“We’re talking about spilling a drop of ink and not a drop of blood,” former Israeli deputy defence minister Ephraim Sneh said last week in advocating immediate sanctions when asked what needs to be done to stop Iran from becoming a nuclear power.

Ephraim Sneh

Sneh was speaking on an April 12 conference call hosted by The Israel Project (TIP), a Washington, D.C.-based, non-profit think-tank and pro-Israel advocacy group.

The call took place on Yom Hazikaron and during last week’s U.S.-hosted nuclear security summit in Washington. The summit’s goal was to discuss and fast-track international sanctions against countries who threaten nuclear terrorism, particularly Iran.

Sneh, a former Labor MK and current head of the Israel Hazaka party, cautioned his listeners – composed chiefly of U.S. media – that stringent, hard-hitting, U.S.-led economic sanctions must be implemented right away in order to deter Iran’s nuclear ambitions and foment a brewing internal revolution that would likely depose the dictatorial Iranian regime.

Barring these actions, Sneh said, Israel would have to consider taking action against Iran before it became an “unacceptable” existential threat to the Jewish state.

This will happen sooner than later, he added.

“The main lesson of the Holocaust is that we cannot ignore the combination of a regime with an ideology of hatred combined with a colossal military build-up. This is what happened in Germany with Hitler, and what is going on now with [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad,” he said.

“Israel is a country that cannot live even one day under the shadow of an Iranian nuclear bomb, because a reality will be created that Israel will no longer serve as a safe haven to Jews and as a state with excellence of entrepreneurship. We will suffer a brain drain.”

He said Iran continues to build centrifuges that will allow it to have enough  highly enriched uranium to create a bomb.

“If something is done soon to stop Iran’s [nuclear enrichment program] or to topple its regime, [Israel] will be compelled to do something. This is the main thing I would like the people of the U.S. to understand,” said Sneh, a physician who has served as Israel’s minister of health and as minister of transportation.

Asked whether he thought the U.S. would impose harsh sanctions in time, Sneh said “this is the big question.” He said America has the legislation ready and could do something if the political will was there.

“It’s a matter of understanding there is no more time to waste. Iran’s centrifuges keep spinning,” he said. “There is no change in [Israel’s] attitude that Iran is close to reaching the point of no return.”

In his talk, Sneh said Iran may produce enough fissile material for a nuclear bomb by September.

Speaking about the threat of terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah – both supported by Iran – Sneh said these organizations would become emboldened in their activities if Iran became a nuclear power.

He said the current Iranian regime is based on a “visceral hatred not only of Israel” but of all democratic societies.

Sneh said he doesn’t consider a military attack on Iran to be a first option. “It’s the last resort. We need to avoid this. We can take sanctions that are cheap and bloodless.

“If companies all over the world knew that if they invest in the Iranian oil and gas industry, or sell refined petroleum products to Iran… that they would never again be able to do business in the U.S., the U.K., Australia, France or Canada, this is a threat that no sane executive in the world would take. By doing so, we may bring about the implosion of the Iranian regime. And let me be frank: the purpose of sanctions is not just to avoid Iranian nuclear bombs. It’s to get rid of this horrible regime, which is cruel and brutal at home and spreading terrorism abroad.”

In conclusion, Sneh said the West needs to appeal to all Middle Eastern countries who don’t want to be “slaves to Iran’s nuclear blackmail empire,” such as Bahrain, Oman, the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf states. He said as soon as “real” sanctions are declared by the United States, all these countries should also join the initiative.

But he warned that the world shouldn’t “push Israel into a corner where we have no other option” but to act against Iran.