Barak to Rice: Israel will not accept nuclear Iran
Published:08.25.08, ynetnews.com
Defense Minister Ehud Barak met with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and told her that Israel is committed to the safety of its citizens while at the same time acting to improve the lives of the Palestinians in the West Bank.
Regarding Iran Barak said that the US must continue to impose sanctions on the country, as Israel would not accept a nuclear Iran and would remove no options from the table. (Roni Sofer)
---------------------------------------------
Obama: Act forcefully with Iran before Israel's back against wall
Published:
08.25.08, ynetnews.com
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama called on the US and its allies to "act forcefully with Iran" and "address the nuclear issue before Israel feels its back is against the wall." (Reuters)
-----------------------
[McCain on Iran: From February 2008]
The excerpt below is from the transcript of Senator McCain's speech.
SEN. MCCAIN: I intend to make unmistakably clear to Iran we will not permit a government that espouses the destruction of the state of Israel as its fondest wish and pledges undying enmity to the United States to possess the weapons to advance their malevolent ambitions.
---------
No endorsement of either candidate is implied.
....
I intend to defeat the threat by staying on offense and by marshalling every relevant agency of our government and our allies in the urgent necessity of defending the values, virtues and security of free people against those who despise all that is good about us.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Morris on Bostom's Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism
Israeli historian Benny Morris reviews The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism: From Sacred Texts to Solemn History, Edited by Andrew G. Bostom, along with another text.
The Darker Side by Benny Morris
The New Republic Published: Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Scholars in the West have begun to devote time and space to anti-Western jihadism and Muslim anti-Semitism--and a good thing, too, as these are very much on the contemporary international and Middle Eastern political and military agendas and, I fear, will grow in significance during the coming decades, as the Huntingtonian "clash of civilizations" widens.
That such a "clash" is going on is all too apparent, from the riots in Nigerian streets, where hundreds died following the announcement of an impending beauty pageant on Nigerian soil, to the murder of an Italian priest in Turkey following the publication of the Muhammad cartoons in Denmark.
Yet, Western liberals hesitate to tackle the subject of Muslim anti-Semitism, lest it seem anti-multicultural or provoke the hornet's nest of Allah's minions.
Even the use of the word "jihad" has become taboo among appeasers of Islam--and even among some non-appeasers, such as George W. Bush, who, like other Western leaders, refuses to call the phenomenon by its precise name (and the name that its own practitioners use). People speak of "international terrorism" when they should be speaking of "international Muslim (or Islamist) terrorism."
....
The story peddled by latter-day Arab propagandists (and reinforced by some Jewish scholars, who tended in decades past, sometimes for apologetic reasons of their own, to highlight the medieval "Golden Age" of Islamic Spanish Jewry)--that the Jewish minorities in the Muslim Arab countries before the advent of Zionism enjoyed a pleasant fraternal existence among the majority populations--has often been trotted out for the benefit of ignorant Westerners, to illustrate Muslim Arab tolerance of minorities and, politically, to promote plans for a multi-ethnic, one-state solution for Israel/ Palestine.
It also has taken hold among Western intellectuals. Thus as prominent a journalist as Lawrence Wright, in The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, writes that "until the end of World War II, there was little precedent in Islam for the anti-Semitism that was now warping the politics and society of the region. Jews had lived safely--although submissively--under Muslim rule for 1,200 years, enjoying full religious freedom," until Christian missionaries, Nazi propaganda, and the rise of Israel twisted their minds and propelled them toward anti-Semitism. ....
But this construct, in Bostom's view (and in my own), is wholly false. It flies in the face of the evidence, much of it presented in Bostom's tome. Certainly modern Christian influences, nationalist enthrallment, and Jewish nationalism (and its success) have added layers to traditional Islamic anti-Semitism. But they were building on firm foundations.
From its inception, Islam and its adherents, beginning with Muhammad himself, saw Judaism (and Christianity) as rival parent religions that had to be fought and overcome for Islam to succeed. The initial struggles, in the early seventh century, were existential, a matter of survival, for the Muslims bent on dominating Hijaz and then breaking out of the dismal, arid, thinly populated confines of Arabia. The first Muslims shared a deep sense of vulnerability and threat.
