"The mens' men who are threatening Iran now are the real cowards' cowards. The brave ones are in fact those who are trying to thwart the insanity, from former Mossad chief Meir Dagan to Interior Minister Eli Yishai."
By Gideon Levy
If Iran dares mount a nuclear attack against Israel, Iran will be committing public, painful, mass suicide. Israel will respond, and the world will not be silent. Jerusalem knows that and, more importantly, so does Tehran. But in Tehran, so we are told from morning to evening, the "crazy" leadership could shuffle the deck.
And so Israel is threatening to bomb Tehran before it is too late, and many Israelis are even in favor of doing so. But the debate now underway, with terrifying seriousness, about the possibility of bombing Iran makes one suspect that it is actually here, in Israel, that lunacy prevails. The Iranian lunacy has yet to be proven; in Israel, it is already as plain as day.
Israel does not have rational leadership. Most of its moves cannot be logically explained. It is not logic that dictates continued construction in the territories; it is not logic that explains the war that the government of Israel has declared on the Palestinian Authority, without considering what will come instead. Neither is there logic in Israel's Hamas-strengthening moves, from the continued siege of Gaza to the release only of Hamas prisoners. There is no logic in continuing to imprison Marwan Barghouti; there is no logic in causing relations with Turkey to deteriorate, and there was no logic in Operation Cast Lead, which damaged Israel much more than it benefited it. There is also no logic in the fearmongering against the Arab Spring, which actually could ensure Israel a few quiet years from countries whose armies have crumbled, whose societies are preoccupied with domestic matters and whose regimes are on the rocks. And, of course, there is no logic in the continued occupation, which endangers Israel more than anything else.
Something else is guiding the Israeli leadership, and it is not called logic. Israeli public opinion also cannot be suspected for a moment of conducting itself rationally: Most Israelis believe that bombing Iran will spark a regional conflagration, and yet more Israelis favor such an attack than are against it. If that is sanity, what is insanity?
There is no way to rationally explain the beating of the drums of war against Iran. The risks of an Israeli attack are clear, and they are horrific. The danger of Iran using a nuclear weapon is nil, and yet Israel is playing with the fires of hell. Israelis, in fact, are saying they prefer a barrage of thousands of missiles - which will bring blood and destruction now - to the future imaginary risk of the suicidal weapon by "crazy" Iran; that they prefer system-wide insanity, with clear threats and open preparations for what could become an Israeli suicide mission.
Even if all the well-orchestrated statements, maneuvers and billowing smoke are only intended as threats, they lack all wisdom. A threatened Iran is also dangerous. It might launch a desperate preemptive strike on Israel.
Iran wants nuclear weapons to protect its regime. It saw former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and Libya's Muammar Gadhafi bombed and it understands - very logically, it should be said - that if it possessed a nuclear option, the world would not touch it, as it touches neither North Korea nor Pakistan. Iran also wants to be a regional power in the new Middle East, and it knows that one way of doing so is by means of centrifuges. It would be preferable, of course, if it did not get its wish, preferable that the world exert pressure so that it does not attain nuclear arms, but it is clear to all that no bombing will keep them from Iran forever.
The only conclusion from all of the above is that there is an illogical leadership in the Middle East, but it is not necessarily in Tehran. Fear, partly false fear, dwells in Jerusalem, the outcome of the fearmongering and demonization that is always present here, regarding everything from swine flu to the Iranian nuclear program. Alongside it is the megalomania that says that Israel can call the shots in the region as it sees fit. The mens' men who are threatening Iran now are the real cowards' cowards. The brave ones are in fact those who are trying to thwart the insanity, from former Mossad chief Meir Dagan to Interior Minister Eli Yishai."
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Comments
Netenyahu and I will be dead and buried and there still won't be a Palestinian state. If the Pals had a Gandhi they would have a state by now. If Israel still had Rabin there would be peace by now.
R
Not that I think Iran is a prize but a major part of the reason behind their behavior is clearly the history that goes back at least to the 1953 coup by the CIA.
This piece has one really good, logical paragraph in it that really makes its case, the one starting with "Iran wants nuclear weapons to protect its regime." I have to admit that I never considered nuclear weapons from the standpoint of avoiding the fate of Saddam Hussein.
