How to Measure the Arab War on Israel and Beyond

 

The easiest summation of intent is vocalized every Friday in the waning hours of the afternoon in Tehran and Qom, Esfahan and Bam, Shiraz and Tabriz, Mashhad and Yazd, Zahedan and Ali-Sadr when after their deep devotion sworn to Allah said in their Mosques they gather together after their prayers and as a community chant “Death to Israel” over and over and over and along with their Death to Israel, no demonstration would be complete without the accompanying “Death to America” chanted right alongside; but that is just something they chant and has no actual intent in their words, none at all as the media has quoted their leaders promising the leaders of the United States they mean them no actual harm, it is just an exercise. Unfortunately there have been no such reassurances given to Prime Minister Netanyahu or any MK in the Knesset, not even MK Tibi or MK Zoabi who one would think they might be somewhat more attuned to as they are both Arabs and anti-Zionists, but no assurances at this end. But Iran is not a problem because President Obama has addressed the possible nuclear weapons program with an inspired deal which will bring results far beyond anything his skeptics claim are the shortcomings. That will be then and I am more concerned with the now, so let the Iran deal sort itself out and allow the United States and the American electorate elect people in the upcoming 2016 election who might actually know about foreign policy and have a cogent and coherent plan and a Congress which will back that vision; until then let us address that now which I am more concerned about.

 

For those who are my regular readers please bear with me a moment as I review some of the things we’ve discussed this past few weeks and months. There has been a slow and steady ramping of the levels and severity of terror attacks by Arabs that the media refers to as Palestinians in the Judea, Samaria, Benyamin, East Jerusalem, Old City and let us not forget the only violence the media has cared or even bothered to report on, the Temple Mount, though their coverage has been slanted in one of the most ingenious and perverse manner possible making the victims the cause and the violent agitators the unfortunate victims with no choice beyond the route they have taken, something we will try and clarify to some extent but there are more dangerous and vitally important messages which need to be communicated as the mainstream media refuses to report the entire news. The latest development this past week was the declaration made at the United Nations by Mahmoud Abbas the day before the “Palestinian Flag” was added to the national flags raised in the front of the United Nations, the world’s highest legal body, declared that the Palestinian Authority was no longer obliged to follow or be restricted or concerned with the Oslo Accords. He then challenged the world to gift him the independent state he was all but declaring with the boundaries he will never spell out so publically but would lead to a defenseless Israel or a completely replaced Israel with the world signing off. The truth of his denial of being covered or under the obligations of the Oslo Accords may have a number of ramifications that I am hopeful there are those in the world willing to enforce the real situation of Abbas walking away from any obligations and giving up any coverage by abrogating Oslo Accords. As far as the United Nations taking any action, forget about it. The Security Council has more than sufficient veto wielding members which will desire to protect their long history of investing in Yasser Arafat and after him Mahmoud Abbas to permit anything to interfere with their influence and “friend” in the Middle East just to protect Israel, the one and only Jewish State. And as far as the General Assembly is concerned, which has in the past five years censured or condemned Israel with its own votes or the votes of its many tendrils, with the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is beyond all others in these efforts; they have not even considered anything against Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, China and Russia combined. Well, so much for the objectivity of the United Nations and its tendrils.

 

This makes the declaration of the Palestinian Authority into existence no longer valid and the entity of the Fatah Party as nothing more than a fascinating concept used by the Oslo Accords to give the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) a political cloak of respectability and incorporated this entity as the ruling political entity in the forming of the Palestinian Authority. Finally, without the Oslo Accords there is no Palestinian Authority, no Fatah, and the PLO is now also no longer a protected and scrubbed entity and has returned to being nothing beyond what it always was, a terrorist organization, nothing less. Since this declaration of the intent to return to their terrorist past and no longer hiding behind the Oslo Accord cloak of approval there was the murder in cold blood with automatic weapons and handguns peppering the bodies of Eitam Naama Henkin with their four youngest children in the backseat witnessing the entire blood sacrifice by two Arab Palestinians who then fled into a neighboring Arab community with authorities tracking down those responsible. A witness spoke of the father riddled with bullets managing to get out of the car and open the rear door and telling his children to run before collapsing. The children aged four, seven and nine years were taken into another Israelis car and informed them of their youngest four months was still in the vehicle and they retrieved the final child.