And so the Jews (and Christians) in the realms of expanding Islam were subjected to a regime based on an understanding or agreement--the dhimma--of subordination, marginalization, and discrimination. By the twelfth century, the great philosopher Maimonides, a successful Jew in the Islamic world, the doctor to sultans, was to lament: "God has cast us into the midst of this people, the nation of Ishmael, who persecute us severely, and who devise ways to harm us and to debase us.... None has matched [them] in debasing, humiliating, and hating us." And the situation was to remain more or less constant in most of the Islamic lands down to the twentieth century.
---
Bostom's book is important and deeply discouraging, but it suffers from flaws of organization and analysis. It is eclectic and chaotic; much is missing, even as there is too much repetition. In some ways the historical picture is even worse than he portrays it as being.
---- end ---
Bostom has issued a response to Morris' claim that "much is missing." See: article
The Darker Side by Benny Morris
The New Republic Published: Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Scholars in the West have begun to devote time and space to anti-Western jihadism and Muslim anti-Semitism--and a good thing, too, as these are very much on the contemporary international and Middle Eastern political and military agendas and, I fear, will grow in significance during the coming decades, as the Huntingtonian "clash of civilizations" widens.
That such a "clash" is going on is all too apparent, from the riots in Nigerian streets, where hundreds died following the announcement of an impending beauty pageant on Nigerian soil, to the murder of an Italian priest in Turkey following the publication of the Muhammad cartoons in Denmark.
Yet, Western liberals hesitate to tackle the subject of Muslim anti-Semitism, lest it seem anti-multicultural or provoke the hornet's nest of Allah's minions.
Even the use of the word "jihad" has become taboo among appeasers of Islam--and even among some non-appeasers, such as George W. Bush, who, like other Western leaders, refuses to call the phenomenon by its precise name (and the name that its own practitioners use). People speak of "international terrorism" when they should be speaking of "international Muslim (or Islamist) terrorism."
....
The story peddled by latter-day Arab propagandists (and reinforced by some Jewish scholars, who tended in decades past, sometimes for apologetic reasons of their own, to highlight the medieval "Golden Age" of Islamic Spanish Jewry)--that the Jewish minorities in the Muslim Arab countries before the advent of Zionism enjoyed a pleasant fraternal existence among the majority populations--has often been trotted out for the benefit of ignorant Westerners, to illustrate Muslim Arab tolerance of minorities and, politically, to promote plans for a multi-ethnic, one-state solution for Israel/ Palestine.
It also has taken hold among Western intellectuals. Thus as prominent a journalist as Lawrence Wright, in The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, writes that "until the end of World War II, there was little precedent in Islam for the anti-Semitism that was now warping the politics and society of the region. Jews had lived safely--although submissively--under Muslim rule for 1,200 years, enjoying full religious freedom," until Christian missionaries, Nazi propaganda, and the rise of Israel twisted their minds and propelled them toward anti-Semitism. ....
But this construct, in Bostom's view (and in my own), is wholly false. It flies in the face of the evidence, much of it presented in Bostom's tome. Certainly modern Christian influences, nationalist enthrallment, and Jewish nationalism (and its success) have added layers to traditional Islamic anti-Semitism. But they were building on firm foundations.
From its inception, Islam and its adherents, beginning with Muhammad himself, saw Judaism (and Christianity) as rival parent religions that had to be fought and overcome for Islam to succeed. The initial struggles, in the early seventh century, were existential, a matter of survival, for the Muslims bent on dominating Hijaz and then breaking out of the dismal, arid, thinly populated confines of Arabia. The first Muslims shared a deep sense of vulnerability and threat.
