Israel:Israel's chief rabbi yesterday accused Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of "trying to imitate Hitler" and urged the international community to isolate him.
"I urge the heads of state of the whole world and the United Nations to do everything possible to stop the threat that Iran poses to my people and my country," rabbi Yona Metzger said at a conference with Vatican officials in Rome.
In the past year, Mr Ahmadinejad has launched repeated verbal attacks against Israel. He has sparked international outcry by referring to the killing of six million Jews in the second World War as a "myth" and calling for Israel to be "wiped off the map".
Last month, he told delegates at a conference in Tehran that Israel's days were numbered.
Saying "inertia towards Iran is a grave sin", the head of Israel's Askenazi Jews likened Mr Ahmadinejad to the Nazi dictator. "He is trying to imitate Hitler, hurling grave warnings against the Jewish people, who find themselves under an existential threat from the leader of Iran, who is invoking the destruction of my people," he said.
"Not taking a position against a threat is worse than the threat itself." Last month the Vatican condemned the Holocaust conference held in Iran and has also condemned Mr Ahmadinejad for his various comments on Israel.
Rabbi Metzger also said the Pope, who at his weekly audience on Wednesday again urged Christians and Jews to collaborate on peace initiatives, would be welcome in Israel.
Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert last month renewed a standing invitation for the pontiff to visit the Holy Land. The first pope to go there was the late John Paul II in 2000, after leading the Vatican to forge diplomatic relations with the Jewish state.