Hope he’s right. “Iran can still be stopped,” by Binyamin Netanyahu in the Jerusalem Post, with thanks to Doc Washburn:
It is possible to prevent the political and security landslide. Iran can still be stopped.
The government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is rapidly leading Israel to a political and security downfall while Iran is racing towards achieving a nuclear weapons capability.
While Iran’s leaders are busy denying the Holocaust, they also continue to announce their intentions of wiping the State of Israel off the map. Israel is like a bus speeding towards an abyss. The bus driver is tired and helpless.
Let’s examine recent developments, which all have one common denominator: weak leadership.
# Hizbullah and Hamas are rapidly arming themselves thanks to the Israeli government’s decision to refrain from taking action against them. Since the cease-fire was declared, dozens of Kassam rockets have been fired at the western Negev. The government continues not to react.
# Recently, the US secretary of defense said he was unable to rule out a possibility that Iran would launch a nuclear attack against Israel. He also noted that the US would take against Iran only as a last resort. These words raise doubts as to American intentions to bring Teheran’s nuclear race to a halt. These words are not to be taken lightly.
# The Baker-Hamilton Report recommends that the US engage in talks with Iran and Syria in an attempt to reach a solution to the Iraqi problem. Although the report does not reflect the Bush Administration’s policy towards Iran, it encourages a fundamental change of direction in American policy: from isolation to negotiation.
# The Baker-Hamilton Report also argues that a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a condition to stabilizing the rest of the Middle East’s core problems. Here we find an attempt to create affinity: If Israel was to carry out concessions and territorial withdrawals, the Iranian and Iraqi problems would be solved. In reality, the situation is the complete opposite: If the problem of Iran, which Ismail Haniyeh defines as “the strategic backbone of Hamas”, were solved, it would be easier to treat the conflict with the Palestinians.
What can be learned from these bleak developments? What is the connection between them?
Weakness invites pressure.
The weakness of the Olmert government only expedites the decline of Israel’s stature, both in the Middle East and around the world.
If the Israeli government accepts the ongoing firing of Kassams at its cities, why shouldn’t the world?
Read it all.