 

Over this weekend there were a number of rock throwing, Molotov cocktails, fireworks fired, shootings, stabbings and other assaults too numerous to count with at least four deaths in the past week and this is just the opening few days of the final intifada which was actually declared and instigated some time back, when exactly cannot be set as it is a ramping of violence until Israel will respond and then there will be the cries of disproportional force by Israel. Well, what exactly was the situation with two young parents with a car full of young children when facing murderers with assault rifles and handguns, the stabbing victims who were unarmed and all the other victims for the past years when facing terrorists unarmed, or facing unruly mobs screaming and even striking, kicking, cursing, spiting and other insults and if they react at all the security on the Temple Mount arrests the Jews as the Jordanian Waqf has jurisdiction over the Temple Mount and they have declared that no Arab can ever commit a crime on the Temple Mount and every Jews setting foot on the Temple Mount is to be considered a criminal just because of their presence. The days after the Eitam Naama Henkin were murdered there was great commotions with dancing, candies handed out, singing and shooting rounds into the air in numerous Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem and the Palestinian areas celebrating their brave warriors and their glorious victory in their hard won fight against two unarmed Israelis as even unarmed an Israeli must be that much of a threat that they need to be shot multiple times simply driving home after visiting friends.

 

It is obvious even to the most casual of observers that Mahmoud Abbas used his address at the General Assembly to openly declare open warfare against Israel. The ensuing week has produced sufficient carnage and escalated violence to prove that a declaration of war was exactly what Abbas intended and is the reality Israel is facing, open warfare. Mahmoud Abbas might believe that now is the best time to attempt to ramp up confrontations with Israel as Europe will probably not be all that attentive as they are facing their own Arab refugee problem with thousands upon thousands of refugees flocking across the face of Europe and attempting to find their golden spot to settle in and enjoy all the benefits that European Socialism has to offer. The one thing which will be in the Arabs favor is that, by all appearances, Prime Minister Netanyahu appears to be overly sensitive when it comes to potentially ending up on the wrong side of President Obama and Israel defending themselves from Arab violence seems to aggravate President Obama. Perhaps Prime Minister Netanyahu should write a song of woe using the words “Rifle shots to the east of us, Rockets to the West and we’re stuck in the middle without you.” I doubt even with a song and a dance Prime Minister Netanyahu could get President Obama to sign on to any act that Israel might choose to utilize to address the heightened violence from the PLO in the east and the increasing rockets being launched from Gaza in the West.

 

On the other hand, this might be the perfect time for Abbas to declare war on Israel before problems get too heated in Europe as the invasion begins to explode in their faces and they start experiencing the problems which are sure to arise when the refugees realize that Europe will not be providing the panacea of privileges and support long term for them and start expecting the refugees to normalize themselves into the society. This will run afoul once the instigators who have been injected into the ranks intermingled with the refugees and what their numbers are is a complete mystery. Islamic State has announced that they intended to inject some of their own ranks to infiltrate Europe and who knows how many IRGC, Hezballah or other terror entities as this is probably the greatest opportunity as much of Europe has opened their borders or have been less than effective in keeping the refugees out of their borders, well, with a few choice exceptions who are being scolded by those nations with the open borders. It is almost like they are demanding to share the threats and misery which will result from this influx of refugees, especially when it becomes proven beyond any doubt that many of the refugees are not from Syria.

