Chemistry Nobel Prize winner Israeli scientist Daniel Shechtman in a press conference in occupied Haifa on Oct. 5, 2011 (AFP)

Israeli scientist Dan Shechtman, a winner of the Nobel Prize for chemistry, admitted that he feels "deathly afraid" of the ultra-Orthodox, closed Haredim society, pointing out at the same time that he believes "Iran is going in the right direction."

Speaking at an event in occupied Beer Al-Sabe, Shechtman said, "Do I look down on the Haredim? I'm afraid of them," adding, "If I were disdainful, I wouldn't talk about them. I'm deathly afraid of the Haredim."

The Nobel Prize winner considered that "Israel is going in a bad direction because of demography."

Touching on the absence of education for the ultra-Orthodox Haredim sect, Shechtman continued to say that Iranians are "told to study engineering. What does this cause? Do you know how many engineers graduate in Israel every year? Less than 7,000 in all universities and colleges."

"How many engineers graduate in Iran every year? Close to a quarter of a million. Are there also women engineers in Iran? 70% of engineers in Iran are female engineers who graduate every year. Who is progressing in the world?" Shechtman indicated.

"I explained from the beginning – our demography is going in the wrong and not good direction, and we as a democracy will go and deteriorate. In the future it will not be possible to form a coalition without the ultra-Orthodox."

This comes as Israeli media recently cited diplomatic sources as saying that "Israel" is not ready to attack Iran.

The Israeli Channel 13 foreign affairs correspondent Gil Tamari, said, "A senior diplomatic source we spoke with told us that our impression of Netanyahu is that Israel is not ready now to attack Iran, and it does not have an effective military option capable of stopping the Iranian nuclear program."