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.
Does anyone else see this as the perfect counter to global warming? Drop a few nukes, and we can benefit from the effects of a nuclear winter!
[laugh, it’s a joke]
#29 – I agree. It’s a bummer that nothing larger than 50 megatons has ever been actually tested.
#32: so in essence what you’re saying is this: Arabs are uncivilized people who could not even live in peace with themselves.
Not quite what I’ve seen in the Arabs, I’ve met so far.
I fear I’d have to say that every single Israeli I’ve met so far was more militant than any single Arab. Granted, I’m talking about well-eductated people on both sides. There might still be a majority of not-educated Arabs that are violently militant, but I don’t want to know about the extremist jewish that I havn’t met yet.
But, to be fair, there’s also reasonable people in Israel, as you can find when you read the gush-shalom webpages.
pj
Can we put this “Iran wants to wipe Israel off the map” bollocks to bed already. Ahmadinejad has said that Israel’s regime needs to ‘cease to exists” – i.e. regime change like your chimpemperor is so found off.
Also he did not refer to the Holocaust as a myth, rather the Israeli use of the Holocaust to enhance the myth of their victim status.
The western media has been happily mistranslating arab statements for years. Its fits their needs for a boogyman and news that scares.
#35. You’re twisting my words around. First, let’s not confuse Muslims with Arabs. Many many Arabic people are Christian, so you cannot lump all Arabs into the Islamic faith. And I never said that Arabs were uncivilized. I said that the Muslim EXTREMISTS cannot coexist with the MODERATE Muslims. That has nothing to do with the moderate Muslims. They want peace. The problem is with the extremists. They want to force Allah on the rest of the world. So even if Israel is gone, they will still hate America, and all non-Islamic countries. I myself am a Jew, who has family in Israel, and I have the utmost respect for the Islamic faith. It’s just unfortunate that the EXTREMISTS are giving the beautiful religion such a bad name.
#37. “The western media has been happily mistranslating arab statements for years. Its fits their needs for a boogyman and news that scares.”
Just to clear things up, Ahmadinejad and Iranians are Persian, not Arabic.
I rue the day that one side uses nuclear weapons in a preemptive strike. The aftermath won’t be pretty, regardless whether or not you sympathize with the attackers or the attacked.
#38 Israel has it’s own problem with extremists. Just remember the pictures from the settlements not so long ago.
The problem is, that on both sides of the fence (not to be taken as a figure of speech) extremists are the loudest voices to be heard. I was hoping that with Arafat and Sharon out of the way a new generation, a wiser generation of politicians perhaps, could rise to power. It hasn’t happened. On neither side.
Solving the palestine problem peacefully and respectfully (that is: Israel fully respecting a palestine state, without a re-incarnation of the Berlin Wall, without cancerous settlements and the palestinians accepting Israel as a peaceful and cooperative neighbour) may not be the golden key to peace in middle east, but it clearly is a sine qua non.
As Israel is a state, claiming it’s free and democratic, I for one require it to follow high standards when it comes to human rights. The recent war on Libanon, the air-to-ground rocket delivered death penalties, the raids on palestine cities do not conform with these high standards. A state that itself applies the same rules of combat that the terrorist it claims to fight puts itself out of the moral gamut of modern civilizations. In fact, I believe by doing so, it does everything possible to further fuel hate and terror.
I disapprove any religion as it’s one of the major sources of trouble in the world today. But until the day where we finally understand they’re all equally wrong, let’s at least assume they’re just equally right.
pj
Given the racist attitude of Israel, its system of apartheid and its absolute disdain for Muslims, Arabs and Christians, it’s no surprise that it matters little to them the international repercussion of starting a nuclear war.
#41 “A state that itself applies the same rules of combat that the terrorist it claims to fight puts itself out of the moral gamut of modern civilizations. In fact, I believe by doing so, it does everything possible to further fuel hate and terror.”
I wonder how the people and government of Massachusetts would act if every month or so, a bus load of commuters were killed by a suicide bomber?
I wonder how the people and government of Massachusetts would act if every month or so, a bus load of commuters were killed by a suicide bomber?
I wonder how the people and government of Massachusetts would feel if they’d been run out of their homes at gun point fifty years ago into the middle of nowhere.
I wonder how the people and government of Massachusetts would feel if their orchards, in middle of nowhere, were ripped up by tanks and bulldozers. And they had to queue for work as menial labour – because the educated and trading middle class didn’t exist anymore.
Jews deserve to live in peace. Not all Jews are rabid psychopaths, and object to the religion being classed as rabid or psychopathic –
So here are some wise words from a Rabbi:
“…there is also no moral justification for using these events to dispossess and occupy another people who have nothing whatsoever to do with what was done in Europe. Let Europe make amends for what took place if they so desire, not the Palestinians. “
“Plus, it is our belief that it is not the appropriate role for Jews when they live in exile amongst the nations to adopt any position of antagonism towards any other peoples or nations. We believe that Jews are called upon to lead by example by serving as a positive role model for all of mankind, not as dictators of public policy.”
#44. In 1948, Jews and Palestinians were sharing the land happily. No one invaded and took over the land. The UN split the land up because Jews had nowhere else to go. Palestinians were not displaced by Jews in the late 1940’s. Actually, Jews were present in Palestine as early as 1880s. If you ask true Palestinians, not poor immigrants from Egypt and other countries, the “Catastrophe” as they call it, began when five Arabic armies invaded Israel as soon as it became a country. The Palestinians refused to accept a 2 state solution (pretty much things haven’t changed), and fled after the five armies invaded Israel. They were expecting an Israeli defeat, but this didn’t happen. So they couldnt return to their homes.