 

The last theory is that the Arab Palestinians are actually timing their ramping from all across Judea, Samaria, Benyamin and Jerusalem from the east with the PLO terrorists while Hamas and Islamic Jihad are escalating their rocket attacks from the west potentially in concert with directives from Iran so as to present Israel with sufficient problems while the infiltrators injected in with the refugees in order to conduct terrorist activities or even to lay wait for further instructions possibly to instigate down the road should the refugees not adjust or European hospitality not quite live up to expectations, something already occurring at some borders such as Hungary and a few other mostly eastern European nations which were originally behind the Iron Curtain. Should terrorism continue to rise in Israel including the threats be carried out for more intentional firings across the Golan Heights into the norther Galilee once again turning the heights into a shooting gallery and potentially requiring the deployment of Iron Dome units in the north. This is being threatened by the IRGC and Hezballah as a means of internationalizing the Syrian debacle and also as an attempt to force other Arab or Muslim nations to support Bashir al-Assad as he will claim that of all the forces fighting in Syria only he and his allies are attempting to fight the real enemy, Israel. With the recent news that numbers of the older T-55 and T-72 tanks, at the least seventy-five, to Hezballah presumably to fight against the Islamic State but the real target we all know is for use against Israeli armor and infantry. Add to that the latest threats from Islamic Jihad to resume suicide murders using human bombs.

 

 

 

Whatever happens across the world, which by all appearances has entered some alternate reality where common sense and any proportionality of problems has been skewed, it is targeting Israel, which is no surprise, but also targeting Europe and potentially the United States. As there is an abundance of refugees which will surpass the potential for Europe to have sufficient treasuries, infrastructure, housing, employment or other means of preventing the entirety of the refugees to simply settle down and live off the social safety net, a system which has served as the last ditch funding for those Europeans who have hit the hardest of times, and was not designed to accommodate tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands or even millions (that’s thousands of thousands) influx of destitute refugees. The stretching of European goodwill beyond the breaking point is likely to place Europe into an economic death spiral and sending the excess thousands or even millions to the United States will only exacerbate the problem by targeting another nation with the same social overload crisis. That leaves the question as to what will the Europeans do should the refugees become ungrateful and demand more or threaten violence which can only be pushed back for a brief period because acquiescing will only be seen as a weakness which will entice the rabble-rousers to demand more and more until they cross a line which should have never been approached and the Europeans decide it is time for the refugees to head eastward and find some accommodating Islamic nation to house them or face the wrath of a Europe stung once again leading to a greater conflagration. Once Europe explodes nobody will care what Israel must do and that is why Abbas may have had bad timing but had no choice as well. The immediate future will be reported as the caring and great Christian heart, or socialist dream being realized by all, and in a period of time the reporting will become more edgy eventually leading to reporting violence and a growing inflammation spreading across Europe aimed at the refugees demanding they return to their native lands or else, and never question a European about or else as they invented the Inquisition and specialize in World Wars. Irritating Europe has always ended poorly for all involved and with the current state of weaponry the world may not survive another world at war, honest.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Israel Isolation Right Around the Corner

 

Entire Edited for ease of Reading Transcript of Iran Nuclear Agreement with the P5+1 Group

 
It comes as no surprise that the vast majority of Israelis as well as Prime Minister Netanyahu are about as far from pleased as a people can be, one might even claim spitting mad, over the agreement with Iran. It is equally unsurprising that the White House, especially the man at the top, President Obama, has passed to the media their stated understanding of the Israeli’s position and dislike but at the same time claim there was no other alternative. There have been claims and innuendo that Israeli disagreement will only sow the seeds of disrespect; not for President Obama, he’s close to perfect; not for the Iran deal, it is perfect; not for the European Union or the European backers of this deal, they’re perfectly blameless as the White House and State Department perfected the deal; not Secretary of State Kerry, he worked like a dog even when relegated to standing on one leg to get the deal, that was even before his accident; not for the negotiating team, their being made up in part with the same core members from the North Korea fiasco under President Clinton, they assure us they did not make the same mistakes, only new ones; definitely not the Iranians who, according to the White House and European leaders, are without blame or even blemish; not those leftists claiming that if the world would just show Iran’s leaders a modicum of respect, then the Iranian leadership would respect their obligations under the deal, thus it is the doubters fault should Iran break the deal; plus lastly not President Obama himself, he’s worked his fingers to the bone and even ran his pen out of ink and made so many calls to get such a good deal that his phone is out of minutes through 2037, sometime in early March; all the blame has come as a result of Israel, especially Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, expressing their doubts, their concerns, their admonitions all of which caused this injection of negative karma placing an ominous shroud, a kind of voodoo spell, over the proceeding which almost resulted in the death to any deal. This is coming mostly from the leftist Democrats in academia, the media and in the White House and their ‘fearless’ (I prefer gearless or clueless or both, I can be generous) leader who have all cast their lots against Israel.

