Worries about a nuclear-armed Iran are real, and Israel is in the crosshairs. Will the Israelis act, and if so, when?
by Jerold Aust
Can you hear the time bomb ticking in the Middle East? If you flinch under the weight of the escalating price and humiliating dependence on foreign oil, if you hear the threats from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad against Israel and the West and if you hear Ahmadinejad's defiant rejection of the West's oft-repeated demands for Iran to cease and desist from enriching uranium, then you do indeed hear the Iranian bomb ticking in the Middle East. Could it go off in the not-too-distant future?
Israelis cannot just wait for the bomb to go off; they live next door. Will Israel attack Iran and if so, when? Recently, Israel conducted an obvious military exercise over the Mediterranean Sea near Greece. The idea of this military exercise was to show that Israel's planes would fly the distance necessary to mount a mission to knock out Iran's nuclear facilities. Israel's implied threat is simple and direct: If enrichment continues, we could strike!
Israeli military exercises over the Mediterranean
Putnam Media Managing Editor Rick Pedraza wrote an insightful article for Newsmax.com titled "Bolton: Israel Will Strike Iran if Obama Is Elected." It addressed a recent Fox News interview of former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton. Pedraza commented on Israel's massive air force exercise over Greece, which the Greek, Israeli and U.S. forces later confirmed was a test run for a strike on Iran's main uranium enrichment plant.
The ordinary person may not have considered Israel's determined, strategic
and geopolitical defense against Iran's covert and overt threats of nuclear
warfare. Bolton has: "'I think if they are to do anything, the most likely
period is after our elections and before the inauguration of the next President.'
They'd have to make a judgment whether to [strike] during the remainder
of President Bush's term in office or wait for his successor" (www.newsmax.com).
