Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke today following an international cartoon contest Iran staged over the weekend depicting the Holocaust.
Iran has long backed armed groups committed to Israel's destruction and its leaders have called for it to be wiped off the map.
Israel fears that Iran's nuclear program is designed to threaten its very existence. But Netanyahu says it is not merely Iran's aggressive policies that Israel opposes, but its values.
"It denies the Holocaust, it mocks the Holocaust and it is also preparing another Holocaust," he said at his weekly Cabinet meeting.