Was the Financial Times editor curling up his or her upper lip when they wrote the sneering headline this morning: “Israel steps up rhetoric ahead of Iran talks”? Well, they were within their rights to be mocking this ridiculous Jewish premier screaming his head off, throwing everything and everyone into a desperate campaign to prevent Iran from receiving the economic relief it needs so it could go about making the bomb. You have to give it to him, he really looks silly these days.
Except now he’s been changing his tune, this silly Jewish prime minister. He’s no longer warning the world of what Iran is planning to do to Israel—and Saudi Arabia, and the Gulf States, and, eventually, Western Europe—now he’s spelling out what Israel will do to Iran.
Israel’s former national security adviser Yaakov Amidror, a close associate of Prime minister Netanyahu, told the FT that the IDF could do to Iran’s nuclear program what it once did to Saddam Hussein’s atomic aspirations: put them on hold “for a very long time.” And he had no doubt that Netanyahu would decide to strike on his own, if he deems it necessary.
“We don’t need permission from anyone – we are an independent state,” Amidror told the FT. “We have our own sovereignty. If Israel is in a position in which Israel must defend itself, Israel will do it.”
That’s three mentions of Israel in one sentence—can you get more unilateral than that?
Amidror told the FT that the Israeli Air Force had been conducting “very long-range flights all around the world” in preparations for the long rage mission against Iran.
The FT spoke to defense experts who questioned Israel’s ability or willingness to strike—on its own, without the backing of the U.S. military—against Iran’s nuclear sites, including the underground enrichment facility at Fordow.
If you ask me, Israel would be better off acting on its own, without the deadweight of American support. I wouldn’t count on the U.S. military to do well in a mission that requires swiftness, perfect coordination, exceptional endurance and secrecy.
The U.S. is yet to carry out a significant, stealth mission without some screw up. Starting with Jimmy Carter’s choppers in the desert fiasco, through Reagan’s cut and run Lebanon fiasco, Clinton’s Black Hawk down fiasco, and Obama’s Bin laden fiasco – as one chopper went a-crashing even before the show started.
The U.S. military only wins in situations where it has a hefty ten-to-one advantage, and even then its percentage of death by friendly fire is the highest on the planet. What Israel needs from America are bunker busters, not pilots, thank you very much. Although by now Israel has probably figured out how to make a few of those.
Unlike what the FT military experts are saying, Israel does not need to remove the Iranian nuclear facilities from God’s good earth in their entirety. Just hitting the side of the mountain and covering the entrance with a pile of boulders would be nice for now. And who said Israel can attack only once? They can go back to finish up the next night.
Of course, Iran will shoot its ICBMs with conventional loads at Israel. Saddam did that, 41 times. Israel endured it then, as it did the Hezbollah and Hamas rocket attacks. But, you know, it’s just possible that Israel’s enemies nearby would think twice about doing that, because when caught on a bad night, Israel has the capacity to send them back to the stone age. The fact that it played nice in the past is no guarantee it would stay nice on a particularly bad night.
The U.S. been opposing a unilateral Israeli strike, which could draw Washington into a broader regional war. But Washington made a deal with Israel: you give us peace talks with the Palestinians, including the release of Arab murderers with innocent Jewish blood on their hands—we’ll continue to press Iran with sanctions until they cry uncle. Now they reneged on the deal; do they really expect Israel to smile politely and accept its inevitable demise? seriously?
Washington is on an equally forceful blitz to belittle Netanyahu’s concerns, depicting him as an alarmist who doesn’t really know all the details of the deal the more important countries are carving out for him. Secretary Kerry cannot hide his contempt for the pesky Israelis. Remember when, back in 2004, everybody called him a Boston Brahmin? Well, the BB is out again, and he’s livid.