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Why an Israeli Military Option Against Iran Is Back on the Table
(National Review) Ilan Berman - Addressing the UN General Assembly on Sep. 28, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett made it clear that the Jewish state continues to view the Islamic Republic's persistent nuclear ambitions as a truly existential danger - and that it is prepared to take military action on its own in order to thwart them if it feels it has no other choice. Such a step has never been Israel's preference. Israeli policymakers have long maintained that diplomacy and multilateral pressure - or collective action - are preferable for containing Iran's nuclear progress. Moreover, after decades of development, Iran's atomic enterprise is simply too vast and too distributed to be eliminated outright by a targeted strike. Israeli strategic planners make clear that the best they hope for is to cause temporary setbacks and complications to Tehran's path toward the bomb. Israel's prime minister told the UN: "There are those in the world who seem to view Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons as an inevitable reality, as a done deal - or they've just become tired of hearing about it. Israel doesn't have that privilege. We will not tire. We will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon." If Israel ends up acting to prevent a nuclear Iran, it will be because the U.S. and its international partners did not take Iran's nuclear program, or Israel's concerns, seriously enough. The writer is senior vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council.