Very recently, Efraim Halevy, a former Mossad director, national security adviser and ambassador, [who spoke last night at the Shaarey Zedek synagogue on behalf of the Jewish Heritage Centre],  gave an extensive interview to David Horowitz, a very respected journalist who is the former editor of the Jerusalem Post. Horovitz  has recently began a new internet publication, The Times of Israel.

I think the interview is important for what Halevy chose to do in it, which is  to chastise Republican president Mitt Romney for his remarks on Iran.

Romney in early March penned a Washington Post article setting out how he would “check Iran’s nuclear ambition.”

Halevy told Horowitz that  in his view  Romney 's article e was “disastrous” because in essence Romney was telling the Iranians that Obama is a weak president whose threats can be ignored, whereas if Romney became president Iran would have to confront a much tougher reality.

If the Iranians believe Romney, then Halevy told  Horovitz, the first thing they’ll do is set off “full speed ahead to get a nuclear device before the fourth of November. Number one priority. By hook or by crook.”

Halevy refers to  Romney’s public positioning as " highly irresponsible talk," saying that Romney is "playing with our destiny. He’s playing with our lives.”

In the extensive interview, Halevy is asked  whether he thinks  Israel can live with a nuclear weapons-capable Iran. His response:

"I don’t think that we should countenance that as long as we can do what we can to remove it. I don’t accept the notion that Israel is destructible. but I think that if Iran retains a nuclear capability, life here is going to be very tough for a very long period to come. Israel will not disappear but Israel will go through a period which I would not like it to go through."

He also says that if the recent diplomatic talks don't go well, then he thinks Israel would have to consider an imperative for military action: "If the talks don’t go well, I think that the powers that be here would have to consider it."

Horovitz also asks Halevy to make an assessment about the consequences of a strike on Iran. He responds

"I said a few years ago that if there was such a confrontation then the effects would last for a century... Nobody can know for sure. But I am sure that the chances of an accommodation between us and our surroundings will recede for a long period of time, for scores of years – because the memory of this will not be like a month-long attack on the Gaza Strip or a month-and-a-half-long Defensive Shield (the 2002 IDF operation) into the West Bank. This is going to be major."

...The (wider issue is the) enmity between us and the region as a whole...It’s going to be a very deep-seated sentiment toward us."

...It’s not just a question of what is the body count."

I think that the entire article is worth a read and recommend it.

To read the full article, click here: http://www.timesofisrael.com/warning-iran-and-lacerating-mitt-romney-a-former-mossad-chief-steps-out-of-the-shadows/