Former Mossad chief Meir Dagan, who has more than once expressed his position that an Israeli attack in Iran would be a mistake, is reiterating his position, this time on an American network.
In an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” which will air on Sunday and of which portions were released Thursday, Dagan said, “An attack on Iran before you are exploring all other approaches is not the right way how to do it.”
According to Dagan, who spoke with Lesley Stahl, “The regime in Iran is a very rational regime.” When asked whether he thinks Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is rational, he answered, “The answer is yes. Not exactly our rational, but I think that he is rational.”
“No doubt that the Iranian regime is maybe not exactly rational based on what I call Western thinking, but no doubt they are considering all the implications of their actions,” Dagan told Stahl.
He also said he thinks it would be a mistake to make this situation an Israeli-Iranian issue, saying it should be an international issue. He said he would really like Israel to sit back and let the Americans take care of Iran.
Last month, Dagan said he does not believe a nuclear Iran would be an existential threat to Israel. The position puts him at odds with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who has referred to an Iranian nuclear bomb as an existential threat to Israel more than once.
Dagan previously said the Netanyahu government’s policies on Iran are irresponsible, and publicly warned against attacking Iran. He said that an aerial attack on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear facilities would be a “dumb idea, the stupidest thing I have ever heard.”
The Prime Minister’s Office subsequently threatened to confiscate his diplomatic passport because of his remarks.
He later said that Israel’s system of government needs an overhaul, adding senior officials were seeking to silence his opposition to striking Iran’s nuclear program.
Read more: Israel National News
{Israel National News/Matzav.com Newscenter}
If an american would say the same thing..
“Not exactly our rational, but I think that he is rational.”
To a madman, the entire world is crazy.
I agree with Mr. Dagan more than he agrees with himself. The Iranian mullahs who actually run Iran are rational by any standard, not just “middle eastern” measures. Sure, they dress funny, but have you talked to an out-of-towner who’s just come back from Willi? Some of the premises they reason from are based on religion, but so are some of ours. (Maybe they could give some of our right-wing people tips on how to disable Internet connections.)
They’re just as rational as anyone else, and they’re weighing every angle when they make their decisions. For instance, I’m sure they realize that a lot of Mr. Netanyahu’s pronouncements are probably based on a desire to influence the US elections, so as to get a Republican president who won’t object to Israel annexing the West Bank.
The only irrational people around here are those in the media, who play up every word out of politicians’ mouths as if it were monumentally important.