Mofaz: PM ‘overplaying’ Iran threat

Shaul Mofaz, the newly elected leader of the Kadima opposition party, attacked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Thursday for being untrustworthy.

“Netanyahu is not to be trusted,” Mofaz said in an interview on Channel 2, and added that the PM is “inflating” the Iranian nuclear threat on Israel to serve his political goal of staying in office.

“There is still time to deal with Iran,” Mofaz said and made it clear that in his opinion the US should be the country to lead the campaign to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. However, referring to a potential strike on Iranian facilities, he noted that if the US doesn’t act “at the right time,” then he will support any Israeli leader who does resort to force if the need to do so becomes unavoidable.

“We can’t scare the Israeli public every morning with the Iranian threat,” Mofaz told Channel 10 in another interview. “The operational debate on this issue should not be held in the media but behind closed doors.”

The former defense minister and deputy prime-minister also declared his intention to focus on social issues raised during the social justice demonstrations last year that, he said, are not being addressed by the Netanyahu government.

“Netanyahu was born with a silver spoon in his mouth,” Mofaz said. “He doesn’t understand and he wasn’t there during all the social issues [demonstrations].”

Although Mofaz stated he wants his political rival and ousted Kadima leader MK Tzipi Livni to remain in the party, he refused to comment on whether or not he would give her the number two spot on the party list.

“I want Kadima to work as a team,” is all he would say on his future plans for the party.