Jimmy Carter
says Iran is not a threat to Israel. Whew! What a relief!
In all seriousness, there is a growing argument that Iran would
not use nuclear weapons on Israel if it obtained them, because it
would not want to commit national suicide. The problem is that a
lot of prominent Iranian leaders have publicly embraced the idea of
martyrdom, and when you're dealing with people that glorify the
concept of death as long as they're killing infidels, you cannot
assume you're dealing with rational actors who would be interested
in self- preservation.
For instance:
"If a day comes when the world of Islam is duly
equipped with the arms Israel has in possession, the strategy of
colonialism would face a stalemate because application of an atomic
bomb would not leave any thing in Israel but the same thing would
just produce damages in the Muslim world", Ayatollah Ali Akbar
Hashemi-Rafsanjani told the crowd at the traditional Friday prayers
in Tehran.
Or:
A passage from the Ayatollah Khomeini, quoted in an
11th-grade Iranian schoolbook, is revealing. "I am decisively
announcing to the whole world that if the world-devourers [i.e.,
the infidel powers] wish to stand against our religion, we will
stand against their whole world and will not cease until the
annihilation of all them. Either we all become free, or we will go
to the greater freedom which is martyrdom. Either we shake one
another's hands in joy at the victory of Islam in the world, or all
of us will turn to eternal life and martyrdom. In both cases,
victory and success are ours."
This doesn't even take into account Ahmadinejad's threats to "wipe
Israel off the map."
Is all of this just bluster? Maybe. But if you're Israel, I
think it would be dangerous to think like Carter and err on the
side of assuming that Iranians will behave rationally. One nuclear
attack could effectively destroy Israel, so the risk of allowing
Iran to acquire nuclear weapons should be viewed as unacceptable.
This does not even take into account the possibility that Iran,
consistently the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism, would
pass nuclear material to a terrorist group such as Israel's direct
enemies Hamas and Hezbollah, which are provided weapons and
financing from Iran. Even if Iranians do neither of those things,
the strategic leverage they would gain from having nuclear weapons
by itself is enough reason for Israel to do whatever it takes to
prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, assuming diplomacy
fails and the U.S. does not act first.
topics:
Religion, Islam, Iran, Israel, Nuclear Weapons