The top leadership in Iran would do better to put a lid on Ahmedinejad. When a man talks about destroying another country, and that man works for a regime that believes dying in a holy war is a good thing, that's dangerous. "Who would be crazy enough to commit suicide as part of an act of murder, either from a sanity standpoint or from a religious standpoint?" Iran is provoking a country that has suffered the effects of a lot of suicide bombers, so a lot of Israelis find the prospect of suicide bombing on a national level credible.
The argument presented here makes a lot more sense than the argument presented by the crazier Israelis, largely because we've seen the American government attack and overthrow one neighboring government on the flimsiest of pretexts. In other words, it may not be that the Iranians are reacting to their own craziness, it may be that they're reacting to ours. If Netanyahu figures that out, great, but he hasn't figured out a whole lot lately, other than that when he comes to the United States, he gets more support from the Christian Right than he does from Jews.
As the title includes the word "insanity" it would be unfitting to dismiss Einstein's definition:
"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results"
Thanks for visiting my friend.
Cause and effect. CONTINUALLY raising the canard of an Iranian imminent attack is an "effective" way to keep a fractured, splintering populace temporarily united as the rogue state continues to stumble down the road of ruination.
Little of the malfeasance in the region occurs with minimally tacet (if not overt) consent of the financial backer of endless war, which we the taxpayers.
American meddling in Iran has become so routine throughout the course of my lifetime, that few americans are savvy enough to realize, if there is a monster there, it is purely, the creation of american malfeasance.
Thanks for Your valuable contribution.
To me one of the most meaningful facets of the article is the expression of disdain from a former director of the Mossad.
Thanks for visiting, although, certainly, the concept of deterrence by Iran is worthy of note.
Thanks for visiting, Kosh.
When the president of Iran threatens to wipe Israel off the map, and then proceeds with the development of nuclear weapons, I think we have to take the implications seriously. Hitler told the world what he was going to do, and the world just laughed up its sleeve at him, to its later regret. As I recall, Israel, with U.S. blessings, destroyed the incipient nuclear program of Iraq. Probably just as well, wouldn't you say?
I don't think Iran feels that it truly faces any deterrent should it decide to carry out Ahmedinejad's threat. If it nukes Tel Aviv, Obama will appoint a committee to discuss what to do about it, with instructions to report back in less than five years. Sarkozy, who disclosed his true feelings before a microphone he thought was dead, had previously said that France would not stand with its arms folded if Iran did what it says it wants to do. No, Sarkozy will stand with his arms unfolded. Count on it.
"I don't think Iran feels that it truly faces any deterrent should it decide to carry out Ahmedinejad's threat. If it nukes Tel Aviv, Obama will appoint a committee to discuss what to do about it, with instructions to report back in less than five years."
"Iran wants nuclear weapons to protect its regime. It saw former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and Libya's Muammar Gadhafi bombed and it understands - very logically, it should be said - that if it possessed a nuclear option, the world would not touch it, as it touches neither North Korea nor Pakistan."
I agree. This is one of the most fundamental ideas concerning the situation there.
But who could promise that neither America nor Israel would ever attack Iran... if Iran wouldn't build the bomb?
The whole situation there is crazy... Why did Iran start their nuclear energy program at all? (They have got so big oil reserves.) Originally it was by some American advises, nowadays Iran is helped by Russians with their nuclear programs. Was it because of the desire the get the bomb only? No, it doesn't seem to be the case, they wanted only nuclear energy originally.
Most analysts think that Israel has already got nuclear weapons. What could be done with them?
I think that somebody should bring both Israel leaders and Iran leaders to the negotiation table. To get the whole Middle East nuclear free. But how?
Many powers of the world have got the capacity to build the bomb quite quickly, if it were politically 'sound'. Why don't they make it? Because they have no reason to own a bomb... How could we get both Israel and Iran leaders thinking similar ways as other national leaders who are not willing to build any nuclear bombs?
Iran has certainly promised to defend itself if attacked by Israel. Its president has never indicated that it would take preemptive action to wipe the Jewish State off the map, no matter how insane its (take your pick) leadership is.
israel was conceived in violence, matured in violence, and naturally must deal in violence, since the invasion and occupation of palestine is not yet total. how to remain in a war frenzy? commit war crime and try to bury conscience in demonization of your victims.