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I would say that he is close, but incorrect. Iran is not like pre-war Germany, it is like pre-war Japan. In fact, the parallels are striking.

1) The typical Iranian on the street knows that his country should be a world power. The Japanese felt the same way, looking for "their place in the sun". Both were also mistaken as to how they should achieve this power, through aggression.

2) Both blame the United States for "keeping them down". In the case of Japan is was the US dominating the Pacific, and interfering with Japan's efforts to get both oil and steel. And both felt if they can just get the US out of their neighborhood, they would utterly dominate their region.

3) They both understand that a primary target must be at least one US aircraft carrier fleet, hopefully more. (This makes the two fleets in the Gulf right now almost an irresistible target. Since Iran cannot destroy any more than that, much of their strategy is to keep other US carriers out of the region.)

4) Unlike Japan, the Iranians have an additional problem. Once again, the typical Iranian on the street has unrealistic expectations about what having a nuclear weapon will do for his country. They equate it with instant respect, that other nations must do what you say, and that you are instantly "in the club" of world powers.

The parallels continue from there, not that it should be any more reassuring to the Israelis, any more than the Japanese threat was to the Koreans and Chinese.

Thanks, that is a very interesting assessment. I recall some of those same national characteristics being attributed to India, before their entrance into the nuclear club.

Fortunate for us, Hinduism isn't a blood-thirsty totalitarian belief system bent on global domination.

I think the primary concern is denial of Iran's intentions by the West. By 1938 Japan had already been at war throughout Asia, and there was no doubt as to its ultimate intentions. With Germany, however, her European neighbors acted as if they each thought if they were just cooperative enough, Hitler's appetite would be sated before he got to them. Even Poland cozied up to Hitler to snack on the remains of Czechoslovakia-- right before they got swallowed up themselves.

It is the denial of the danger that is salient here--and Bibi is playing the role of Churchill, who began to warn the world in 1934, but was ridiculed and ignored by the "realists" who figured that just a little bit of appeasement could buy them "peace in our time."