Storm Clouds in the Middle East

According to the international press, Iran already possesses the knowledge to create nuclear weapons and could build their own atomic bomb within one year.

The Israelis believe that even if Iran does not pursue their dreams to wipe the Jewish state off the map, an Iran with nuclear bombs would cause “cataclysmic” changes in the Middle East and even Latin America. The West would lose influence and radical groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas, the Chavistas and the FARC would be emboldened. Saudi Arabia and Egypt would surely respond by making their own nuclear weapons.

“If Iran gets nuclear weapons, the Middle East will look like hell … For Israel, 2010 is the year of decision. Yet its ability to destroy the nuclear sites is questionable, and such a strike may precipitate a regional war, or worse,” says [a senior Israeli official in] The Economist magazine in London.

As mentioned in the article, flash bombing is not considered a viable option, as was done in previous years, to destroy the uranium enrichment plants in Iran — supplied by Venezuelan minerals — because they are farther away, dispersed and sometimes buried in the mountains.

An air strike would only delay Iran’s program a year or two. A more definitive action would necessarily require sending troops to Iran and no one seems to be considering this option. Russia and China will elude any engagement in preventive action.

There are great doubts about the support that the U.S. would lend to Israel today. President Barack Obama lacks the empathy that former presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush showed Israel. One Jewish minister said recently that Israel had “fallen into the hands of a horrible American administration.”

Given the above, Israel is in the midst of a paradox, demonized by its Western allies and allied with the Arab regimes. Yes, the Arab countries of the region recognize the threat of Iran and its radical friends, and so are choosing to ally with Israel.

Obama believes, with great common sense, that progress with the Palestinians would help to unite the Arab coalition to confront Iran. Obama has suggested a demilitarized Palestinian state. For this to occur, he proposed to begin with a 10-month suspension of Jewish construction in Palestinian areas — a proposal that was, apparently, already accepted by Prime Minister Netanyahu.