Israel's aggressive posture toward Iran, clearly noticeable over a year ago, is nowhere to be seen. Where is the Israeli angst over the nuclearization of the Islamic republic? How could it be that there is nothing left of it? Iran's pledges are just hollow rhetoric. When the ayatollahs tried to exact more concessions by defying the West and claiming the U.S. had not delivered on its promises, it worked. Where is the Israeli resolve?
The international community has put its faith in negotiations? No, this is an insult to the Iranians. They are not worthy of it. This week, President Barack Obama's former White House Coordinator for Arms Control and Weapons of Mass Destruction Gary Samore said the talks with Iran were doomed to fail. The kowtowing West, he said would see the talks drag on for two or three years. At best, he said, they will have slowed down Iran's nuclear program, but this would be no remedy for the nightmarish scenario of a nuclear Iran.
The West is already resigned to Iran being a nuclear threshold state, as if it were a harmless entity like Japan and Germany. Like Japan and Germany, Iran has massive stockpiles of plutonium and advanced technological know-how. But Iran lacks a democratic system to keep it in check.
The U.S. has yet to throw in the towel. On Thursday it announced that it would continue to enforce the embargo on Iranian oil. But would that really have an impact on global markets, where there is real thirst for oil and power? "Iran would have to drastically limit the number of centrifuges they will have at Natanz, for starters," Samore told Bloomberg. This brought the house down in Tehran. The rest of the world just shrugged.
Israel's efforts to curtail Iran's nuclear program were, until recently, a huge success. Were it not for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Ehud Barak's continued pressure and combat-ready posture, America and Europe might have been reluctant to impose crippling economic sanctions. Were Netanyahu and Barak ready to use Israeli firepower? Who knows. It is unlikely that Israel's leaders will have to grapple with such a decision in the foreseeable future or ever.
That said, they put on a poker face and that was enough. This had the world wake up. The torrent of sanctions -- which are still in place -- and Iran's willingness to hold talks, can be attributed to the Israeli efforts. Former Mossad chief Meir Dagan erred when he disclosed that then-Chief of General Staff Gabi Ashkenazi and then-Shin Bet security agency chief Yuval Diskin were opposed to a military strike. They should have expressed their views without any inhibition. But by leaking this he shaved off Samson's locks. This was not one of Dagan's finest moments. In fact, his actions undermined Israel's goals.
Now it is too late. The public no longer believes the Israeli leadership can act. America won't let it happen. Neither will Europe. Israelis have lost interest in this matter because the Iranian menace is now the responsibility of the international community. They are nothing but spectators now.
טעינו? נתקן! אם מצאתם טעות בכתבה, נשמח שתשתפו אותנו