"I am not advocating an Israeli pre-emptive military action against Iran and I am aware of its possible repercussions," Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh, a former general, said in comments published Friday in The Jerusalem Post. "I consider it a last resort. But even the last resort is sometimes the only resort."
The Israelis could be the first target of a nuclear-armed Iran. They profess confidence we will do the job but their words indicate they don't think America is willing to stop Iran:
"I have enormous respect for President Bush. He is absolutely committed," Olmert said in an interview on NBC's "Today" show. "I know that America will not allow Iran to possess nuclear weapons because this is a danger to the whole Western world."
The prime minister has faith in our president being absolutely committed. I suspect his faith that America will follow through the president's commitment is more of a hope at this point.
So don't think that our failure to deal with Iran means that we can bury our heads in the sand and avoid an Iran crisis. If we can overthrow the Iranian regime, we have the hope of engineering a soft landing. If we strike Iran we have the hope of at least doing a thorough job of setting back Iran's nuclear problems while allowing Arabs to silently breathe a sigh of relief that Persian Shias won't have the bomb.
Israel doing the job means they can only mount a quick strike that won't set back Iran's nuclear program nearly as much as we can do. And the Arab nations will have to loudly oppose the strikes because Jews did it.
And while I think this is a low odds outcome, we can't rule out that Israel will conclude that their only hope of taking out Iran's nuclear capabilities is with their own nukes. The stakes are that high for them. They've vowed never again and they mean it.
Have a nice day.
