Iran: The stakes

By Mladen Andrijasevic

Yesterday in the Jerusalem Post I read the interview John Bolton gave to Ruthie Blum Leibowitz which I consider the most important thing I have ever read in the Jerusalem Post and I sent it to dozens of friends and addresses. I got no reaction. Nothing. Why? Am I hallucinating, or is everyone else in denial?

I thought that John Bolton's interview could be compared to George F. Kennan's "long telegram" in 1946 or Samuel Huntington's 1993 article in Foreign Affairs on the Clash of Civilizations. The former set the containment policies towards the USSR for half a century, the latter is still being debated. Yet I got no response. What is going on?

Perhaps it is not so obvious to people in the US and Europe that we have come to the end of the road and the time of decision about Iran is now. We in Israel are painfully aware that three days from now we will elect leaders who will have to make the crucial decisions about the survival of this country. How come John Bolton is the only one who understands that?

What is the most difficult part to swallow? Is it the very idea that Iran is capable of initiating a nuclear war to which Bolton says:

"If you prize life in the hereafter more than life on earth, the deterrent value of retaliation isn't very persuasive ."

Or is it that Israel has no choice but to act regardless of what the US thinks? Bolton:

"Now, there are people who will say that Israel can't do it without American approval, or that it's not possible technically. I don't believe any of that is accurate, though I don't mean to downplay the risk involved. But there's another thing that you have to keep in mind: The military option is declining over time."

Even the part about Ahmadinejad not being the only problem is revealing:

"Furthermore, the reason many Iranians are unhappy with Ahmadinejad is not because of what he is saying about wiping Israel or America off the face of the earth. They don't disagree with him; they just think he shouldn't say it publicly."

Yet despite the economic crisis Americans must realize that, as Netanyahu said at Davos, Iran is more important.

That is why when I get to the voting booth on Tuesday I will cast my vote for the party that has put Iran on top of its priorities.