The Great Israeli Hope

Perhaps Israel will deliver us from an Iranian nuke:

With the world still reverberating from the North Korean test explosion, President Ahmadinejad of Iran decided to draw attention back to his country and himself by again warning Europe and the United States that friendship with Israel was "dangerous." The Iranian leader also threatened once more that Israel "no longer needs to exist."

The Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, decided to challenge the new Iranian outburst with a thinly disguised threat of his own by saying that Iran would "pay a price" for calls for Israel's destruction. The rest of the world has become so used to Ahmadinejad's bellicosity that little concern was noted.

The Israelis aren't making that mistake. They have no intention of waiting until Tehran has an operational nuclear capability. Furthermore, it is highly doubtful they will inform Washington before taking military counter measures when they decide to do so.

Most observers have pointed to the nuclear explosion of North Korea as emboldening other countries to seek their own nuclear weapon development. The Israelis, however, have seen in the modest counter measures against Pyongyang all that they could expect from further development of the Persian bomb.

The world, in general, is under the impression that Israel and Washington coordinate their respective Middle East actions. The fact is that sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. If Tel Aviv makes the decision it must attack Iranian nuclear weapon sites, it certainly will be after much discussion with the United States. That Israel has made the decision to strike Iranian targets, however, will not be communicated to Washington until there is nothing the U.S. can do about it.

I think this is pure fantasy.

Israel has shown great weakness since Clinton made Ehud Barak his towel boy. Time and again, she has given up previous war gains for nothing but empty promises. Lebanon has amply demonstrated that Israel now lacks the will to win.

And lest we get too cocky, I'm pretty sure we lack the will to win this war ourselves. Why else would we sit idly by while the Iranians build nukes? We're on their doorstep, for God's sake!