Whose War is it, Anyway?

Once again, the State of Israel finds itself facing existential threats to her safety and security. While this is hardly news, the reasons behind these new threats are various. Through wrangling over whether or not Benjamin Netanyahu should postpone a trip to the U.S. House of Representatives until after the Israeli elections on March 17, many are insistent that the speech be given as planned. Never mind for a moment the dark political purposes behind the attempt to out-maneuver and embarrass President Obama by the Republican party, the threat to Israel’s existence cannot be nullified by partisan bickering.

It is important to note that Iran has to be enjoying the drama it created and seeing the Prime Minister of its most hated enemy verbally castigated all over the American and international news services. And why not? They know already that they have absolutely no intention of adhering to any agreement concerning their nuclear ambitions. They could have agreed years ago to forego nuclear power, but have rejected this concept in favor of patiently biding their time until they reach nuclear breakout and then it will be too late. They have intentionally misled both the international Atomic Regulatory Commission and the United Nations who have weakly, if at all, tried to verify what they have been up to all these years, but have failed miserably.

Iran has spent great resources since 1979 insinuating itself with other countries outside their own geographical boundaries and they are not really doing it by the usual methods of trade, economic cooperation or even legitimate mutual security cooperation or détente with like-minded nations. They have a heavy presence in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Latin America and Africa. It is no accident that the Houthis just took over Yemen. They are Shiites.

One of the only people who knew what Iran’s ambitions outside the Islamic Republic truly are was Argentinian prosecutor Alberto Nisman. And because he knew that Iran is heavily engaged in their usual obfuscation and secretive game of bomb-building and attacks on Jewish individuals and institutions, he was killed for it. One can see this as the first salvo of the coming war in much the same way that the assassination of Emperor Franz Ferdinand ushered in the first World War. Alberto Nisman was rather like the canary in the coalmine. Once again, the countries will ally themselves along lines of mutual interest and self-preservation. Once again, Turkey will find itself on the wrong side of history and in the process of aiding Daesh (ISIS) they will have unleashed a conflagration which they are entirely responsible for and which others will sadly have to pay the price. If there is any good news in the machinations of Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and Iran, it is that Israel will finally and openly assist its only true ally in the region, the Kurds. It is the poorest-kept secret in the Middle East, and it is high time that Israel openly engage with the Kurds who know how to fight for their territory and know how to govern themselves˗˗albeit to outsiders it appears they are so fractured and factionalized they cannot contain their own people. They already have a strong national identity and a functioning government in Iraqi Kurdistan. Now, they only need the legitimate land to go with it.

Iran’s most fatal flaw is in not understanding, even remotely, the profound attachment and mutual respect and cooperation between America and Israel, and to a lesser extent, the NATO countries (when Turkey is not interfering). They believe they will be able to drive a wedge between the two nations and European countries by appearing to care about peace while their centrifuges whirr away deep under mountains in Qom and in Natanz. America once trusted the Japanese and until the morning of December 7, 1941, there was no reason to alter that opinion. Iran has already given the rest of the world thousands of reasons to mistrust them. You can measure their resolve in the number of casualties at the AMIA Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires, American Marine Corps Barracks in Beirut, Islamic Jihad and Hamas attacks throughout Israel, the Houthis in Sanaa, the Badr Brigade in Bagdhad and Kirkuk and in Aleppo. It is time to collect our friends and allies together and state openly who they are and to pointedly state our intention to rid the world of the scourge of Iran and to quit placating them for a peace that will never happen as long as their current leaders persist in waging war against civility and freedom with a nod and a wink.