Ya'alon: Ahmadinejad threat as severe as Hitler's

Former IDF chief of staff says military confrontation will be unavoidable if Iran not stopped using diplomacy.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
The international community must deal with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as it dealt with Adolf Hitler, former chief of General Staff Moshe Ya'alon said Sunday. "We in the West are in the same situation, indecisiveness in the face of a threat that is no less severe than the threat Hitler posed in 1938-39," Ya'alon told Israel Radio. "We can still stop Iran with diplomatic and economic means, but if that doesn't work, a military confrontation will be unavoidable," he said, adding pessimistically that "the writing is on the wall." He went on to describe his successor Dan Halutz's term as "a tragedy." "You cannot run an army with thought control, it is a sure recipe for failure," he said. Ya'alon compared the Second Lebanon War to the Yom Kippur War, saying that in both conflicts, the leadership failed. He also slammed the Kadima primary, saying it was "another proof that the media chooses prime ministers in Israel."