The Israel Iran Conflict and the Dangers of Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz Starting War

In early June of this year, Israeli Minister of Transportation and Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz made an overly cavalier statement about Iran. He said that Israel really had no choice but to attack Iran if that country didn't stop producing nuclear weapons before the end of the year. Of course, this sounds like a military General in the mold of George S. Patton talking here and not a member of the Israeli government. And Mofaz may have about the same equivalent of temperament that Patton once had in speaking the blistering truth, dealing head-on with major conflicts and subsequently not caring what anybody else thought of those opinions. It seems Mofaz is one of those types and managed to offend just about everybody in Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's cabinet. The cabinet actually had to give a retraction to the press that it wasn't a consensus idea.

That doesn't mean that Mofaz still won't be a major factor into making his statement come true. Everybody in Israel knows that Mofaz has his eyes on the job of Prime Minister and that he just might get before the decade is over due to Olmert's lack of popularity. The reason that he has a good chance is because he always has the public on his side with his opinions that are almost always against how the Israeli government wants to portray themselves. Or, in other words, he just says what the Israeli government probably really feels but knows they can't say out loud without instigating the first signs of WWIII.

If Mofaz manages to become Prime Minister eventually, it's likely he'll be dealing with Iran head-on in ways that many other government leaders would avoid for obvious reasons. He already has a long history of acting this way when he was Minister of Defense under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon up until Sharon's debilitating stroke that brought Olmert in. Mofaz also held many military-related positions going back to the 1980's where his similar forceful ways were sometimes controversial.