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JERUSALEM - Some Europeans would prefer to see Israel destroyed than resort to tough diplomacy against its arch-foe Iran, an Israeli minister said today, intensifying the rhetoric over Tehran's nuclear programme.
Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman described European "political elements" as resisting a US drive for major sanctions against Iran, whose policies he likened to Nazi Germany's unchecked military expansion before World War 2.
Iran insists its atomic aspirations are peaceful, but President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has stirred war fears by calling for the Jewish state to be "wiped off the map" and questioning whether the Holocaust happened.
"There are elements in Europe that are willing to sacrifice Israel in exchange for their security, for their trade interests," Lieberman, the sole far-right member of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's centrist government, told Israel Radio.
"We have seen this phenomenon once before, in the run-up to World War 2. It is the same way they sacrificed Czechoslovakia (to German invasion and annexation) and the same way they ignored the Jews' predicament even though it was clear to all the heads of states what was happening to the Jews," he said.
European leaders have pledged to prevent Iran attaining means to make nuclear weapons. However, like Russia and China, they have often disagreed with Washington's more confrontational response to Tehran's refusal to curb its uranium enrichment. The head of the European Commission to Israel, Ramiro Cibrian-Uzal, rejected Lieberman's historical comparisons.
"We are not in the year 1933. We are in the 2007, and of course Iran is not Germany, Iran is Iran," he told Reuters.
Cibrian-Uzal said the European Union was united in seeking a negotiated solution to the stand-off with Iran. "The problem is a problem of the international community as a whole, and Israel is part of the international community," he said.
Israeli government officials have long invoked memories of World War 2 in lobbying against Iran, but generally as part of appeals for Europe not to allow a "second Holocaust". Openly accusatory comments such as Lieberman's have been rare.
Lieberman did not name specific countries or politicians, but his criticism appeared to be aimed at members of the European Union. After talks in Moscow late last month, he praised Russia for its "correct view" on how to handle Iran.
"Iran doesn't hide its intentions and Europe doesn't understand that Israel is the front line, the buffer, against extremist Islamic terrorism," Lieberman told Israel Radio.
Israel, which is believed to have the Middle East's only atomic arsenal, has hinted it could resort to military strikes to prevent Iran from breaking that monopoly. But independent analysts believe Iran's nuclear sites may be too distant, numerous and fortified for Israel's forces to take on alone.
- REUTERS
