“You cannot use force to prevent a country from obtaining nuclear weapons. By bombing them half to death, you can only delay the plans. But they will come back, and they will demand revenge.” In the same interview you also warn of the danger of nuclear weapons falling into the hands of terrorists.

At present, Israeli policy is to give the diplomatic effort a chance to block the Iranian drive to acquire the bomb (The Iranian delivery system of Shihab missiles is already operational). But what long-term option are you offering Israel after Iranian President Ahmedinajad first warned of ‘wiping Israel off the map’ and more recently of resettling the Jews in Germany or Austria. He is not the only Iranian leader to wage such verbal terrorism against the Jewish state. Several years ago Ayatollah Rafsanjani also spoke openly about how one Muslim nuclear bomb could annihilate Israel.

The Iranians don’t just talk they act. Teheran arms and trains Hezbollah gunmen in south Lebanon. Advisors from the Revolutionary Guards are also known to be playing a role in the Hezbollah attacks on Israeli targets. This, although the U.N. has verified the IDF totally withdrew from south Lebanon in May 2000. In addition, Iran has been inciting Palestinian terror by the Islamic Jihad and Hamas in the territories. Palestinian terror agents are on Iran’s payroll.

In light of Iran’s track record, is it not reasonable to assume that the fanatic Ayatollahs in Teheran might also engage in nuclear terror, if and when they acquire the bomb? And might this include the supply of nuclear devices to terror organizations such as Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad? Yet when warning IsraeI not to pre-empt the looming threat to its existence do you, and the IAEA and the international community, not have an obligation to provide a serious alternative course of action. Namely, the immediate transfer of the Iranian nuclear threat to the U.N. Security Council for the imposing of sanctions. However, the IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz doubts that your diplomatic effort will dissuade the Iranians from halting their nuclear weapons project. General Halutz gives the impression the international community is dragging its feet. This, at a time that IDF intelligence chief Aharon Zeevi-Farkash warns that Iran will pass the nuclear point of no return at the end of March. Those involved in the international effort are obviously aware of the gravity posed by threat of Iranian nuclear weapons and not only to Israel. Yet there seems to be no true sense of urgency. Could it be that Europe and the U.S. are simply going through the motions and actually waiting for Israel to do the job for them? I would draw to your attention the comment by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney last December that Israel might decide to go it alone if it sees the diplomatic effort is going nowhere when it comes to blocking the production of Iranian nuclear weapons.
There is of course a way to disprove this theory and that is to get serious and act promptly before Iran indeed reaches the point of no return.

Yours sincerely,
David Essing, ISRACAST, Jerusalem