 

Unsurprisingly, late in the document and placed after the lists of dropped economic, military, trade and other sanctions and listing each unfrozen fund and other assets all listed singularly comes “D. Nuclear Safety, Safeguards and Security” which appears in this obscure location such as nobody would have the fortitude and gut instincts to suspect there was anything after the lists, surprise. The section starts casually mentioning the obvious stating what seems as innocent as can be and would not have resulted in any serious concerns. It simply stated:

“E3/EU+3 parties, and possibly other states, as appropriate, are prepared to cooperate with Iran to establish a Nuclear Safety Centre in Iran, engage in workshops and training events in Iran to support interactions between Iranian nuclear regulatory authorities and those from the E3/EU+3 and elsewhere to, among other things, share lessons learned on establishing and maintaining regulatory independence and effectiveness, and training on implementing nuclear safety culture and best practices; facilitate exchanges and visits to nuclear regulatory authorities and nuclear power plants outside of Iran focusing on best practices for safe operation; and enhance and strengthen domestic emergency preparedness and severe accident management capability.
Provide support and assistance to enable Iran to join relevant conventions on nuclear safety and security, e.g. through workshops or seminars furthering accession to such commitments. Such workshops or seminars could also take place under the auspices of the IAEA.”

The agreement then goes beyond the cusp and into the Twilight Zone with this list of promises to provide expertise as required or requested in the form of assistance stating the obligation:

E3/EU+3 parties, and possibly other states, as appropriate, will co-operate with Iran in the following areas of nuclear safety, as well as in other areas to be mutually agreed:
Conclusion of bilateral/multilateral agreements with related organisations and research centres;
Supply of valid codes, instruments and equipment related to nuclear safety;
Facilitate exchange of knowledge and experience in the area of nuclear safety;
Enhance and strengthen domestic emergency preparedness and severe accident management capability;
Arrange on-the-job training and apprenticeship courses for reactor and facility operators, regulatory authority personnel and related supportive organizations in the area of nuclear safety inside and outside of Iran;
Establish a Nuclear Safety Centre in Iran, which shall be equipped with necessary tools, techniques and equipment, in order to support and facilitate technical and professional training and exchange of lessons-learned for reactor and facility operators, regulatory authority personnel and related supportive organizations;

This will complete the ability for Iran to keep their systems clean and some of their more proficient programmers may learn enough so as to use such spyware and other sophisticated invasive programs against their enemies, like Israel and the United States, the great and little satins. Much of this will reveal some of such programs already within the systems in Iran and we can bet safely that unless the invasive software has the name of the company and their logo, these invasive attempts will be blamed on Israel regardless of whom is known for having committed the crime, but that is just the start.

 

The Arab League has once again started their howling over how unfair the world is to place restrictions upon Iran but Israel is allowed to roam around untethered and restricted by the NPT (Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty) and not be inspected by the IAEA and restricted in their production of uranium and plutonium as Iran has been pressed to refrain? The mere fact that Israel has never used a nuclear weapon despite having good cause if one was to carry things to an outlandish finish where Israel might have been attacked by almost every Arab military or some unthinkable thing which history has shown is highly improbable and Iranian are regularly led in chants of “Death to America, Death to Israel” is hardly a convincing or even applicable comparison as Israel has never been attacked the ways that Iran has been and thus has no right to complain or compare situations, Iran has been under consistent attack since 1979 when the present government rose to power, thanks again President Jimmy ‘the peanut farmer’ Carter. The question is why is Israel allowed to hide their presumed nuclear weapons stockpiles which may rival the rest of the world combined for all the world knows. They must be made to rid themselves of their nuclear weapons.

