IAF Commander Maj.-Gen. Eliezer Shkedy made a pointed comparison Thursday between Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.

Shkedy, the son of a Holocaust survivor, hinted that Israel may have to "go it alone" against Iran, in a speech before a gathering of foreign military attachés military at the Masuah Institute for Holocaust studies. He said there that vis-à-vis Iran, Israel can "trust no one but itself."

'Subconscious Holocaust Story'
"Everyone has a personal and family Holocaust story. They are all more or less similar," Shkedy told Voice of Israel government radio after the speech. "Each of us has a story like that, which accompanies him everywhere. It is in your subconscious and in everything that you do."

"It is important to me that these things be understood and be well known," Shkedy said. "I am convinced that we have to look at reality with our eyes wide open," he told the radio station's military affairs correspondent, Carmela Menashe.

IAF Commander Maj.-Gen. Eliezer Shkedy.
IAF Amuta

Matching Iranian, German Quotes
In the interview, Menashe noted that Shkedy had presented his audience with matching quotes
'It is simply inconceivable that a person in the present century allows himself to stand before the entire world and say these things.'
from Hitler and Ahmadinejad.

"The quotes are not… from the same periods of history," Shkedy told her, "but still, we need to take things seriously and not underestimate things that are said. People who say [these things] in a harsh, clear, continuous manner… I think we have to understand that there is a more than realistic possibility that they mean it."

Shkedy went on to explain: "This is a little simplistic, but if you read the things as they are, without resorting to any special translation or going especially deep into things, it is just unbelievable. It is simply inconceivable that a person in the present century allows himself to stand before the entire world and say these things. I think it is incomprehensible."

The statement by Shkedy could be seen as one of the most potent warnings to the Iranian regime to date, that Israel is serious about forestalling its nuclear ambitions. Recent hints to the same effect were made by former Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz at the Herzliya Conference, where former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton encouraged Israel to act on its own, too.

The IAF's aircraft and armament are reviewed in the IAF's website.