Mossad's Dagan: "Ahmadinejad is a sophisticated rational person!"

"... Dagan’s reply is quite interesting.  He disagrees with her and says: Iran acts as a rational state.  It takes into account the implications of its actions [and those of others].  Therefore, it’s not in a mad dash to get a nuclear weapon.  Dayan responds: are you telling me that Ahmadinejad is a rational man [in Hebrew, she calls him a "rational goy" which is an odd, slightly racist locution]?  Dagan answers: I think he is a sophisticated individual, but his audience is not an Israeli or western one.  The Iranians are sophisticated, quite wise, and we should not make the mistake of dismissing them.

He says that for Israel enter into a regional war with its eyes open, this [going to war] should be necessary only if we are attacked or the sword is “beginning to cut the meat off living flesh.”  To Dayan’s question whether or not Israel can successfully fight a war against Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas and Syria, he concedes that it could.  But he adds: what will happen the day after?  We have to think about the high price we will have to pay for this victory.  To Barak’s foolhardy claims that there will be no more than 500 Israeli dead after such an attack, Dagan responds that the level of destruction, of paralysis of normal life in Israel, the ability to conduct an orderly society for any length of time, the price we will pay in human lives [lost] will be higher..."