Teheran: Israel will regret any attack | Jerusalem Post — The interesting back-and-forth began with this article in the Sunday Times of London.
From the Sunday Times:
ISRAEL has drawn up secret plans to destroy Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons.
Two Israeli air force squadrons are training to blow up an Iranian facility using low-yield nuclear “bunker-busters”, according to several Israeli military sources.
The attack would be the first with nuclear weapons since 1945, when the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Israeli weapons would each have a force equivalent to one-fifteenth of the Hiroshima bomb.
From J-Post:
Israel on Sunday denied a British newspaper report that it is planning to attack Teherans nuclear sites using low-yield nuclear “bunker busters.”
Iran said any such attack would provoke a reaction and that “anyone who attacks will regret their actions very quickly.” According to Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Muhammad Ali Husseini, the report, published in The Sunday Times, confirmed the danger posed by Israels possession of nuclear weapons.
“This step even comes after the Israeli prime ministers admission, which revealed the fact that the Israeli regime has nuclear weapons in its possession,” Husseini said, referring to Prime Minister Ehud Olmerts slip-of-the-tongue last month, when he hinted on German television that Israel was among the worlds nuclear-equipped nations.
And so it goes. Not good.
This will widely be seen as an act of war by America. Make no mistake about that.
This will legitimize tactical nuclear war.
The fact that the USA has turned a blind-eye Israel’s nukes but are threatening war over Iran’s nukes is a real sore-point over here in the Arab world.
Bush has exacerbated this decades-old double standard with a new one — abandoning the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty for India but keeping it in place for Muslim countries.
So, basically, Hindu, Jewish and Christian countries get a pass but not Muslim countries. From their perspective, it’s all the more reason to secretly arm.
What will those crazy middle-eastern countries do next?
I know, lets fill the bombs full of ham! If America could save them from bacon raining from the skies, then I’m sure we could broker some kind of peace deal
And the bitter harvest of years of US compliance in the oppression of the Palestinians continues to grow and grow…………
To 3:
How can you compare Israel and India which are full democratic countries who never threatened a fellow UN country in annihilation to Iran and other Muslim countries (Like Syria). Iran is saying loudly that its goal is to destroy Israel . How would you act if a country is planning to destroy you and for that try to acquire nuke?? First embrace real democracy and human rights and then you can claim double standards but not before that.
@WINGZ
well, it’s not just that, but it’s a part of it.
Roger Waters said it best on his landmark album “Amused to Death”:
If any nation can deliver a nuclear strike under the eyes of the western world, then it’s Israel, for we have long agreed on the fact that they’re always the victim, never the offender. Wonder how long that’ll be true.
Being German, I could tell you stories how difficult it is to critique Israeli politics and avoid being called an antisemite. We’re quick with shutting down a discussion with that word.
Always a good to go to for a different view on Israel is Gush Shalom: http://zope.gush-shalom.org/index_en.html
pj
“Two Israeli air force squadrons are training to blow up an Iranian facility using low-yield nuclear “bunker-busters”, according to several Israeli military sources.”
good. maybe Israel has rediscovered it’s spine. I thought the liberals had completely femininzed them by now.
@avi
Calling Israel a democracy is, in my view, a euphemism.
Israel is a state of apartheit, where arab citizens still don’t have the same rights as jewish citizens (e.g. still can’t buy government land). Take a look at this:
[edited: pls use tinyurl]
Israel is also a state that executes death sentences by air-to-ground missiles and has this practice later sanctioned by the supreme court.
Make no mistake, Israel is a state in a very bad constitution when measured up against true western democracies. I’m making no claim as to why that is, but we should not mix them in to the peacful, trustworthy nations. They live on a minefield that has been prepared over long times in the last century, just as their neighbours do. None of them should be allowed to have nuclear weapons. None of them should be trusted to make sensible use of force.
pj
Israel has been saber rattling with nuclear threats for about a month now, through deniable sources. They will not tolerate a nuclear Iraq. If it takes tactical nukes, I have no doubt they’ll pull the trigger if all else fails.
Good God! Humanity marches blindly to anihilation: the self-fullfilling prophecy of Armagedon.
get a grip
it’ll never happen
and never by mistake
They done it conventionally before, and they’re crazy and arrogant enough to do it nuclear this time…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osirak
Does anyone also remember how Israel jailed a conscientious defector Vanunu? Israel jailed him for leaking the truth about their nuclear weapons. It seems like Israel is now feeling pretty cocky about announcing it. Afterall, America and Israel have finally prioritized their agendas along the same line… Terrorism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordechai_Vanunu
#6 avi wrote: >> How can you compare Israel and India which are full democratic countries who never threatened a fellow UN country in annihilation to Iran and other Muslim countries (Like Syria).
I don’t want to badmouth either India (where I’ve lived) or Israel but I can assure you that the neighbors of both those countries don’t share your benign view of them. Just the opposite, their neighbors generally view them as dangerous and aggressive.
I also lived in Pakistan where, of course, they feel very threatened by India. It is pretty-certain that America’s voiding the NNPT for India is fueling an arms race between those two countries. Just what the region doesn’t need. I think Bush and the GOP Congress were EXTREMELY short-sighted when they gave India a free-pass on the NNPT.