 

The Europeans are entirely possible to stand behind such a call if it were made in the General Assembly and slightly less likely in the Security Council, especially a binding Chapter Seven Resolution. The United States is currently easily seen as using the Arab Leagues call for nuclear disarmament for the entire world. The real problem is the likelihood that President Obama could start with demanding Israel reveal their actual numbers of nuclear weapons; an exact count which would then be received by President Obama, and should Israel claim more than a dozen warheads and bombs in total, then the push for an acceptable limit be made to the breaking point and potentially beyond to denuclearize Israel in the name of peace in our time for all the Middle East. This would be followed by immediate demand for Israel to rid themselves of their nuclear weapons, a cry that could find its way by this October to the grand reopening of the next session of the United Nations where speech after speech could address Israel not being in compliance with the IAEA guidelines, let alone nuclear free. The hue and cry in the General Assembly continues with everyone demanding an accounting from Israel or the world is in danger of spinning off its axis and flying out of the Solar System if the imbalance that Israel may be causing with their nuclear weapons in the Middle East not be remedied. The intensity would grow and grow expecting President Obama to give the climactic speech all about the evils of nuclear weapons and his offer to match anybody nuclear warhead for nuclear warhead destroyed realizing their preeminence allowing them the ability to do so.

 

This will be the final egg in the basket, so-to-speak, as the BDS Israel protesters will go absolutely beyond the cusp with their rioting and demonstrating causing classes and final examinations to be cancelled for the first time since the late 1960s or 1970s in some of the universities. The ever increasingly shrill demands that Israel strip down and become denuded of her nuclear weapons will become unignorable demanding Israel comply or explain why will reach fevered levels sustained by instigators on every campus paid by NGOs themselves part and parcel subsidiaries of European governments and even the European Union all pretending to be independent, grassroots systems which rely on individual donations, not government grants year after year and their overseers demands for Israel to bleed nuclear weapons until her silos and arsenals run dry.

 

The nuclear issue will become the rallying cry as the mob grabs their pitchforks and torches and come to storm fortress Israel and bury the nuclear monster before it destroys one more life. Never mind that no lives have been lost because Israel has nuclear weapons, assuming for the moment that such is valid. If anything lives have been saved as there has been no major war between Israel and her neighbors in what many claim and recent news has proven since 1974, just a year or so after Israel presumably joined the nuclear armed nations club unofficially as Israel has always declined to answer whether she owned any nuclear weapons ever. Still, the suspicion that Israel possesses nuclear weapons has forced the Arab League and the independent nations to have to attempt to politically destroy Israel using presumed guilt of owning nuclear weapons; presumed guilt for murdering disproportionally in her wars against Hamas, Hezballah and other terrorist entities; presumed guilt over the truths in the forgery known by the title of “Protocols of the Elders of Zion;” presumed guilt simply for existing; and presumed guilt at causing hatred of the Jews to return to the world just recently and never before has there been such hatred been known in the past, never mind the treatment of Israel amongst the body of nations.

 

Israel will soon face a seemingly insurmountable threat to her existence. The greatest threat since over a half dozen national armies attempting to slaughter little Israel while she was still in her crib having been born in a single day and celebrated the evening before as Israelis for the most unbearable burdens for all mankind in even this presumed modern world is heading rapidly towards Israel from all fronts and in all venues. But is this world so sophisticated, so cosmopolitan, so cultured, so refined as to abhor all forms of anti-Semitism, well, except denunciation and demonization of the Jewish nation amongst the nations of the earth or do the base hatreds which drove mankind in their initial hatred of the Jews of the days when their neighbors prostrated themselves before idol and even more-so before Baal, the one they sacrificed their unwanted children to. Is the world all that progressed from those days when every upstart of a nation desired world dominion of ruling over the entire world and forcing all to their own religion, of course the kingdoms of man have progressed from those futile thoughts except for Iran, ISIS, Hamas and the scattered several potentates and high flung fools.

