Embassy Row

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'Never again'

An Israeli politician is warning members of Congress that his country will attack Iran within four years unless the United States or other foreign powers can stop the Islamic republic, which has vowed to destroy Israel, from developing nuclear arms or other weapons of mass destruction.

"WMDs, nuclear weapons in the hands of the Iranians will push Israel beyond all limits," Efraim Eitam, a member of the Israeli parliament's Security and Foreign Affairs Committee, told our correspondent Sharon Behn.

"Israel will have no choice but to attack in the next three to four years."

To emphasize his point, he added, "Israel will not live under a threat of nuclear weapons in the hands of Iran. If diplomatic efforts and economic sanctions, which have to be much more intensified, ... fail, then Israel will have to take action."

Mr. Eitam said the message he left with members of Congress with whom he met was that Israel, which is assumed to have nuclear weapons, will not be left in a state of nuclear standoff with Iran, similar to the policy of mutual assured destruction that kept the United States and the Soviet Union from launching first strikes during the Cold War.

"We have the memory of the Holocaust, and I told the congressmen that I met, 'Don't even think that Israel will accept some mutual deterrence like you had under the Cold War,' " he said.

Mr. Eitam, a member of the self-described right-wing National Union Party, also blamed Israel's political and military leaders for the failed war in Lebanon and assessed the likelihood of a conflict with Syria, which backs Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon.

"We were all shocked by the poor results of the [Israel Defense Forces] activity, but now we will be ready in less than a year for three major scenarios: a Gaza land operation to go after the terror infrastructure; ready for another round with Hezbollah ... [that] will bring us into some kind of engagement with Syria; [and] most important, the Iranian nuclear project," he said.

Mr. Eitam explained that threats facing Israel are rekindling thoughts of the Holocaust and the realization that Israelis might have to face those threats alone.