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Nov. 20, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: How to make every second of your life come first
Caroline B. Glick: Whither American Jewry
Nov. 19, 2009
Binyamin L. Jolkovsky: Please Listen to this Godcast (5 minutes)
Jonathan Tobin: ADL Crosses the Line with Report Bashing Obama Critics
Nov. 18, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: What Judaism has to say about the secret of the Mona Lisa's smile
JWisdom.com: The (Jewish) Dating Game with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (8 minutes)
Nov. 17, 2009
Steven Emerson: How Does the 4th Amendment Impact Terror Finance Investigations?
JWisdom.com: If Frank Sinatra married Edith Piaf with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein (2 minutes) Life lessons from what would be regarded as the most inappropriate lyrics ever sung
Nov. 16, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : When borrowing is stealing
JWisdom.com: Deconstructing faith with Rabbi Warren Goldstein (9 minutes)
Nov. 13, 2009
JWisdom.com Sarah's subjective reality with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 6 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: Obama's failure, Netanyahu's opportunity
Nov. 12, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet By Marialisa Calta : A sweet sweet potato treat
JWisdom.com Does God get tired? with Rabbi Harvey Belovski ( 5 minutes)
Nov. 11, 2009
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Jews and money: When anti-Semitism isn't
JWisdom.com Marriages are not made in Heaven with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (VERY fast 15 minutes)
Nov. 10, 2009
Michael Doyle: Author of book exposing CAIR ordered to remove supporting documents from Web
JWisdom.com If the creation so loudly shouts the existence of the Creator, why aren't more people believers? with Rabbi Naftali Brawer (9 minutes)
Nov. 9, 2009
Mark Steyn: Shooter exposes hole in U.S. terror strategy
JWisdom.com It's never too late to have a happy childhood with Sarah Chana Radcliffe (5 minutes)
Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review Oct. 5, 2004 / 21 Tishrei 5765

Iran's nukes: Israel's on the case

By Zev Chafets


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The ‘point of no return’ is fast approaching


http://www.jewishworldreview.com | In an interview in an Israeli newspaper this week, Giora Eiland, Israel's national security adviser, made a startling statement: November will be the "point of no return" for taking out the Iranian nuclear program.


"Point of no return" is a phrase with a history. In 1981, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin demanded to know when Saddam Hussein's nuclear plant at Osirak, Iraq, would reach it. Military intelligence then, as always, was muddy. Some of Begin's advisers counseled patience. Others warned that delay could be fatal. The most influential advocate of the go-for-it approach was Begin's minister of defense - Ariel Sharon.


Iran is now on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons. This week, President Bush said categorically that he will not let that happen. But how will he stop it? Persuasion? The Iranians are spitting in the face of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Invasion? The U.S. military is already busy in Iraq and Afghanistan. Covert action? A botched operation would bring the wrath and scorn of the world down on the U.S.


Bush has a domestic problem, too. The weapons of mass destruction fiasco in Iraq has hurt his credibility on the subject of Iranian nukes. It would not be easy to justify a preemptive strike on the basis of CIA information.


Still, the ayatollahs are about to go atomic - and somebody has to stop them. That will be a dangerous and thankless job. Increasingly, it looks as if it will be outsourced to Israel.

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The Bush administration already has supplied the tool kit, including the F-16I, the first Israeli war plane capable of striking Iran without in-flight refueling. The U.S. also has supplied ordnance capable of piercing massive fortifications.


"It is rather significant that the United States is now selling Israel over $300 million worth of bunker-busting bombs. They don't need those for the Palestinians," Richard Holbrooke told Bill O'Reilly on Sept. 23. O'Reilly was visibly surprised by the clear implication of this observation. Holbrooke is, after all, the leading Democratic spokesman on foreign affairs, John Kerry's presumptive secretary of state.


O'Reilly: "But wouldn't that be a disaster, to have the Israelis do it?"


Holbrooke: "I'm not advocating this."


O'Reilly: "Right."


Holbrooke: "[But] let's realize where we are. In 1981, the Israelis attacked the Iraqi nuclear plant at Osirak. President [Ronald] Reagan personally criticized Israel. Today, we all recognize that Israel was 100% right to do it."


This may be America's last remaining point of 100% bipartisan foreign policy agreement: Israel was right to smash the Iraqi reactor 23 years ago, and it should be equipped for a similar job in Iran.


In 1981, Begin was forced to act without American approval. Prime Minister Sharon cannot afford to do that. It is a one-superpower world now, and U.S. support is absolutely critical to Israel. But Sharon will not be just a blind enforcer. He is, after all, the only guy around with experience in Islamic bomb-busting.


He also has the most to lose. If he takes out the Iranian nukes, it will further enrage the Muslim world. If he tries and fails, Israel's deterrent will be badly damaged. Either way, Iran very likely will attack Israel (and Jews around the world) with everything in its terrorist and conventional arsenal. Under the circumstances, it is not unreasonable to suppose that Sharon will demand - and get - a role in determining the what and the how of a future operation. And the when.


That's why it was so startling and instructive to hear Sharon's national security adviser say, in public, that the point of no return is now barely two months away.

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JWR contributor Zev Chafets is a columnist for The New York Daily News. Comment by clicking here.

© 2004, NY Daily News