 

Mankind has become an enlightened entity where the more base segments of the body of mankind still hold deep cancerous hatreds that at least one of which has the oldest of pedigrees and this hatred has not changed since the earliest of times when these Jews demanded that in their nation and in their presence man shall not sacrifice man and especially the child sacrifice as was done, or is it when so many fetuses are murdered in the womb, in the cradle of life itself. When mankind desired to sacrifice infants, the Jews admonished and were hated. When mankind wanted to unify and make all exactly the same, true Judaism instructed how to not so practice. When one after another after another after yet the next petty tyrant all the way to Napoleon, Hitler and now the Caliph of ISIS when mankind sought to rule the entire world the Jews said except the small piece the L0rd of Abraham Isaac and Jacob gave to us to do as Hashem hath commanded and they hated us.

 

We marched for equality with Martin, we came and saved a dancer with a modern and nearly perfect prosthetic in Haiti after the great quake raising one thing of beauty amongst the thousands Israel saved and came to the soaked northeastern shored of Japan when nuclear plants threatened to melt into the soaked soil and threaten an explosion and we nursed for as long as we were allowed to stay and then left, as we have often done, a fully stocked and built clinic in the hardest hit area and when asked how we desired payment we asked they be kind to each other. We seek peace even where the mantras are we can have no peace other than the grace and a thousand of a thousand of a thousand of thousands of millions have spread hatred of the Jew and sworn an oath to their idols they were the ones who would finally annihilate the cursed Jew and rid the world of this pestilence which seeks to be kind and to help the helpless and they too failed and fell.

 

Now we have probably the most numerous of foes, a collection of tribes which easily include over half the globe’s population amongst their numbers as it includes the fundamentalist Muslims, the secular humanists, the churches of the West, the communists everywhere, the developing nations beholden to the oil sheikdoms, the neo-Nazis every bit as much inculcated by hatreds so as to rival the most ardent of the final solution as their predecessors. No nation on earth is without the curse that is the hatred of the Jew even if one has never met a Jew nor has any in his village, his hamlet, even his teeming city of a hundred thousand, yet he has many friends, amongst them all, they each have their story on what the Jew has done to them or their families despite there being no Jew for a thousand miles in any direction. The hatred seeps through the cracks in sanity and infects them, one after another, some online, some in the quiet places and others in the noisiest discotheque, and they found each other in huddled corners and now they rule and spread their hatred and the promise that if they just kill the Jew, and they succeed where all before them failed, then they will have cleansed the world.

 

Thus they must hate and kill the Jew, and that Jew today is Israel. We survived Baal, we survived Pharaoh, we survived Haman, we survived Nebuchadnezzar, we survived the Inquisition of Tomás de Torquemada, we survived the horrors of the Dark Ages, we survived wearing the yellow star in the Caliphate, we survived the pogroms of the Tzars, we survived the death camps of Hitler and the Nazis, we will survive the renewed hatreds of the ever growing spread of hatred borne of the dark heart in Medina and its younger cousin of Qom though they sit in Tehran. That is what we do, we survive, we thrive though small in number, and we give gifts to the world through our inventiveness, our love of knowledge, our innovative minds, and our love for mankind borne from Hashem. That is what we do even when surrounded by threats and hate, we love, we heal, we persevere.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Entire Edited for ease of Reading Transcript of Iran Nuclear Agreement with the P5+1 Group

 

Israel Will Not Protect the World Alone This Time

 

