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How Palestinians Could Become "Collateral Damage" of Iranian Extremism

(Jerusalem Post) Dr. David L. Charney - Recently, Maj.-Gen. Abdolrahim Mousavi, commander of the Iranian Army, stated that Iranian forces were working to "annihilate Israel" and "raze Tel Aviv...to the ground." Iran's drive to develop nuclear weapons poses a number of problems. There is abundant research and evidence that the after-effects of a nuclear detonation, depending on how many kilotons, will produce total devastation within a radius of 10 miles. Added to that are lesser but also extreme destructive effects that will widen the radius of impact to 25-50 miles. Because Palestinian population centers are so close to Israeli population centers, even with perfectly accurate targeting, a nuclear bomb is highly likely to annihilate nearby Palestinian civilian populations, too. Virtually all Palestinians, whether living in the West Bank or in Gaza, or even in Jordan, would become "collateral damage" of Iran's master plan to put an end to Israel's existence. Aiming at Tel Aviv but actually hitting the West Bank would represent only a 3% targeting error. How much confidence should Palestinians place in Iranian science to feel safe and that they would be spared? Not to mention the risk that Islam's third holiest site, the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, would also likely cease to exist. And since Gaza is only 45 miles away from Tel Aviv, similar concerns would apply. Adopting stern policies removing Iran's option of deploying a nuclear bomb against Israel simultaneously saves the entire Palestinian population from becoming collateral damage of Iranian extremism. The writer is a practicing psychiatrist in Washington.
2019-04-12 00:00:00
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