Early Sunday morning, Iran launched an unprecedented barrage of suicide explosive drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles at the State of Israel — but at least for now, none of them carried a nuclear warhead, and none succeeded in hitting the nuclear reactor in Dimona.
“What if just one of [the missiles] had a nuclear warhead?” Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer said Wednesday at a briefing.
The question was raised by a reporter in response to a comment by a Biden Administration official who described the nuclear deal with Iran as “moribund.” Years of talks with Tehran by six world powers have led nowhere while Iran continues to accumulate an arsenal of highly enriched uranium that can be used to create a nuclear weapon.
“The results would have been catastrophic — which means that we can never, ever allow Iran to become a nuclear power.
“It cannot be allowed to happen nor any deal, any deal whatsoever which somehow seeks to appease Iran in any way, shape or form,” Mencer emphasized. “It won’t work.
“We know from bitter history that appeasement does not work. It doesn’t only make things worse; it actually emboldens the aggressor, and aggressors unfortunately need to be opposed and not appeased,” he added.
Earlier this week, Israel’s President Isaac Herzog noted in an interview with Sky News that the attack by Iran hours earlier was in fact a declaration of war.
“Every one of us should look and ask, ‘What would we do, had we been attacked in such an aggressive way,’ as we were attacked last night from four corners of the Middle East with proxies shooting at us, firing missiles, ballistic missiles, drones, and then cruise missiles?
“This is a declaration of war,” Herzog said plainly.
“Now, because we are restrained and because we know the repercussions, and because we have deliberations with our partners, we are considering all options and I’m quite confident that we will take the necessary steps to protect and defend our people. We are not war seekers.”
