When the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, first threatened in 2005 to "wipe Israel off the map," there was a strong negative reaction by many world leaders.  In response to those reactions, one Iranian political leader expressed surprise, saying that there was nothing new in Ahmadinejad's statement since it represented the position of the Islamic government ever since it took over Iran in 1979.  And, indeed, the political leader was not incorrect in describing Ahmadinejad's comment as being the consistent view of the regime, though maybe not said so bluntly or by a president.

If so, why the strong reaction only then?  The answer, of course, is that earlier on such comments could be simply characterized as blustery rhetoric, since the regime had no ability to carry out such a threat.  Now, however, as Iran is in the process of building a nuclear capability, such language must be taken very seriously.

The truth is any statements calling for the destruction of a state or its people, even if there is no military force behind it, need to be taken seriously.  "Mein Kampf" was written by Adolf Hitler when he was in prison in Germany in 1925; he had no army, he had no tanks, he had no air force.  But he did lay out in some detail his plans for Germany and the Jews.  He was not taken seriously.

In 1939, only months before Hitler invaded Poland, he threatened that if war breaks out, the Jews would be taken care of.  By this time, Hitler had a war machinery that could make his ghastly goal a reality.  The world, unfortunately, woke up too late. 

Now, when more than two years have passed since Ahmadinejad's initial threat, not nearly enough has been done to show that the world is ready to go beyond condemnation to doing something to make sure Iran's plans cannot be realized.

In the days after Iran tested a number of new missiles with ranges up to 1,200 miles (striking distance to Israel), there was once again, as when Ahmadinejad threatened, an uproar in the international community.  But is there action?  Is there anything resembling sufficient action to get Iran to stop enriching uranium and stop the process, drawing closer all the time, of having a nuclear bomb that would threaten Israel, the Arabs, and ultimately the safety of the world?

Of course there have been  some steps: three stages of relatively weak U.N. sanctions, important pressure by the U.S. Treasury on European and other banks not to do business with Iran; and more recently, the European Union cut itself off from a large Iranian bank.

In truth, there is something to show from all this, but not nearly enough.  All the indications are that Iran is continuing forward and time is running short.  The gap between the limited actions taken against Iran, together with the low public pressures on governments to act and the tempo of Iran's determination to proceed in its nuclear program, is stark and dangerous.

Even in America, there seems to be a reluctance by the public to take what is going on seriously.  Partly it's a reaction to Iraq, a sense that we got ourselves unnecessarily into a war that has hurt us and cost lives and we don't want to do it again vis-à-vis Iran.  It is reminiscent of the mood after World War I, a regret that the world had blundered onto a terrible conflagration and a determination that no matter what, it wasn't going to do it again.  And so, in the face of a great evil force -- Nazi Germany -- the world went to sleep and engendered the very war they longed to avoid.

Iran is not Iraq.  Only by standing up to Iran through the strongest international pressures (as well as incentives) can we forestall the terrible day when the only choice will be either to accept a nuclear Iran, with all that could mean for Israel and the world, or seek to destroy the nuclear facilities through military initiatives.  A nuclear Iran is the worst alternative, and unacceptable, but a military approach has all kinds of negative consequences attached to it as well, including a dramatic increase in the already sky-high price of oil.

What is needed immediately in the U.S. and around the world is an educational program to make it clear that if the world doesn't act far more forcefully on the economic and diplomatic front, the choices left will be bad and worse.

Let us not live in a world of illusions as existed in Europe in the 1930s.  Standing up now offers the possibility of coming out of this unscathed.  Not doing so will lead to a situation where future historians will once again be writing, "While the World Slept."

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Abraham H. Foxman is National Director of the Anti-Defamation League and author of "The Deadliest Lies: The Israel Lobby and the Myth of Jewish Control."

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.