Posted on 03/31/2009 12:07:21 PM PDT by lewisglad
The message from Israel's new prime minister is stark: if the Obama administration doesn't prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons, Israel may be forced to attack.
An Atlantic exclusive by Jeffrey Goldberg
In an interview conducted shortly before he was sworn in today as prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu laid down a challenge for Barack Obama. The American president, he said, must stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons—and quickly—or an imperiled Israel may be forced to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities itself.
“The Obama presidency has two great missions: fixing the economy, and preventing Iran from gaining nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu told me. He said the Iranian nuclear challenge represents a “hinge of history” and added that “Western civilization” will have failed if Iran is allowed to develop nuclear weapons.
In unusually blunt language, Netanyahu said of the Iranian leadership, “You don’t want a messianic apocalyptic cult controlling atomic bombs. When the wide-eyed believer gets hold of the reins of power and the weapons of mass death, then the entire world should start worrying, and that is what is happening in Iran.”
History teaches Jews that threats against their collective existence should be taken seriously, and, if possible, preempted, he suggested. In recent years, the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has regularly called for Israel to be “wiped off the map,” and the supreme Iranian leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, this month called Israel a “cancerous tumor.”
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
Well, when he puts it like that, nobody will stop Iran.
Obama won’t do it. And this isn’t your grandfather’s Israel. They never really recovered after flopping so badly in Lebanon in 2006. They had been getting by on luck and reputation since the 1980s. Their bluff was finally called.
I’d like to be wrong but I don’t think Israel has what it takes to take care of business, anymore. The same could be said for the USA, I suppose.
The last paragraph is so critical. There can be no peace or solution to the Palestinian problem as long as the current regime leads Iran. They are largely the source of funding, weapons and training for Hamas and Hezbollah.
A nuclear-armed Iran makes them all the more dangerous and makes peace in the Middle East that much more improbable.
With Obama, Israel stands alone. But I like their chances.
This situation is way above the TOTUS' pay grade...
But just curious...Can a TOTUS vote "present"?
I don't trust Binyamin CFR Netanyahu one bit.
In that photo, obommie-the-commie really does look like urkle-the-nerd.
Very few people in this world get a “2nd chance”, Bibi. Even fewer of the World’s leaders are rewarded in this way.
Often times it takes the action of just one well focused and of a single purpose in mind, brave leader to encourage other leaders to, also, take brave action, and realize their true calling.
Just know that, while you do not have the official backing of our current leadership, you do have the overwhelming support of the American people.
Do your deed. We’ll Pray for your success.
Obama’s the reason Benji won. Israelis aren’t stupid.
Will Obomba launch a preemptive air strike on Tel Aviv?
There’s rules for the Bibi threads... (similar to the Ann Coulter rule)
Joe didn't have to have a specific topic in mind, so your conspiracy speculation doesn't hold water. Anyone with any knowledge of history could make a similar statement; in today's age, the odds are probably very high that his leadership will be tested. And he'll be tested not just in one arena such as this, but likely in multiple areas.
If Obama thought his first month was tiring, just wait. It's likely to get real interesting due to the world's volatility resulting from the class struggles going on today.
Netanyahu to Obama: Stop Iran—Or I Will and then bambi asked for some toilet paper.
No, if it starts, Israel and all the Gulf states and probably Iraq will ally to destroy the bad guys in Iran.
You see, Iran will decide that as long as there is a war, Mecca must be retrieved from the Sauds. That will put the whole region at war.
Thinking of Us and Israel and them is superficial.
Obama ain’t gonna like Netanyahu reading him the riot act.
TOO BAD!
I disagree. The Mossad has enough dirt on Obama that he will have no choice. Obama would also love to jump in, as it would drive up oil immediately..which he wants to facilitate in order cement his take-over of the American oil business and create even more internal crisis in America.
Pray for our troops, because with Obama in charge of the ‘overseas contingency operation’ in Iran, they are in grave danger when it happens with him as their CIC!
Netanyahu for President in 2012.
The deciding difference now is, Bibi doesn’t give a rat’s petutie about negative public opinion. Either in Israel or anywhere else in the world.
He is one who does have the intestinal fortitude, and the political capital, to see this through.
But then, I thought the same of 43 after 911.
He can’t be in the CFR. It’s only American citizens.
Take it to them Bibi. Our community organizer, Kenyan Marxist elitist is as chicken sh*t as they come. Do it on your own. Wait for the Kenyan and Israel will be nothing but dust.
Well, I guess you will have to, Bibi.
But you think you could to make that happen when Obama and Ahmadinejad meet?
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