PrintAugust 2, 2008
Time For An Indifferent World To Take A Stand
I recently returned from a trip to Israel. During my stay there, I was reminded of a lesson from my days as a political science major. It is the aphorism, "Where you stand depends upon where you sit".
When you sit in Tel Aviv and admire the beautiful seashore, you also read the local newspapers and have to imagine the unimaginable. This city could one day be the target of an Iranian Shahab-3 missile carrying a nuclear warhead. Then you instinctively understand what every Israeli already knows: An indifferent world may soon force Israel to defend its right to exist with a preemptive strike against Iran's nuclear facilities. That's why the world must finally take a stand and impose tough sanctions against Iran for its pursuit of nuclear weapons.
Over the past five years, representatives of the European Union have tried to negotiate a reasonable solution to the standoff with Iran over its nuclear program. More recently, the negotiating team has expanded to include the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany. Iran has consistently refused to cooperate. It has turned down the most recent generous offer of incentives, and it continues to enrich uranium in total defiance of three United Nations Security Council resolutions. Yet, the world's response to Iranian defiance has been weak and ineffective.
As each day passes, it becomes more obvious that Iran's real intention is to develop nuclear weapons. Why does Iran need nuclear weapons? Iranian leaders have given us the answer- they seek the destruction of Israel- yet the world has chosen to ignore it.
Unfortunately, some analysts naively believe that Iran's threats to Israel are a recent innovation of the current President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The truth is that the goal of the destruction of Israel has long been a fundamental pillar of Iran's foreign policy. Iran's Supreme leader Ali Khamenei, said in a sermon on Iranian television on December 15, 2000, "Iran's position, which was first expressed by the Imam Khomeini and stated several times by those responsible, is that the cancerous tumor called Israel must be uprooted from the region."
However, there is no doubt that Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has taken this madness to a new level. His repeated calls to "wipe Israel off the map" were also accompanied by a government sponsored conference titled "A World Without Zionism" (October, 2005). His most recent outrage was calling Israel "a stinking corpse" on the occasion of its 60th birthday.
Israelis cannot ignore these threats and for good reason. They know that Iran backs its threatening words with deeds. This became evident during the summer of 2006. Following the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers, Iran's proxy, Hezbollah, proceeded to fire 4,000 rockets into the cities of northern Israel. These rockets, which were supplied by Iran, sent a clear message to every Israeli: When Iranian leaders speak of the destruction of Israel, they need to be taken for their word.
That explains why Israeli leaders have repeatedly warned that the international community must not allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons. To reinforce these warnings, the Israeli Air Force recently held a massive air exercise over the Mediterranean with 100 warplanes. The message was clear: If the international community does not effectively deal with Iran, then Israel will do it alone.
For Israelis, the Iranian nuclear threat is seen through the experience of the Nazi Holocaust. This outlook was relayed in a rare interview on the CBS program "60 Minutes", (April 27). Then commander of Israel's Air Force, General Eliezer Shkedy, the son of Holocaust survivors, shared his views on the Iranian threat in light of the Holocaust with reporter Bob Simon.
"They are talking about destroying and wiping us from the earth...We should remember. We cannot forget. We should trust only ourselves."
Since the Iranian revolution in 1979, the international community has turned a blind eye to Iran's sponsorship of terrorism and its repeated threats to destroy Israel. With the exception of the United States, business as usual has been the guiding principle of most nations. The lure of profits from Iranian oil and natural gas has blinded the world to the immorality of doing business with the world's leading state sponsor of terror. Iran's defiance of three United Nations Security Council resolutions to continue its pursuit of nuclear weapons demands a radical change in policy.
It is time for the United Nations to live up to the reason for its creation: preserving world peace. Whereas the current United Nations sanctions on Iran are weak and ineffective, strong economic sanctions can force Iran to halt its nuclear weapons program without a shot being fired. After all, Iran is highly dependent upon the outside world to develop its oil and natural gas fields and even to refine its oil into gasoline.
If Russia and China prevent effective action in the Security Council, then sanctions can be implemented outside of the U.N. by the European Union together with the United States.
In addition, the American people must demand that their state's public pension funds divest from investments in foreign companies doing business in Iran.
Israel must not be put into a situation where it has to act unilaterally. If Israel is forced to bomb the Iranian nuclear facilities, oil prices will skyrocket and economies will falter. If that happens, then the blame must be placed squarely on an indifferent world.
The world's leading state sponsor of terror must not be allowed to acquire the ultimate weapon of terror. If the world continues to ignore this threat, then it must understand that Israel has no alternative but to defend its right to exist, and the lesson of the Holocaust, Never Again, may be implemented very soon.
