Speaking in London during a visit to push Israel’s case in the current conflict raging in the Middle East, the former prime minister and leader of the main opposition Likud Party, was careful not to criticise the government of Ehud Olmert, the Prime Minister.

But as a diplomatic solution to the three-week conflict gathers pace at the United Nations, he warned that the proposed French-led peacekeeping force for Lebanon could share the same fate as foreign troops in Iraq.

“The record of multi-national forces so far has been mixed one,” he told The Times.

“In Iraq a dozen nations started out and one by one they fell by the wayside as Islamic terrorists targeted the soldiers of the international force.

“Ukrainian, Spanish and Japanese mothers asked why should our sons fight and die in Iraq. This is undoubtedly a tactic that Hezbollah and its Iranian patrons will try to replicate here.”

Even if the multinational force is able to create a buffer zone in south Lebanon, Mr Netanyahu warned that it would be ineffective unless Hezbollah was disarmed and further arms shipments from Iran and Syria were halted.

“The new development that emerged in this war is the missile. If I could choose a name for it I would call it: the missile war,” he said.

The ability of Hezbollah to fire hundreds of rockets and missiles deep into Lebanon meant that the priority for Israel was to neutralise that threat.

“We could all engage in self-delusion - not for the first time in the Middle East - and say, let’s establish a ceasefire and let’s get on with it. That tactic of not looking militancy in the eye has not served the democratic world well in the 20th century, and it will not serve it well in the 21st century,” he said.

Although Mr Netanyahu refused to criticise the Israeli government, he did challenge Mr Olmert’s plans to press ahead with a partial withdrawal of Israeli forces from the West Bank, the central policy of his successful election campaign.

Mr Netanyahu said that Israel had been subjected to hundreds of rocket attacks from militant Hamas fighters since its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip last year. He said that evacuating the West Bank would allow the creation of another militant “tentacle” and lead to rocket attacks on Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Mr Netanyahu praised Mr Blair’s leadership during the crisis but criticised William Hague, the Shadow Foreign Minister, for declaring that Israel’s response to Hezbollah had been “disproportionate”.

“Blair looks to me like a leader. A leader is someone who does the right thing for his nation and for his people despite despite the cost to personal popularity. At this time Tony Blair is doing the right thing. He is not caving in to the winds of fashion. He identifies this threat to our common civilisation and he is standing up to that threat. I respect people like that, and I think over time other people will too,” he said.

He was dismissive about the Conservative Party’s more critical posture towards Israel, which he described as “bending” to fashion.

“Mr Hague is wrong,” he said. “Our response has not been disproportionate.”

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