JERUSALEM, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- Tensions are rising between Israel and Iran after Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called the Holocaust "a myth."
Ahmadinejad has been steadily escalating his anti-Israel rhetoric since he was elected in June, the Boston Globe reported.
His remarks on the Holocaust last week came a day after a top Israeli military official declared that Iran is on pace to acquire the ability to enrich uranium as soon as March, the newspaper said.
Israeli analysts say Ahmadinejad's comments are part of a campaign to rally Arab support ahead of a new round of talks with Britain, France and Germany over Iran's nuclear plans.
The Iranian president's remarks repeatedly have painted Western countries as blind supporters of Israel that created the Holocaust "myth" as a pretext for creating a Western-friendly Jewish state in a largely Arab and Muslim region.
Some Israeli politicians have issued their own sword-rattling statements about Iran in recent weeks, the newspaper said. Benjamin Netanyahu of the right-wing Likud party pledged recently to "follow the policy of (Menachem) Begin," the Israeli prime minister who authorized airstrikes that destroyed Iraq's nuclear reactors at Osirak in 1981.