And so the Jews (and Christians) in the realms of expanding Islam were subjected to a regime based on an understanding or agreement--the dhimma--of subordination, marginalization, and discrimination. By the twelfth century, the great philosopher Maimonides, a successful Jew in the Islamic world, the doctor to sultans, was to lament: "God has cast us into the midst of this people, the nation of Ishmael, who persecute us severely, and who devise ways to harm us and to debase us.... None has matched [them] in debasing, humiliating, and hating us." And the situation was to remain more or less constant in most of the Islamic lands down to the twentieth century.
---
Bostom's book is important and deeply discouraging, but it suffers from flaws of organization and analysis. It is eclectic and chaotic; much is missing, even as there is too much repetition. In some ways the historical picture is even worse than he portrays it as being.
---- end ---
Bostom has issued a response to Morris' claim that "much is missing." See: article
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Iran's Ahmadinejad in new verbal attack on Israel
Aug 23 04:58 PM US/Eastern AFP
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad renewed his verbal attacks on arch-foe Israel on Saturday, accusing it of dragging the world into turmoil and predicting its demise.
"About 2,000 organised Zionists and 7,000 to 8,000 agents of Zionism have dragged the world into turmoil," Ahmadinejad told a rally in the central Iranian city of Arak carried live on state television.
He said that if the West does not restrain Zionism, "the powerful hand of the nations will clean these sources of corruption from the face of the earth," without specifying which nations.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(August 20) AMIA slams Iranian President's remarks
Argentina. AJN (20/08/08).- AMIA's Secretary General, Julio Schlosser, warned in a dialogue with Argentina's Jewish News Agency (AJN) that Ahmadinejad poses a "risk" to the international community. He also called on the international community to condemn "the harsh remarks" of the Iranian leader, who maintained that "the extirpation of the corrupt Zionist regime" is close.
In relation to the warning sent by the Israeli government to its citizens travelling abroad for possible kidnapping attempts by Hezbollah, the leader said that Argentina "is not exempt from international terrorism".
AMIA's Secretary General, Julio Schlosser, warned on Wednesday that the Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, "poses a risk to the Jewish community" and said that Argentina "is not exempt from international terrorism", especially after the attacks perpetrated against the Jewish center and the Israeli Embassy, in 1994 and 1992.
In statements to Argentina's Jewish News Agency (AJN), Schlosser condemned the remarks recently made by the leader of the Islamic Republic, saying that "the extirpation of the corrupt Zionist regime" is close .
Schlosser also urged international organizations to condemn the Iranian President's statements, in light of his repeatedly threatening Israel and the international community.
The leader said that it "no analysis can be made of the statements made by this person", referring to Ahmadinejad.
"We are used to the harsh remarks of this man, we are not surprised, that is why it is not possible to make a political analysis of this statement", Schlosser insisted.
He also called for the international condemnation of the statements made by the Iranian leader. "The international community is supposed to respond to this kind of statements", AMIA's Secretary General said.
"This man (referring to Ahmadinejad) has always maintained a constant behaviour, and this is not the only reason why he is posing a risk on the international community, he does not abide by the United Nations resolutions and continues with the nuclear power plan", Schlosser stated.
Regarding the warning sent by the Israeli government to the Israeli citizens travelling abroad, on possible kidnapping attempts from Hezbollah, the leader noted that Argentina has been a victim of the international terrorism and that it is not exempt of being attacked again.
"The Tri-Border is an open door and, if someone is telling us 'be careful', we will", the AMIA official said in reference to the warning sent by the Israeli government.
Nevertheless, Schlosser highlighted that this threat "is not a problem to be concerned about, but a problem to take care of and to take all the necessary precautionary measures."
That is why Schlosser held that "security measures have to be taken to be alert, as alert as we are every day, and a bit more".
Aug 23 04:58 PM US/Eastern AFP
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad renewed his verbal attacks on arch-foe Israel on Saturday, accusing it of dragging the world into turmoil and predicting its demise.
"About 2,000 organised Zionists and 7,000 to 8,000 agents of Zionism have dragged the world into turmoil," Ahmadinejad told a rally in the central Iranian city of Arak carried live on state television.
