention in the United States, Gidi Weitz and Na’ama Lanski noted that “Livni also criticized the exaggerated use that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is making of the issue of the Iranian bomb,” claiming that he was “attempting to rally the public around him by playing on its most basic fears.” Mmm … sound familiar?

Ha’aretz also reported in October that former Mossad Chief Efraim Halevy told an audience that even if Iran acquired nuclear weapons, it would not pose an “existential” threat to Israel. During a lecture last month in Jerusalem, Halevy – who, like Livni, is regarded as a “hawk” on Israeli security – said that “the State of Israel cannot be destroyed” if Iran went nuclear. He also called on the government to follow Washington’s lead and offer Iran a diplomatic option as part of a strategy to foil Tehran’s nuclear plan.

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