“Which war?” I hear you ask. Don’t play coy. You know very well which war. Many Gentle Readers have written me, asking for my “opinion” about it. The emails have been many and various in their approbations and condemnations, but all have urged me to state a position.
Israel is doing what it must, and here are the reasons.
A nation that possesses weapons of mass destruction and delivery systems that can wield them at long range acquires responsibilities along with those things. One of those responsibilities pertains to its rhetoric. Its rulers’ statements must be taken with full seriousness, especially their threats. Nation X must regard a threat from nation Y as equivalent to an actual attack. This was a component of American strategic doctrine for many decades.
The theocrats who rule Iran have said many times that, were Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon and an appropriate delivery system, it would thereby acquire an obligation to use it against Israel as soon as possible. Israel’s government must assume that that statement is sincere. Though the phrase existential threat is used too loosely these days, it applies here.
Israel’s intelligence service is one of the best in the world. If Aman’s and Mossad’s analysts are convinced that Iran is on the brink of acquiring a nuclear weapon, the odds are overwhelming that it is so. In that case, Israel is compelled to act, as indeed it has.
Note that the actual identity of the threat-making nation is of little consequence. If any other nuclear power were to make such a threat, the gravity of it would be the same, though Israel’s response would surely vary according to the threat-maker’s location and capabilities. Threats to use weapons of mass destruction must always be treated as sincere.
As for the possible involvement of the United States, the matter is similar though not existential. Iran has threatened to strike American military assets in “retaliation” for Israel’s strikes against Iran. Ignore the lunacy of it. If it happens, America will be compelled to act, but until then, staying out of the conflict is the expected posture, and probably the best.
For all else, we must wait and see.
2 comments
Israel has been saying that Iran almost has a nuclear weapon for over 30 years.
If a nuclear weapons capable nation says another nation should not exist, what is the rest of the nuclear capable nations responsibility? No examples, just curious what your thoughts are.
The constant war-mongering of Israel has gotten old, especially since they depend heavily upon the American taxpayers to protect them from the countries they provoke.
Author
When did Israel last go to war? Wasn’t in in 1973, when Egyptian forces attacked Israel on Yom Kippur? I suppose we could count Israel’s 1982 action in south Lebanon to expel the PLO as a war, but everything after that was either a border skirmish or an operation prompted by a Palestinian uprising within sovereign Israeli territory. By contrast, the U.S. has gone to war far more often, and far more recently, over the century behind us.
People speak of “Israeli war-mongering” in an acontextual way. Israel is the tiniest nation in its region, is surrounded by enemy states all of which have attempted its destruction — mostly for religious reasons — and has been openly threatened with nuclear obliteration specifically by Iran. If you were an Israeli, June, wouldn’t the imminent prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran make you nervous? Wouldn’t you want to see something done about it — and by whom?
Yes, Israel receives about $4 billion per year for weapons purchases and missile defense. I don’t like it either — I don’t like nor approve of any foreign aid — but there are a lot of things our federal government does that are much more expensive and much less defensible. Moreover, the federal government under FDR refused to allow Jewish refugees into America when the Holocaust and other persecutions were at their worst. So while I dislike subsidizing other nations in any way, I’m willing to tolerate this if it means that Israel, the only homeland Jews have anywhere, will survive.