He said that if the West does not restrain Zionism, "the powerful hand of the nations will clean these sources of corruption from the face of the earth," without specifying which nations.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(August 20) AMIA slams Iranian President's remarks
Argentina. AJN (20/08/08).- AMIA's Secretary General, Julio Schlosser, warned in a dialogue with Argentina's Jewish News Agency (AJN) that Ahmadinejad poses a "risk" to the international community. He also called on the international community to condemn "the harsh remarks" of the Iranian leader, who maintained that "the extirpation of the corrupt Zionist regime" is close.
In relation to the warning sent by the Israeli government to its citizens travelling abroad for possible kidnapping attempts by Hezbollah, the leader said that Argentina "is not exempt from international terrorism".
AMIA's Secretary General, Julio Schlosser, warned on Wednesday that the Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, "poses a risk to the Jewish community" and said that Argentina "is not exempt from international terrorism", especially after the attacks perpetrated against the Jewish center and the Israeli Embassy, in 1994 and 1992.
In statements to Argentina's Jewish News Agency (AJN), Schlosser condemned the remarks recently made by the leader of the Islamic Republic, saying that "the extirpation of the corrupt Zionist regime" is close .
Schlosser also urged international organizations to condemn the Iranian President's statements, in light of his repeatedly threatening Israel and the international community.
The leader said that it "no analysis can be made of the statements made by this person", referring to Ahmadinejad.
"We are used to the harsh remarks of this man, we are not surprised, that is why it is not possible to make a political analysis of this statement", Schlosser insisted.
He also called for the international condemnation of the statements made by the Iranian leader. "The international community is supposed to respond to this kind of statements", AMIA's Secretary General said.
"This man (referring to Ahmadinejad) has always maintained a constant behaviour, and this is not the only reason why he is posing a risk on the international community, he does not abide by the United Nations resolutions and continues with the nuclear power plan", Schlosser stated.
Regarding the warning sent by the Israeli government to the Israeli citizens travelling abroad, on possible kidnapping attempts from Hezbollah, the leader noted that Argentina has been a victim of the international terrorism and that it is not exempt of being attacked again.
"Argentina has already been a target (of a terrorist attack) and ifSchlosser also spoke about the risk that the Tri-Border area represents for Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay.
it continues to be one today, we do not know, but the only target in the region has been Argentina", he noted.
"The Tri-Border is an open door and, if someone is telling us 'be careful', we will", the AMIA official said in reference to the warning sent by the Israeli government.
Nevertheless, Schlosser highlighted that this threat "is not a problem to be concerned about, but a problem to take care of and to take all the necessary precautionary measures."
That is why Schlosser held that "security measures have to be taken to be alert, as alert as we are every day, and a bit more".
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Sooner or later, someone's going to have to start paying attention to this stuff.
Ahmadinejad says Israel will be removed soon
The Associated Press Published: August 20, 2008
TEHRAN, Iran: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is calling Israel a "germ of corruption" that will be "removed soon."
The comments were posted Wednesday on his presidential Web site. They appear to be part of an effort to defuse criticism by hard-liners over recent remarks made by a high-level official.
Last week, Iranian media quoted Vice President Esfandiar Rahim Mashai as saying Iranians were "friends of all people in the world — even Israelis."
The comments were rare from a government official in Iran, whose president regularly calls for Israel's destruction. They sparked domestic criticism of Mashai, with some officials calling for his resignation.
[By the way, Mashai, the great friend of Israel, apparently has a nuanced view of friendship --Mark
Following are excerpts from an interview with Iranian Vice President Esfandyar Rahim Mashai, which aired on Al-Manar TV on July 28, 2008. Mashai reportedly said earlier this week that Iran is the friend of the citizens in Israel and the U.S. The translation is based on the Arabic voiceover. [From MEMRI]
Esfandyar Rahim Mashai: The Islamic Republic of Iran did not, does not, and will not accept the legitimacy of this Zionist entity. No Iranian citizen or party will ever accept this... ]
In 2005, Ahmadinejad said he believed Israel should be "wiped off the map."