Back when Saddam Hussein was actually developing nuclear weapons material and was having the perfect nuclear reactor being built by profiteering interests from France and had bunkers constructed by an equally monetarily enterprising German company and believing they had the world fooled as the Europeans were more concerned by their bottom line and the United States was apparently blithely ignorant of the Iraqi game; so the weight of dispatching the central items of what was potentially the Iraqi nuclear weapons development central point, the reactor was relegated to the Israelis acting alone. The Iraqis were not using the technically challenging uranium differentiation system, which in the early 1980s was a rather daunting challenge, and instead was opting for a plutonium producing reactor. This left the Iraqis with what was apparently an unfettered romp to develop nuclear weapons while appearing to remain compliant to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) of which Iraq was a signatory. And so it remained until the morning of June 7, 1981 when the Israelis launched “Operation Opera” to destroy the French built and almost ready to have its nuclear fuel rods installed Osirak Reactor which was capable of producing weapons grade plutonium. The entirety of the Western world opposed any attack on the reactor or accompanying buildings as the Europeans relied on Iraqi oil or had too numerous business dealings and other profitable relations which may have faced difficulties or potential cancellation should Iraq suspect the Western powers in any way supported any such attack. Even within Israel there were the expected and usual detractors against Israeli actions including the then leader of the opposition Labor Party Shimon Peres, Yitzchak Shamir predicting extreme and non-survivable reactions and backlash as well as those in the cabinet who also opposed any attack for various reasons chief of which was the effect it would have on the peace treaty with Egypt. Prime Minister Menachem Begin still pushed the idea for an intervention to destroy the reactor forward in hopes the Cabinet would eventually see there was no other viable choice. There were logistics problems which had to be overcome such as but not limited to removing external fuel tanks on the F-16s in order to equip them with the heavy munitions necessary for the attack, assign F-15s to guard the bombers to, from and during the attack in case of Iraqi countermeasures, as well as training the pilots to fly on the floor to avoid being detected by any Arab radar and choosing a route which would also minimize detection. The final trigger which finally won approval for the attack was the knowledge that the fuel rods had been prepared for shipment from France to Iraq which if installed would have resulted in a radioactive cloud from any assault making the vote a now or never choice. This changed the critical opposition to now support the attack. The original attack date was set but it became necessary to call off the attack and reschedule it for the next month. Fortunately this setback still permitted the attack to be set before the fuel rods were to be installed in the reactor or even be stored in close proximity to the reactor buildings themselves. The Osirak Reactor was destroyed and Israel faced censure at the United Nations with President Ronald Reagan refusing to use the American veto to protect the Israelis as he too felt betrayed by their attack without first having received his approval, something he had all but assured was not forthcoming even had it been sought. The remainder including the Western world’s great reliefs and their acclamations and thanks, even if belated, that they were not facing a nuclear armed Saddam Hussein in either the first or second Gulf Wars.

 

Looking at Iran one might be tempted to claim that it seems like, if we may be permitted to steal a quotation from Yogi Berra, “It’s like déjà vu all over again.” This time it’s not Iraq but their neighbor, Iran. It is not Saddam Hussein but rather the Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei. This time it is a Shiite ruler not a Sunni ruler though it is once again an adversary of Saudi Arabia. And just like the last time, the Saudis Royals are not about to launch any attack, especially not on their own and highly unlikely they would ally with and accompany the Israelis. The United States is once again against any such attack and threatens to withhold any usual protection at the United Nations Security Council should Israel choose to ignore their opposition and attack anyways. The Europeans are once again all after the rewards of trade agreements they are already salivating over as the United States takes the brunt of any criticisms for the near obvious bad deal of a lifetime as President Obama is willing to take the scorns and suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune if it permits him to construct a new kingdom in the Middle East to replace the old alliances with Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Israel with one where the United States and Iran share the hegemony with Iran the hegemony taking care of the Middle East and the United States free to attend to other concerns. This alliance comes complete with other supporting characters including but not limited to Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and potentially Yemen and whichever other nations the ever slowly devouring appetite of the Ayatollahs set their attentions towards. Additionally, the Russians are playing the role of the Soviet Union in the Middle East and beyond with an unsurprising echo of the Soviet past with the Russian President being Colonel Putin formerly of KGB fame and China will be China taking advantage of any situation the world inadvertently creates, like the need by Iran for an outlet to sell their crude oil. Thus the world is hurling full steam ahead towards a nuclear armed nation which remains the inheritors of the Persian Empire’s proud historic past with all of its attitude of empire which they traded in order to name themselves after the Nazi master race Aryan, or Iran in Farsi, and add to such the trait and heritage of the potentially suicidal belief patterns of Shia Islam and these nations central to permitting this nuclear arming of such a nation all claim Israel has lost it and gone over the deep end when they claim that perhaps a second look might be a good idea.

