WarSclerotic

Ya’alon: Israel Can Stop Iran – Inside Israel – News – Israel National News.

Moshe Yaalon

Flash 90

Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Strategic Affairs, Moshe Ya’alon, spoke on Sunday at a Likud Anglo event in Jerusalem. In his talk, Ya’alon spoke about the security issues Israel currently deals with.

Addressing the relatively calm security situation right now, despite the rocket barrages coming from Gaza once in a while, Ya’alon said that on the whole, terror groups such as Hizbullah, Hamas and groups based in Egypt cannot afford to attack Israel at the moment and are thus remaining relatively quiet.

Ya’alon also spoke about the peace process in the Middle East, emphasizing that Israel is not interested in signed pieces of paper and agreements which might be broken later. He added that instead, Israel is focusing on shared interests to forge alliances, noting that Israel has already developed such relationships.

He said that he believes that in time the West will lose confidence in the two-state solution, adding that the Israeli people are also being weaned off said solution.

According to Ya’alon, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is being smart about the peace process. So far, he said, the Prime Minister has not given an inch of land to the Arabs and at the same time he keeps building in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem, albeit at a slow pace. The Arabs, meahwhile, have continuously refused to concede anything and are thus laid bare, Ya’alon noted.

Ya’alon also addressed the Iranian nuclear threat, saying that if the West does not move soon enough to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear bomb, Israel will do it alone. He emphasized that Israel has the capabilities to do so.

PM: West not backing rhetoric on… JPost – Iranian Threat – News.

    Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is stepping up criticism of Western powers for ineffective sanctions against Iran, telling a Foreign Ministry gathering certain unnamed countries are not matching their tough rhetoric on Iran with a willingness to apply crippling sanctions.

The Jerusalem Post learned that Netanyahu, in a closed address Monday to Israel’s ambassadors and head of missions abroad meeting in the Foreign Ministry, said the expressed desire by certain countries, led by the US, to strengthen sanctions on Iran was “welcome and important.”

But the test of stiffening the sanctions is to take action against both Iran’s petrochemical industry and central bank, he said.

“There is no possibility of talking about crippling sanctions without these steps being taken immediately and with force,” he said.

Netanyahu said that while he didn’t know whether such “crippling” sanctions would stop Iran’s nuclear program, he was certain they would make things difficult enough for the Iranian government that it would have to reconsider its actions.

But if the sanctions were not imposed, he said, this would be interpreted by the Iranians as a sign the West did not truly have the will or intent to stop them.

Netanyahu’s National Security Council head, Yaakov Amidror, addressed the same gathering Monday, and said Israel’s “number one mission” was to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear arms.

If Iran gets the bomb, he said, it would be a different Middle East and a different world