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I am travelling now and so have been very much out of the loop for the past several days. But I have noticed a couple of things that I think need to be pointed out. First, there is Syria. Today it was reported that the Syrian regime is threatening Israel with chemical weapons. According to Reuters' report:
Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi said the army would not use chemical weapons to crush rebels but could use them against forces from outside the country.
"Any chemical or bacterial weapons will never be used ... during the crisis in Syria regardless of the developments," Makdissi said. "These weapons are stored and secured by Syrian military forces and under its direct supervision and will never be used unless Syria faces external aggression."
Israel of course has not threatened to attack Syria. Rather Israel has made clear that it reserves the right to use force to prevent the embattled terror sponsor Bashar Assad from transferring his chemical and biological weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
And now Syria is responding by threatening to attack Israel with chemical weapons.
I don't want to trivialize this threat by bringing it down to the level of politics. And so at the outset, it is crucial that we recognize just how serious things have become.
First, there is Iran. Iran through Hezbollah just massacred Israeli tourists in Bulgaria.
Iran is probably past the point of no return with its nuclear weapons program. And so today, when we speak of a military option for preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, probably the only viable option is to kill the vast majority of Iran's nuclear scientists. One or two top guys will not be enough. Today anyone and everyone in possession of nuclear know how in Iran should have a target mark on his head and should be killed. Nothing short of this will do if we are determined to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power.
I don't know if it is possible to carry this out. And I don't know if it is possible to find and destroy Syria's chemical and biological weapons. But just as Iran has done with its nuclear weapons program, Syria has pointed its gun at Israel's head. We know where they want to take this. And if Israel is to survive this Islamist tsunami, things are likely to get very ugly, and very violent very quickly.
To confront these massive threats, Israel could really use American support, even if it is only rhetorical.
Now that we have this cleared up, we need to recognize how it is that we have reached this incredibly dangerous time. Let us start with Syria.
Over the weekend, the main headline about the US response to the war in Syria was that the US is concerned about Israel acting unilaterally.
The Syrian government is daily engaging in massacre. Its opponents, for their part are increasingly open about their jihadist ideology, spurring the Christians of Syria to flee from their homes, and the Alawite minority to fear for their lives.
But what makes the Americans most fearful is that these competing groups of terror sponsors and mass murderers will find their arsenals of genocide destroyed by Israel, acting in self-defense.
If this sounds familiar, it is. This is, after all, Obama's primary concern about Iran and its nuclear weapons program.
Speaking to reporters in a conference call on Monday Obama's foreign policy surrogates claimed there is still "time and space" (whatever that means), to reach some sort of a deal with Iran. It bears noting that in the best of cases, that deal would not end Iran's nuclear weapons program. It could temporarily slow down some of Iran's uranium enrichment but probably wouldn't even do that. At this point, the most probable deal would have no impact whatsoever on Iran's progress towards a nuclear arsenal but would serve to slow down the imposition of sanctions on Iranian oil exports. That is, at this point, if a deal is reached with all the "time and space" available to Obama, such a deal will only redound to Iran's benefit, including to the benefit of Iran's nuclear weapons program, which, I repeat, will not be cancelled, stopped or diminished.
Many have criticized Obama by arguing that he has no policy on Syria. But actually, he does. He sees Syria in the same light that he sees Iran. In both cases, his main concern is to prevent Israel from defending itself.
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Israel has, through successive governments permitted the exponential growth of it's enemy's potential to wreak havoc upon it's civilian population. However, to his credit B. Netanyahu has managed to not only slow the momentum down, but to chalk up some increases in deterrence. It had become quite obvious to me and so I assume most observers, that the mistakes made by The Gov't of Rabin, Peres, Netanyahu term one,Barak, Sharon and last but not least, Ehud Olmert created a certain momentum in the direction of a high negative entropy and weakening of Israel. Olmert summarized it quite brilliantly when he made his puzzling comments regarding how Israelis were tired of winning.
It was, I suppose clever in an evil way how the so called quartet enticed Israel to make one sided concessions and then reneg on supporting Israel when it's "peace partners" responded to kindness/reason with missiles and suicide bombers. Israel was in a daze and plump for the picking. The Quartet had their best man for the job, waiting in the wings except this guy was a woman and it took another woman, one with the guts to call, you know who out for what she was and still is, a discrepancy. Caroline Glick did that over a long time. We know it was not easy for her but she never quit. Understandings were obviously made with Livni regarding the cost to her for her promotion to PM, that was what Israel would give in return for hopefully only light acts of terrorism; at a bare minimum, A Palestinian State, ill defined, in over 95% of Judea and Samaria and Gaza. Also Israel would have under this person, compromised away Jerusalem and the so called right of return. It was as good as signed, except for two things, one was Netanyahu and the other was Barak. Between the two of them they built a firewall untouchable by the quartet. Both of them, Barak and Netanyahu had been PM and made huge errors. They owed us and they knew it. Well you boys still have a long long ways to go, but for one, I am grateful you blocked Livni when you did.