 

There have been more than just a few articles which point to the fact that the world is relying on good old Israel to ride over the hill and rescue the world from itself once more. They even point to the fact that there exist a number of Sunni nations including but not limited to Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States which would potentially offer their assistance or at least give spiritual support. There is some bad news for the world; it is going to take a whole different level of support if they really expect Israel to suffer the ramifications of and the promised denunciations, trade embargoes, United Nations sanctions, and other barbs and mistreatments in size and scope potentially previously unimagined. Israel has stated that they are quite capable and up to the task of striking and setting the Iranian nuclear program back potentially months or even for over a year or even two years. That is not the question; the question is whether it is worth the severe and unprecedented ramifications that is the main concern for Israel. Israel has to weigh whether it will be beyond her ability to guarantee that Iran has too much to lose by using their nuclear weapons once they develop and build them, whether that be in ten months or the ten years that President Obama promises, making it thus worth the price which would be guaranteed in the retaliatory strikes by Hamas, Hezballah, Syria, IRGC and a guarantee that Iran will use their first nuclear weapon on Tel Aviv no matter what the cost even should it require using it from aboard a ship making a suicide run for the shoreline beaches of Tel Aviv. The consequences of assaulting the Iranian nuclear sites are well known to Israel as well as her neighbors in the Middle East. These are the very same consequences which have intimidated the other nations who, like Israel, will be threatened by a nuclear weapon armed Iran. It is this threat which may well lead to a nuclear weapons arms race throughout the Middle East and North Africa with Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and even the Gulf States leading the way. This too must also be included in the Israeli calculus. The one thing heard repeatedly is that there is no threats which Israel could use to deter the Iranians from carrying out their threat to launch a nuclear attack on Tel Aviv once they have sufficient a store of nuclear weapons to follow up with further strike should Israel retaliate.

 

That leads us to the question of exactly what threats could Israel utilize to prevent a nuclear attack by the Iranians once they are sufficiently armed. The unfortunate, or potentially advantageously, truth about the threats which would be most effective on Iran is that they would also be very disconcerting and threatening to the rest of the Muslim world. It is obvious that should Iran drop any nuclear weapons anywhere, or everywhere, across Israel that Israel would strike every population center across all of Iran, Syria, Shiite Iraq and Hezballah portions of Lebanon and thus these would not be sufficient deterrence to prevent an Iranian nuclear attack on Israel. But then peer pressure may be exactly what might be required to pressure Iran from striking at Israel. The first targets Israel needs to assure Iran will be targeted beyond her borders should be every holy shrine and city in all of Shia Islam. Going beyond this point would be potentially dangerous for Israel as it would also potentially push what might be uncomfortable allies throughout the Muslim world forcing them to become an ally with Iran against Israel. Still, some concern might be given to such targets as to the two cities which Iran has placed as their most prized desire in all the world and the reason that Iran and Saudi Arabia are so set against one another, Mecca and Medina. These are the most prized cities in all of Islam and before World War I were under the care of the Hashemite Royal Family. That changed with the fall of the Ottoman Empire when the Saudi Royal Family forcibly took control of Mecca and Medina. This was the reason behind the British promise to grant the Hashemite family a kingdom in exchange for their assistance during World War I and thus Jordan today ruled by a Hashemite King. Such a threat though of destroying Mecca and Medina would be a counter attack as a last ditch response after a disastrous attack which had likely destroyed the majority of the Israeli population and economic centers simply by striking central Tel Aviv with any nuclear weapon. With such damage already inflicted on Israel there would be so little left to risk as Israel as a functioning nation would be in serious jeopardy. In a perfect world Israel would not be facing such a predicament but then again in a perfect world President Jimmy Carter would not have given the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini the support in dethroning the Shah and thus the Ayatollahs would not be in power in Iran. But in a really perfect world the United States would not have overthrown the democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh placing the Shāh Mohammad-Rezā Pahlavi into power reestablishing the Iranian Royal family. Perfect worlds can be so confusing and lead to a tangled web that takes some serious untangling. I guess the world would never be a perfect place and then who knows if we would actually really like what a perfect world might give us as result, who knows.

 

Beyond the Cusp