Interesting Week

Alternatives To Attack On Iran Running Out
Jun 6 03:36 AM US/Eastern

An Israeli deputy prime minister on Friday warned that Iran would face attack if it pursues what he said was its nuclear weapons programmed.

"If Iran continues its nuclear weapons programmed, we will attack it," said Shaul Mofaz, who is also transportation minister.

"Other options are disappearing. The sanctions are not effective. There will be no alternative but to attack Iran in order to stop the Iranian nuclear programmed," Mofaz told the Yediot Aharonot daily.

He stressed such an operation could only be conducted with US support.
A former defense minister and armed forces chief of staff, Mofaz hopes to replace embattled Ehud Olmert as prime minister and at the helm of the Kadima party.

Military Operation In Gaza?

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Friday raised the specter of a full-scale military operation in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip despite Egyptian attempts to mediate a truce.

"According to the information as it is now, the pendulum is much closer to tough military action," Olmert told journalists on arrival in Israel following a three-day trip to the United States.

His comments came a day after a man was killed in southern Israel in a mortar attack claimed by the armed wing of Hamas, the Islamist movement that has run Gaza since it ousted forces loyal to secular Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas a year ago.

But Olmert also suggested that the door to a negotiated truce was not completely closed.

He said his government was still considering whether to avoid getting "into a violent and hard conflict with the terror organizations in Gaza" or to launch "operations that would be much more aggressive and hard."
Israeli forces launched several raids after Thursday's attack.