SEND IN THE LAWYERS

See You in Court, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - Adi Schwartz
Next month, a new element will be introduced into the discussions about the international community's attitude toward Iran, which is becoming a nuclear power. A group of Israelis, headed by former UN ambassador Dr. Dore Gold, recently completed the composition of a lawsuit to be referred to the International Criminal Court in The Hague against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, for incitement to genocide in violation of the 1948 UN Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. According to the convention, "direct and public incitement to committing genocide" is a criminal offense, with genocide defined as an activity "committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group." "The time has come to go on the legal attack," says Gold.

"It is easy to imagine what would happen if Israel announced that it desired to destroy another country," says Meir Rosenne, former legal adviser to the Foreign Ministry and Israeli ambassador to France and the U.S. "Sanctions against it would be applied immediately. Were the threat only theoretical, we could live with it. But we are talking here about a country of about 70 million people, which is increasingly arming itself, and in addition is arming organizations that it sponsors, such as Hizballah, which are acting directly against Israel." ( Ha'aretz)

"Ahmadinejad Would Sacrifice Half of Iran to Wipe Out Israel" - David Horovitz
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, if he ever became the supreme decision maker in his country, would "sacrifice half of Iran for the sake of eliminating Israel," Giora Eiland, Israel's former national security adviser, said Thursday. At present, the ultimate decision-maker in Iran was Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 67, but "if Ahmadinejad were to succeed him - and he has a reasonable chance of doing so - then we'd be in a highly dangerous situation." The Iranian president "has a religious conviction that Israel's demise is essential to the restoration of Muslim glory, that the Zionist thorn in the heart of the Islamic nations must be removed, and he will pay almost any price to right the perceived historic wrong. If he becomes the supreme leader and has a nuclear capability, that's a real threat." ( Jerusalem Post)

Israel Feels U.S. Will Not Attack Iran - Yaakov Katz, Herb Keinon, and Nathan Guttman
There is growing consensus within the Israeli defense establishment that the U.S. will not attack Iran, and that Israel might be forced to act independently to stop the Islamic republic from obtaining nuclear weapons, a high-ranking defense official said Thursday. According to sources within the defense establishment, the Bush administration does not have political support for launching a strike against Iran's nuclear sites. ( Jerusalem Post)