Ahmadinejad says Israel will be removed soon
The Associated Press Published: August 20, 2008
TEHRAN, Iran: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is calling Israel a "germ of corruption" that will be "removed soon."
The comments were posted Wednesday on his presidential Web site. They appear to be part of an effort to defuse criticism by hard-liners over recent remarks made by a high-level official.
Last week, Iranian media quoted Vice President Esfandiar Rahim Mashai as saying Iranians were "friends of all people in the world — even Israelis."
The comments were rare from a government official in Iran, whose president regularly calls for Israel's destruction. They sparked domestic criticism of Mashai, with some officials calling for his resignation.
[By the way, Mashai, the great friend of Israel, apparently has a nuanced view of friendship --Mark
Following are excerpts from an interview with Iranian Vice President Esfandyar Rahim Mashai, which aired on Al-Manar TV on July 28, 2008. Mashai reportedly said earlier this week that Iran is the friend of the citizens in Israel and the U.S. The translation is based on the Arabic voiceover. [From MEMRI]
Esfandyar Rahim Mashai: The Islamic Republic of Iran did not, does not, and will not accept the legitimacy of this Zionist entity. No Iranian citizen or party will ever accept this... ]
In 2005, Ahmadinejad said he believed Israel should be "wiped off the map."
Monday, August 18, 2008
Israel absorbs 75 new immigrants from Georgia during past week in wake of war; Immigrant Absorption Ministry approves assistance plan for newcomers; one immigrant says he'll do everything 'to defend the homeland'
Yael Branovsky Ynetnews.com August 16, 2008
The war in Georgia may be waning, but those who fled its horrors are still living with its aftermath. And dozens of them have found new homes in Israel. A total of 75 new immigrants arrived in Israel last week from Georgia, with most of them settling in the cities of Bat Yam and Ashdod.
The Immigrant Absorption Ministry has already approved an assistance package for the newcomers that will include Hebrew schooling, employment offers and subsidized rent. Underprivileged immigrants will also receive a grant of several thousand shekels. According to the Jewish Agency, some 120 additional Georgians are preparing to immigrate to Israel within the coming months.
The Memisashvili family abandoned its home in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi and arrived in Israel last week. Vaj'a and his wife, both in their thirties, and their two children, aged 3 and 8, have taken up temporary residence in Kibbutz Messila in northern Israel, as part of a collaborative program between the Jewish Agency and the Kibbutz Movement.
"I feel like I've come home," said a proud Vaj'a, who has already managed to squeeze in a visit to Jerusalem. "Here, I am not afraid of a war starting. As an Israeli citizen I will do whatever is necessary to defend the homeland. I feel like we've come home, and I know everything will work out for the best."
The kibbutz, he says, has welcomed his family with open arms. "I have a lot of family in Israel, and I heard stories of when they first immigrated, I was surprised by the way people responded to us. They come over, they visit, they bring us clothes and things for our home, and we were even invited over for Shabbat dinner. It warms the heart."
Natia Zurshvili, a single mother of two, was a resident of Gori. The town became the epicenter of the violent clashes between Russia and Georgia, and is currently still under Russian occupation.
"Our house was bombed, almost all of it collapsed," she told Ynet. "My father took me, he children and my mother to Tbilisi, and then went back to collect our belongings. Now he can't get out of there, because the Russians have closed it down. But he will immigrate too, because there's no choice left. There is nothing there."
Zurshvili, her children are currently staying at an absorption center in Ashdod along with her sister and her sister's family.
"We came with nothing, not even a change of clothes," recalls Natia. "It's hard to describe the hell we've been through. I'm in daily contact with my father, he doesn't leave the house – what's left of it, and we're very worried about him."
"We came with nothing, not even a change of clothes," recalls Natia. "It's hard to describe the hell we've been through. I'm in daily contact with my father, he doesn't leave the house – what's left of it, and we're very worried about him."
In the coming days Zurshvili is expected to move into a larger apartment along with her children and mother, and she has been declared eligible for the welfare grant.
"I'm still in shock because of everything that's happened, but I hope we'll manage. I'm an accountant, I hope I can find work and make a living here."
