Posted by
Cary Wesberry on Monday, September 01, 2008 6:31:46 PM
According to the lead article (in Hebrew) in the weekend edition of the Israeli daily Maariv, Israel’s top political and security officials have taken a decision to attack Iran’s nuclear program if nothing else is done to halt it.
Senior journalist Ben Caspit writes that “the debate between those who think everything must be done, including a military operation, to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb and those who think one can live with it, has been decided. If the Iranian regime doesn’t fall during the coming year, if the Americans don’t deliver a military blow and if the sanctions don’t break the Iranian nuclear program, Israel will have to take action. In other words: the preparations for an Israeli military option…are already underway.”
Caspit adds by way of explanation: “In the Tehran-Jerusalem-Washington triangle, things haven’t been going well. Israel is desperate to get American permission for an attack on Iran, but is not obtaining it…. The shortest flight route to Iran passes over Iraq, where the Americans are in control.”
Instead of the needed overflight codes, Caspit claims, the U.S. is offering Israel defensive radar—“‘We’ll help you defend yourselves, but we’ll prevent you from attacking,’ say the Americans.” That description dovetails with recent reports of opposition to a strike on Iran—Israeli or American—particularly by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell, and Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Michael Mullen. A security source told Caspit that “the Americans have accepted a nuclear Iran and are trying to get us to accept it.”
Israel, though, according to Caspit, is not about to do that, and former deputy defense minister Ephraim Sneh (now head of a new political party) has been especially active trying to get that point across. Caspit says Sneh sent a document to both U.S. presidential candidates, John McCain and Barack Obama, in which he stated: “No government in Jerusalem will accept a nuclear Iran. Once it is clear Iran is at the point of nuclearization, an Israeli military action to prevent it will be on the agenda.”
To avoid that, Sneh wrote to McCain and Obama, the time has come for an all-out U.S. effort to get Europe to cooperate in imposing “real” sanctions aimed at toppling the Iranian regime. Those sanctions, Sneh believes, would have to be a complete embargo on replacement parts for Iran’s oil and refined-oil industry and a total boycott of the Iranian banking system.
Apparently aware himself of how hard that would be to achieve, Sneh recently went to Switzerland and Austria—countries that, as Caspit notes, “have announced huge investments in Iranian gas and oil fields for the next decade.”
Caspit quotes Sneh as telling him that “words about a Holocaust of Jews or Israeli security don’t impress those folks.” So instead Sneh told them it was “too bad” about their investments, “because Iddo’s going to set it all on fire”—referring to recently appointed Israeli air force chief Iddo Nehushtan. “‘Investing in Iran in 2008,’ Sneh told the Austrians, ‘is like investing in the Krupp steelworks in 1938, a high-risk investment.’ The Austrians, according to Sneh, turned pale.”
Continue reading this article by P. David Hornik at Front Page Magazine, linked above. As quoted above, investing in Iran is now one of the more risky investments one can make "because Iddo's going to set it all on fire". Reading those statements reminds me how sad it is that Hillary Clinton was the candidate for President of the United States who spoke the strongest words against Iran attacking Israel, even going so far as to threaten Iran with a nuclear strike from our own military if she were in charge and they launched nuclear missiles at Israel.
Though John McCain and Sarah Palin are by far the most prepared to deal with a war between Iran and Israel, I'm not hearing the reassuring language of defending Israel coming out of the campaign as strong as I would like. Then again, the McCain-Palin campaign really just got started on Friday and they are both now dealing with a hurricane hitting Louisiana today.
Regardless of what America does or does not do, Israel is making it clear they are going to attack Iran before the lunatic regime has a chance to keep their promise and launch a nuclear attack on the Jews. I would say to be prepared for a drop in oil production, but we don't get our oil from Iran anyway... so bombs away! Personally, I pray for Israel to bomb Iran back to the 8th Century. That way Iran can be more consistent with the ideology running their country. Trust me, we're doing them a favor.