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Source: https://edition.cnn.com/2019/09/06/opinions/israel-iran-response-opinion-oren/index.html
Israelis Will Not Sit Passively While Iran Nuclearizes and Threatens Their Existence
(CNN) Michael Oren - The U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear deal effectively undermined Iran's grand strategy of exploiting the legitimacy it granted to conquer much of the Middle East. The deal enabled Iran to maintain key parts of its nuclear infrastructure, to preserve its blueprints for producing atomic bombs, and to develop the intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of carrying them. With many of the deal's provisions expiring in less than a decade, Iran could have eventually made hundreds of nuclear weapons and mount them on ICBMs. Overnight, Iran would become a global power. The Israelis, of course, would not have sat by passively while Iran nuclearized and threatened their existence. But Iran had another plan: to surround Israel with tens of thousands of terrorist rockets and proxies. Any Israeli attempt to stop an Iranian nuclear breakout would inevitably be met with devastating fire from Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, Iraq, and Iran itself. The writer is a former Israeli ambassador to the U.S.