Memorial in China for 11 Israeli Athletes Killed in '72
(IsraelNN.com) A ceremony in memory of the 11 Israeli athletes murdered by PLO terrorists during the 1972 Munich Olympics will be held this evening in Beijing's Olympic Village. In addition to the current Olympic Commission representatives, the head of the German Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, and Honorary President of the International Olympic Committee (I.O.C.) Juan Antonio Samaranch will take part in the memorial.
In 1972, a Fatah terrorist front group going under the name of Black September infiltrated the Olympic Village in Germany and took 11 Israeli athletes hostage. After negotiations, and a botched rescue attempt, the bound Israeli captives were killed. The mastermind of the Munich attack, Mohammed Daoud Oudeh, or Abu Daoud, revealed in his 1999 memoir that current Palestinian Authority Chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas handled the financing for the Munich attack.
(IsraelNN.com) A ceremony in memory of the 11 Israeli athletes murdered by PLO terrorists during the 1972 Munich Olympics will be held this evening in Beijing's Olympic Village. In addition to the current Olympic Commission representatives, the head of the German Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, and Honorary President of the International Olympic Committee (I.O.C.) Juan Antonio Samaranch will take part in the memorial.
In 1972, a Fatah terrorist front group going under the name of Black September infiltrated the Olympic Village in Germany and took 11 Israeli athletes hostage. After negotiations, and a botched rescue attempt, the bound Israeli captives were killed. The mastermind of the Munich attack, Mohammed Daoud Oudeh, or Abu Daoud, revealed in his 1999 memoir that current Palestinian Authority Chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas handled the financing for the Munich attack.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Saudi Columnist: Bomb Iran Now, Let Chips Fall Where They May
or, "Iran is not the problem [of the U.S. Israel, and Europe alone] "--Mark
In his August 4, 2008 column in the liberal Arab e-journal Elaph, Saudi columnist Saleh Al-Rashed argued that the Gulf states should urge the West to attack Iran before it acquires nuclear weapons.
Following are excerpts from the column: [1] as translated by and aggregated from MEMRI
A Nuclear Iran is Like a Nuclear Bin Laden
"'There's no avoiding what there's no avoiding' - this adage came to mind when I read the pronouncement by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps commander Mohammad 'Ali Ja'fari, who said: 'My country is easily capable of closing the Straits of Hormuz, the main passageway for oil freighters, if the country is attacked due to its nuclear program.'
"In my estimation, confronting this country, which is trying to gain the time necessary to acquire nuclear weapons, is unavoidable. The possession of nuclear weapons by a state like Iran, which is ideological to the core, is more or less like Osama bin Laden having a nuclear bomb. They are two of a kind. Despite the difference in their turbans and in their religious beliefs, the end result is the same.
"Perhaps it is our bad luck that we [i.e. Saudi Arabia] and the Gulf states would be the first to suffer from a military confrontation with Iran and from its response, and the problem would become even more grave if Iran succeeded in closing the Straits of Hormuz, as the IRGC commander threatened. But our situation with Iran is like that of the sick man who refuses to have his illness treated with cauterization. Yes, the pain of the burning is horrible, but this malady can only be treated through this military confrontation -cauterization.
"History has taught us that ideological countries only pay heed to victory over their ideology… They never accept any halfway situation, even when they find themselves on the brink of disaster."
"Confrontation Is The Solution"; "The Absolute Priority Must Be Our Strategic Security in the Gulf"
"Confrontation is the solution, and there is no solution but confrontation. The game of the carrot and the stick played by the U.S. and E.U. will be to no avail.
"At present, we are suffering from two things: Iran's attempts [to gain] regional hegemony, and its attempts to impose its influence via its sectarian allies - the fifth column of Arab Shi'ite fundamentalists. Imagine what Iran's influence, hegemony, and fifth column would be like if Iran had a nuclear bomb.
"Perhaps it is a strange coincidence that, this time around, our strategic interests coincide with those of Israel. The regime of the mullahs in Iran is our enemy, and at the same time it is an enemy not just of Israel, but of world peace and security.