You are right,Caroline. And, I'm afraid that his intentions for Israel the same as for America.
I am hoping that Israel has (or will have) gotten word through back channels (most likely via Russia or even Turkey) to Syria that She (Israel) has no interest in this fighting going on in Syria since both sides are Israel haters. However, any chemical or biological attack from Syria or Syrian proxies on Israel will result in a tactical nuclear strike on Syria. James Baker (that odious man) essentially told the same thing to the Iraqis prior to the First Gulf War. I hope that Israel has its own stockpiles of chemical-biological weapons handy too.
Obama is bad, but not that bad Caroline. You give him too much credit when you say his purpose is a defenseless Israel. He can't think that far ahead. His actions (or inaction)are the result of confusion. He simply doesn't know what he's doing. So he flounders around hoping to wiggle through the election with some scotch tape policy in the middle east that will keep enough gullible voters as confused as he is.
I love your writing, Caroline; and I respect your perspective. We share a conviction that Israel has every right to take Iran at its word and act decisively and preemptively in defense of its people. But we part ways on the better action to take.
Wouldn't it be more moral to cut off the head of the snake--assassinate the Iranian leadership, rather than those feckless nuclear engineers? As long as we're stirring the bee's nest(and mixing metaphors), why target the worker bees? Why not go after the queen?
I realize an international agreement forbids such Machiavellian measures; but mass survival trumps gentlemen's agreements. And fear of certain death might change the minds of a few of Iran's supposed believers--perhaps after a few assassinations of their colleagues.
Ehud Olmert should be put on trial for his mishandling of the 2006 Lebanon War.
guys as much as we don't want it. This is leading us to the battle of Amagedon. there is going to be a total boycott of Israel, even by America itself. Israel will stand alone again with Its maker G*d Almighty. Soon Moses and Elijah willbe on the scene in Israel.
"Iran is probably past the point of no return with its nuclear weapons program." John Bolton recently said that Israel, if it had wanted to, should have attacked Iran long ago. He clearly thinks it's too late. I'd take his opinion any time: he's knowledgeable, realistic and honest.
Mike,
Obama is not only that bad, he is worse. It is only restrictions on him by American democracy that prevents him going openly for the destruction of Israel.
Ehud Olmert should be put on trial for his mishandling of the 2006 Lebanon War.
Israel had the opportunity to destroy Hezbollah then but now they face a much stronger Hezbollah; a destabilized Syria; an increasingly hostile Egypt and an Iran that swears to annihilate the Jewish State.
By doing nothing Israel has put itself in far more danger than even in 2009 when the Olmert Gov't once again failed to eliminate a sworn enemy of Israel, Hamas.
According to John Bolton Israel must act preemptively NOW. He says a strike on Iran is now called for since the slaughter of Israeli tourists in Bulgaria.
Israel must move to sieze the WMD in Syria's arsenal and not wait for the US CIA to find them.
Less than two years ago the U.S. considered Syria to be a moderate state and a potential ally in the Middle East.
Sec of State Clinton assured us over and over again that Pres Assad was someone she considered a valuable friend in bringing about an Israeli / Palestinian peace.
Obviously this administration goals in the mid East remain difficult to comprehend, or are they?
The events taking place in Syria are very significant in the light of Bible prophecy. Iran wants Syria as an ally, but prophecy shows the Assad regime will collapse. Even now Iran is preparing for the time when Assad is out of power. New alliances are on the horizon in the Middle East. America's influence in the region will continue to diminish. Germany's influence in the region will continue to grow stronger. Germany kept a low profile during the civil war in Libya. But Germany has a keen interest in Syria and for good reason. Berlin has made it clear that if military intervention takes place "German participation should be assured" according to German-Foreign-Policy.com. The reason Germany is far more interested in Syria than it was in Libya is because, as one observer writes, it "meshes with Berlin's larger geopolitical and strategic ambitions for the Middle East...One of Germany's primary aims in the Middle East is to develop an axis with Middle Eastern states that oppose Iran." Also, Lebanon's alliance with Iran is about to be broken. Syria & Lebanon will form an alliance with Germany against the "King of the South." Some say Iran is the King of the South - others say Saudi Arabia or Egypt is the King of the South. Regardless as to the specific identity of the King of the South, one event is certain: the "King of the North" [Germany] will attack & destroy the King of the South along with the nations that have an alliance with the King of the South. So according to the Psalm 83 prophecy, who will be on Germany's future blitzkrieg "hit list?" Who are the nations that will go down to defeat in the Middle East when this final revival of the Holy Roman Empire suddenly appears to stun the world? Ten nations in Europe will form a new superpower led by Germany. This new European superpower will prove to be the greatest economic and military machine the world has ever seen. It will also be the greatest war making machine the world has ever seen when a new "strong man" who is now waiting in the wings gets control of the EU. It looks like the nations on Germany's future hit list will be: Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Libya & Ethiopia.