As for me, I’m a “ban the bomb” guy and I think the world really blew an opportunity to greatly reduce the global stockpile of nuclear bombs after the Cold War ended. I blame Clinton for not even trying to do this (even though I generally like the guy.)
Israel exist in a sea of hostility. They can only continue to exist through fear of retaliation. A nuclear neighbor will greatly reduce that threat, and put them in an old US/USSR MAD scenario. The world doesn’t need a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. Many nations privately want the Iran program destroyed, just not bad enough to be apart of it.
The sea of hostility? What a crock. When did hostility justify assassination and invasion — other than in the minds of megalomaniacs?
Israeli politics are as contemptible and as full of lies as the crew in DC — and for the same self-serving ends. Anyone with friends and relatives in Israel knows that democracy ended decades ago in that land of hypocrisy. It only exists in fund-raising adverts in the US and UK.
And please, please, let’s don’t waste too much time on separating the chickenhawks in DC from any assault on Iran. Those natural gas reserves haven’t been overlooked by the Midland Petroleum Club.
So explain this to me again–Iran says Israel has no right to exsist, then is developing weapons which can make that a reality and if Israel responds by destroying those developments they’re the bad guy?
Fact is by pursuing is extremist agenda Ahmadinajad has put Israel in a position where it’s not entirely unreasonable to give consideration to a first-strike option.
[“Two Israeli air force squadrons are training to blow up an Iranian facility using low-yield nuclear “bunker-busters”, according to several Israeli military sources.”]
Training for something is not the same thing a planning to do it. I hope there are at least American an British teams training for this type of assault as well.
I don’t think they are gonna do anything unless provoked, lets hope to god they don’t get provoked.
Andrew,
I, and a whole lot of others, are totally down on “preemptive doctrines” because of the Iraq war fraud.
If Iran were an imminent threat to Israel, many would feel differently but by most accounts, Iran is years away from deliverable nuke. Many in the west aren’t even sure the Iran has a weapons program. A nuke on them is WAY premature.
As for the US, I don’t see how this can be anything but bad. Even just the hint of it is bad for us. Many Muslims (most, probably) will believe that Israel did this as America’s proxy.
This attack, in their minds, will morally justify a retaliatory attack on US soil. Not just justify — but morally REQUIRE a return attack, in the same way that many Americans felt that the 911 attack demanded retaliation.
I don’t think I’ve mentioned that I’m not at all convinced this story is real.
Doesn’t it seem like classic PsyOps to make Iran feel paranoid?
But I think even bluffing like this will probably mean bad blow-back for the USA.
This has nothing to do with Iran being a Muslim country. None of the countries that are nuclear capable have threatened to wipe a country “off of the map”. This cannot be said for Iran. That is why there is such an uproar, which I totally agree with.
#27 I, and a whole lot of others, are totally down on “preemptive doctrines” because of the Iraq war fraud.
Not as easy to say when you live in a country that could be obliterated by 1 count’em 1 nuclear warhead and you have a guy a relatively short distance away that is building one and preaching to everyone that your country should be destroyed and has no right to exist.
sarcasm
Didn’t someone say that we had to fight in Iraq so that “the smoking chimp.. I mean gun, is not in the form of a mushroom cloud?”
/sarcasm
I certainly don’t agree with the proportionality of Israel’s retaliations against the Palestinians and during their Lebanon campaign. However, when another country (Iran) has threatened your destruction for years, consistently aided terrorist organizations who constantly harass your public safety/security, and threatens your complete destruction on the eve of their becoming nuclear capable… A tactical nuke would be going overboard and would garner an international reaction, but I would not be surprised nor upset if Israel did so. It would be consistent with historical actions by Israel, as well as a nuke strike on Israel would be consistent with historical actions by Iran. It would be smarter for Israel to use conventional weapons if they could positively destroy Iran’s nuke program. Using the nuke would probably only galvanize Iran to rebuild their nuke program to strike back.
#23, 24, 27 all note that people in power in Iran – including the current president and at least some of the clerics who are the power behind the throne – have said that Israel should be wiped off the face of the earth.
I wonder if these whackos realize how their own words will be used to justify an attack upon their country, or if they care. Probably not.
I think such an attack would be a terrible mistake myself, since Israel’s deterrent capability will prevent any Iranian attack, but the outrageous threats by the Iranian leadership have made a preemptive strike justifiable to many.
If you are going to use nuclear weapons don’t use half measures. Use as many multi-megaton weapons as it takes to annihilate your enemies for real. That includes population centers.
Perhaps it’s time to nuke Israel and finally end this murderous charade called the Middle East conflict that Israel, along with its lap dog the US, continues to exacerbate. Uh oh…duck everyone; here comes the low flying and socially murderous accusations of antisemitism that appears to be flying out of the pocket of every Israel supporter…(I think it’s the same one that attacked Jimmy Carter).
#30 good plan.. I assume you already have your prayer blanket, koran and you women dressed in burkas.
An armed and ready US is the only thing preventing the muslim dream of caliphate.
#30, Destroying Israel would not ease the tension in the Middle East whatsoever. If Israel did not exist (which it will forever), the Muslim extremists will not coincide with the moderate Muslims, as the extremists want their religion to be the religion of the whole world. I’m not going to call you an anti-semite, as you were expecting. Because of your use of the word “exacerbate”, I will just call you an over-developed redneck.