It was inevitable.
For years, countries, including ours, have pretended, against all common sense and logic, to be seriously negotiating with Iran to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons – which Iran has made perfectly clear it will use on Israel if given the chance.
And now, many agencies tell us that Iran has enriched its nuclear capabilities and is on the cusp of having those weapons.
So you’re Israel. What do you do? Urge Iran – which hates you and calls for your decimation – not so threaten, then use, nuclear weapons against you, and pretend murderous leaders will give a damn? Or do you do something about it before you are attacked?
Israel, displaying basic common sense, chose the latter.
And, if the reports are correct, not only has Israel dramatically set back Iran’s nuclear ambitions, but it has also taken out a number of its most important military and nuclear-capability people – the ones who got Iran to this point.
In other words, Israel has done itself, and the rest of the world, an immeasurably great service.
Much to my surprise, the BBC – which, to say the very least, is not friendly toward Israel – has a very worthwhile article on where things stand now. It is titled “What we know about Israel’s attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites and military commanders“.
Here are a few salient excerpts:
Israel launched strikes across Iran on Friday, saying they targeted the “heart” of Iran’s nuclear programme.
With counter-attacks expected “in the immediate future”, a state of emergency was declared in Israel.
Hossein Salami, chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards – a powerful branch of the country’s armed forces – was killed, Iranian state media reported, as well as nuclear scientists.
Hours after the initial strikes, an explosion was reported at the Natanz nuclear facility, according to Iranian state media, which is located about 225km (140 miles) south of the capital.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the strikes – called Operation Rising Lion – were “a targeted military operation to roll back the Iranian threat to Israel’s very survival”.
He said the operation would “continue for as many days as it takes to remove the spread”.
“In recent months, Iran has taken steps that it has never taken before, steps to weaponise this enriched uranium.
“If not stopped, Iran could produce a nuclear weapon in a very short time. It could be a year. It could be within a few months, less than a year. This is a clear and present danger to Israel’s very survival.”
In his address, Netanyahu also thanked US President Donald Trump for “confronting Israel’s nuclear weapons programme”.
An Israeli military official told the BBC that Iran had enough nuclear material to create nuclear bombs “within days”.
Asking again: what would you expect Israel to do in the face of an imminent nuclear threat by a country that is committed, on record, to its annihilation?
The answer, of course, is you do anything you can, as quickly and decisively as possible.
My congratulations to Israel for its action. Not because I like the bombing of another country, but because I support the existence of Israel.
And if the rest of the world doesn’t like it?
Yawwwnnnnnn. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Business as usual.
