The Most Dangerous Enemy

The Most Dangerous Enemy

Prof. Paul Eidelberg

Iran has been at war with the United States and Israel for thirty years—ever since the Iranian Revolution initiated by the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979. I dare say this is the most far-reaching revolution in human history. Iran is the epicenter of international terrorism. Its ultimate goal, however, is to restore the Persian Empire and spread Shia Islam throughout the world. This is not a mere fantasy.

Iran now controls southern Iraq, including Basra from which Iraq ships its oil through the Strait of Hormuz. All of Iraq will fall to Iran once the Americans leave. Meanwhile, Iran is gaining decisive influence on Syria. Iran’s proxy, Hezbollah, virtually rules Lebanon. Hamas is another Iranian proxy, and Tehran has its sights on the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority.

Of global significance, Iran controls the world’s spigot of oil flowing through the Persian Gulf, This nation of 70 million people can wreck the world’s economy. If Iran’s economic power is backed by nuclear weapons—in process of development—Iran will control the Middle East, and more.

With control of the vast oil resources of the Persian Gulf, a nuclear-armed Iran, with its long-range Silkworm ballistic missiles, would cow an already cowed Europe, without whose economy the American economy would utterly collapse, period.
Hence, the question: “Will the U.S. or Israel launch a preemptive attack on Iran, the epicenter of Islamic imperialism?” At stake is the survival of Western civilization. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s maledictions, “death to America” and “death to Israel,” speak of a world without Christianity and Judaism.

Bearing this in mind, in December 2007, the U.S. National Intelligence Estimate reported that Iran had ceased its nuclear development program in 2003. John Bolton, former US Ambassador to the United Nations, wrote an excoriating critique of the NIE report in The Washington Post (December 7, 2007). He said, in conclusion, “…the NIE opens the way for Iran to achieve its military nuclear ambitions in an essentially unmolested fashion, to the detriment of us all.”
This is precisely why Mr. Bolton wrote an op-ed piece in The Wall Street Journal virtually encouraging Israel to launch a pre-emptive strike against Iran. He boldly asserted that the US should support Israel before, during, and after such a strike—should it take place.

But Mr. Bolton surely knows that Israel’s government, led by “we’re tired of being courageous” Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, cannot even muster the wherewithal for a serious attack on Hamas in Gaza. Thousands of Hamas missiles have depopulated the Israeli town of Sderot, yet Israel’s government, despite the overwhelming power of the Israel Defense Forces, twiddles its thumbs. To expect this pusillanimous government to attack Iran, when even the United States, with far more power and far less risk, refrains from doing so, is hardly realistic.
Nor will things look brighter if Olmert if replaced by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. As the newly elected head of the anti-Zionist Kadima Party, Livni is committed to a Palestinian state on Israel’s doorstep—enough to indicate that her party lacks the backbone for an attack on Iran.
What about Benjamin Netanyahu, favored to become Israel’s prime minister in the next national election (in February)? Mr. Netanyahu’s record is not an encouraging, if only because, as a minister in the Sharon government, he voted for withdrawal from Gaza, contrary to the warnings of Israel’s highest military and intelligence officials.

The most outstanding member of the Knesset that has candidly addressed the Iranian threat is Dr. Arieh Eldad. He knows that five years of negotiations with Tehran have only given Iran more time to complete its development of nuclear weapons. He knows that economic sanctions have been utterly futile. He knows that Tehran scorns UN Resolutions. Hence, he forthrightly declares that only military means can stop Iran’s nuclear weapon development.

Therefore, barring an unlikely U.S. attack on Iran—more unlikely under the leadership of Barack Obama—the government of Israel must employ all conventional and, if necessary, non-conventional weapons to prevent another Holocaust.