[Los Angeles Times] Zev Chafets - Israel is certainly thinking about how to stop Tehran from getting its hands on nukes. And why wouldn't it? Given the evident failure of American diplomacy and UN sanctions, Israel has two basic choices. It can sit and wait, hoping the Iranians do not drop a bomb on Tel Aviv; or it can preemptively attack, hoping to destroy, or at least retard, the Iranians' nuclear capacity. Israel is a small, crowded country with a very poor civil defense infrastructure and a population traumatized by its own recent history. Perhaps the Iranian government doubts that the Holocaust happened, but there are 6 million Israeli Jews who don't doubt it. There are some who believe that it is in Israel's interest for the U.S. to solve this problem. But they are mistaken. The truth is, the U.S. is not directly menaced by Iranian weapons. When President Bush says an Iranian bomb would threaten U.S. friends and interests in the region, he is speaking primarily about Israel. The Iranians frighten a lot of Sunni Arab countries, but they pose an existential threat only to the Jewish state.
2007-01-11 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive