And in our effort to talk to the mullahs, we have failed to support Iran's protesters in their long conflict with the regime. But that's another story.
So here we are on Christmas Eve and the year is nearing an end. The Iranians have ignored our latest deadline to respond to our outreach. Hope and change, it is clear, does not translate well into Farsi.
Israel's Netanyahu wants the opposition party in a unity government:
Israel's hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked centrist opposition leader and former foreign minister Tzipi Livni on Thursday to join his government, his office said.
"The prime minister asked Mrs Livni to join a national unity government ... in the face of the national and international challenges facing Israel today," a statement said.
The focus of the article is on the Palestinian issue, but the statement says Israel faces international challenges, as well.
The biggest international challenge continues to be Iran's progress toward getting the capability to do something about Israel's status as a "one-nuke state"--that is, a single atomic strike could cripple geographically compact Israel.
Israel can't do the job as well as we can. But Israel has far more incentive to not risk counting on deterrence to hold off an Iranian atomic strike. I still think Israel has the assets to give it a shot.
Is a national unity government setting the stage for an Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear infrastructure next year?