So if you really want to blame someone for the Palestinian struggles, then blame the UN, or possibly Hitler…
#44 The purpose of my post was to get the stupid, pious, ass-holes that can see only the violence being done by the Israelis, never the violence being done to the Israelis.
When a trip to the grocery store could end in murder, when chatting with friends on a street corner could be your last moments, when the loved one you kissed goodbye in the morning never comes home, when violence paints the backdrop of your entire society — DO NOT EXPECT THESE PEOPLE TO REACT AS IF THEY ARE LIVING IN DES MOINES! Violence changes attitudes. Daily violence changes the fabric of society.
What seems soooo irrational to a person sipping his latte in Seattle can be very rational to a society concerned for the lives of their children.
Al Qaeda has already demonstrated that “civilized” countries can be cowed with a few bombs in subways. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad could easily decide that the international “prestige” (fear) gained by nuking Israel would outweigh the deaths of a million Iranians — assuming he actually believed Israel would be able to retaliate.
What possible deterrence exists that would keep Iran from giving Hamas a couple of nukes? Would America nuke Iran if Tel Aviv vanished in a mushroom cloud? No. Would France, Germany, or Great Britain? Not even in your dreams. We may respond conventionally; a threat that Ahmadinejad doesn’t take serious. How could he, given our demonstrated lack of will to win a war. And he could and would threaten to smuggle nukes into our cities if we dared to invade. Good luck getting a UN coalition together under those circumstances!
The Israelis are not fools, they will not allow Iran to get nukes.
Sometimes I feel like I’m the last person left on earth who is neutral in the Palestinian conflict.
There are no purely white or black hats in this conflict, are there? The Palestinians clearly got screwed in the formation of Israel — and continue to be victimized to this day. All the time.
But — clearly — Israel (and Jews in general) have been victimized again-and-again by terrorism and unprovoked wars. Not to mention the holocaust and widespread bigotry against them.
Both sides are victims and victimizers — but that’s only viewing them through group-think. Countless innocent individuals get victimized every day — and I try never to lose sight of that.
So, I can not bring myself to take sides in this conflict.
Honestly, I don’t understand how any informed person can.
#45, Your history lesson is poorly done. You ignored the Balfour Declaration, of 1917 and the question of Western guilt over the Holocaust. It was the Jewish question landing in the Allies hands that created the partition. Before 1945, there was relatively little animosity between Jews and Muslims simply because the Jews didn’t swarm the area. After all the WWII displaced person started swarming the shores of Palestine, the animosity started.
#46, What seems soooo irrational to a person sipping his latte in Seattle can be very rational to a society concerned for the lives of their children.
So does that reasoning justify one side killing the other side without sanction? No. It is wrong to kill except in self defense. Yet that has never stopped the Israelis. Just because you prefer Israel to those heathen Arabs doesn’t make their actions justified. Even when there has been cease fires, Israel has ignored them and continued to “selectively” targeting Palestinian leaders.
One country, Israel, is fighting to maintain its grip on the land they stole. The other country, Palestine, is fighting to exist.
#48, Question: If one side conducts war using troops and tanks, and the other side conducts war using suicide bombers, doesn’t a cease fire mean “I will stand down my troops and tanks if you don’t send anymore suicide bombers?” So who broke the cease fire first?
Trying to determine which side is functioning on the higher moral plane is pointless at this stage. There are factions on both sides that will always undermine any prospect for peace. Yes, the Palestinians are victims of Israel, but they are also the dupes of outside parties such as Syria and Iran.
But the issue here is Iran getting the bomb and the threat they pose to Israel. If your enemy has clearly stated his intention to destroy you, then sitting back and waiting for him to gather the means necessary to carry out his threat is beyond stupid.
The standoff between the Soviet Union and US worked because both parties knew there was too much to lose in a nuclear war. And fear of that war kept us from directly confronting each other with conventional weapons. Neither party acted as if there were a blood fued between us. We both understood there were rules to the game, and (mostly) we both followed them. We never threatened to destroy the USSR and we refrained from backing them into a corner, so the Soviets never believed a first strike was warrented. This is called diplomacy. This is what deterrence buys you.
I have seen precious little proof that Ahmadinejad has any grasp of diplomatic skills. He believes possessing nukes will elevate Iran to the same stature that he thinks the US has. When Ahmadinejad speaks, he expects the world to listen. When Ahmadinejad demands, he expects the world to yield. When Ahmadinejad threatens, he expects the world to cower. He doesn’t understand the game, so don’t expect him to play by the rules. Deterrence doesn’t exist with regards to Ahmadinejad.
If Iran gets nukes, they will use them against Israel. Israel knows this and will do everything within their power to keep it from happening. They understand the game they are playing is survival; that game has different rules than most of us are use to.
I agree with Israel. Iran needs to be stopped before they make any WMD’s. If the other nations of the Arab world cant see that Iran is unstable and remains a threat to Israel so be it. As long as our country stands by Israels attack (if it is carried out) then maybe all of Israels other enemies will think twice before opening their mouths and making threats against us and our allies. If nobody takes action now the human race will will be destroyed. Wake up.