January 22, 2007
James Woolsey: Israel should have made a move against Syria during the last confrontation
Former CIA director James Woolsey addressed the Herzliya Conference today and discussed the Iranian, Syrian and Islamist threats to Israel and to the west.
Woolsey stated that: “the problems are distinct – in Iraq, Syria, Iran and Lebanon – but the common denominator is the Islamist totalitarianism”.
Regarding the Iranian nuclear program Woolsey commented: “Iran is not remotely interested in nuclear power for electricity. The destruction of Israel is not the policy of Iran, but its essence…Achieving weapons of mass destruction is part of this essence”. He added that much in the same way, Hitler’s policy and essence was that of anti-Semitism.
Woolsey said that a U.S. or Israeli attack on Iran is a bad scenario but the worst would be to allow a nuclear Iran. He also said that Israel should have made a move against Syria during the last war and that the U.S. should have supported such a move.
In the same panel at the conference former I.D.F. Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. (Res.) Moshe Ya’alon remarked that: “we must think outside the box of the two state settlement and we must stop promoting solutions in this framework”. He added that democratization does not begin and end with elections but with education that leads to elections.
This panel also included Princeton Prof. Bernard Lewis, who said that the region will not achieve equilibrium if Iran becomes a nuclear power: “mutual assured destruction is not a deterrent but an inducement”.
The panel was part of the second day of the Herzliya Conference on the Balance of Israel’s National Security, which is organized by the Institute for Policy and Strategy at IDC, Herzliya.
For further details:
Yonatan Beker, Conference Foreign Press Coordinator – 054-6404225
Jeremy Ruden, IDC Deputy Spokesperson – 052-4070775
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