"I know that the Arab demagogues stand together indiscriminately with anyone who is against Israel and America. But we need to not be swept away by these demagogues as we were in the past. This time, the absolute priority must be our strategic security in the Gulf, which is threatened by Iran - even if this comes at the expense of the Palestinian cause.
"In politics, nothing prevents you from allying with the devil for the sake of your interests. This is what confronting the Iranian danger - which is close - demands of us. This issue, in my estimation, cannot suffer delay or hesitation. Every passing day benefits Iran.
"Thus, we need to push the world powers, and especially the U.S. and the E.U., towards military confrontation to neutralize the Iranian enemy, whatever the cost, before the nuclear bomb makes it too late - even if it is against the will of the Arabs of the north."
[1] www.elaph.com, August 4, 2008.
or, "Iran is not the problem [of the U.S. Israel, and Europe alone] "--Mark
In his August 4, 2008 column in the liberal Arab e-journal Elaph, Saudi columnist Saleh Al-Rashed argued that the Gulf states should urge the West to attack Iran before it acquires nuclear weapons.
Following are excerpts from the column: [1] as translated by and aggregated from MEMRI
A Nuclear Iran is Like a Nuclear Bin Laden
"'There's no avoiding what there's no avoiding' - this adage came to mind when I read the pronouncement by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps commander Mohammad 'Ali Ja'fari, who said: 'My country is easily capable of closing the Straits of Hormuz, the main passageway for oil freighters, if the country is attacked due to its nuclear program.'
"In my estimation, confronting this country, which is trying to gain the time necessary to acquire nuclear weapons, is unavoidable. The possession of nuclear weapons by a state like Iran, which is ideological to the core, is more or less like Osama bin Laden having a nuclear bomb. They are two of a kind. Despite the difference in their turbans and in their religious beliefs, the end result is the same.
"Perhaps it is our bad luck that we [i.e. Saudi Arabia] and the Gulf states would be the first to suffer from a military confrontation with Iran and from its response, and the problem would become even more grave if Iran succeeded in closing the Straits of Hormuz, as the IRGC commander threatened. But our situation with Iran is like that of the sick man who refuses to have his illness treated with cauterization. Yes, the pain of the burning is horrible, but this malady can only be treated through this military confrontation -cauterization.
"History has taught us that ideological countries only pay heed to victory over their ideology… They never accept any halfway situation, even when they find themselves on the brink of disaster."
"Confrontation Is The Solution"; "The Absolute Priority Must Be Our Strategic Security in the Gulf"
"Confrontation is the solution, and there is no solution but confrontation. The game of the carrot and the stick played by the U.S. and E.U. will be to no avail.
"At present, we are suffering from two things: Iran's attempts [to gain] regional hegemony, and its attempts to impose its influence via its sectarian allies - the fifth column of Arab Shi'ite fundamentalists. Imagine what Iran's influence, hegemony, and fifth column would be like if Iran had a nuclear bomb.
"Perhaps it is a strange coincidence that, this time around, our strategic interests coincide with those of Israel. The regime of the mullahs in Iran is our enemy, and at the same time it is an enemy not just of Israel, but of world peace and security.
"I know that the Arab demagogues stand together indiscriminately with anyone who is against Israel and America. But we need to not be swept away by these demagogues as we were in the past. This time, the absolute priority must be our strategic security in the Gulf, which is threatened by Iran - even if this comes at the expense of the Palestinian cause.
"In politics, nothing prevents you from allying with the devil for the sake of your interests. This is what confronting the Iranian danger - which is close - demands of us. This issue, in my estimation, cannot suffer delay or hesitation. Every passing day benefits Iran.
"Thus, we need to push the world powers, and especially the U.S. and the E.U., towards military confrontation to neutralize the Iranian enemy, whatever the cost, before the nuclear bomb makes it too late - even if it is against the will of the Arabs of the north."
[1] www.elaph.com, August 4, 2008.
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