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Iran's Existential Threat to Israel

(JNS) Rabbi Warren Goldstein - If Israel does not destroy Iran's production of nuclear weapons, no one else will. In 1981, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin faced a similar decision. Under Saddam Hussein, Iraq had been pressing ahead with its nuclear program. Just like Iran, Saddam had issued genocidal threats against Israel. So Menachem Begin ordered a daring Israeli Air Force operation on June 7, 1981. Begin's trusted adviser Yehuda Avner, in his book The Prime Ministers, describes how the Israeli pilots flew below Saudi, Jordanian and Iraqi radar to destroy the nuclear facility situated at Osirak in the heart of Baghdad and return home unscathed. As the jets returned to base safely, Begin said: "The atomic bombs which the reactor was capable of producing would have been of the Hiroshima size, thus a mortal danger to the people of Israel progressively arose." "Let the world know that under no circumstances will Israel ever allow an enemy to develop weapons of mass destruction against our people. If ever such a threat reoccurs, we shall take whatever preemptive measures are necessary to defend the citizens of Israel with all the means at our disposal." Afterward, as expected, Begin faced a barrage of criticism. The Reagan administration suspended delivery of F-16 aircraft to Israel and voted in support of a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israel's actions. Begin responded: "What greater act of self-defense could there be than to destroy Saddam Hussein's nuclear potential that was intended to bring Israel to its knees, slaughter our people, vaporize our infrastructure, destroy our nation, our country, our very existence?" So we've been through all of this. We've seen it before. None of it is new. Today, Israel faces the same situation with Iran. The prospect of mutually assured destruction, which deterred the Soviet regime during the Cold War, won't deter Iran. As political analyst Charles Krauthammer observed, mutually assured destruction for jihadists who glorify death and martyrdom is an incentive, not a deterrent. The writer is chief rabbi of South Africa.
2024-08-01 00:00:00
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