This evening BBC highlighted that Mr Netanyahu pointed out that to defeat ISIS at the price of letting Iran across the nuke line would be to forfeit the war to try to win a relatively small battle. [U/D, Oct 2] His words:
“Don’t be fooled by Iran’s manipulative charm offensive. Once Iran produces atomic bombs, all the charm will suddenly disappear. To defeat [the Islamic State] and leave Iran as a threshold nuclear power is to win the battle and lose the war.”
He warns of ISIS' global conquest ambitions, shows that Hamas has made almost the same declarations, and broadens the issue to militant Islam around the world. But, he is forced to note that -- as with a cancer that starts small then grows -- many may be tempted to not take the matter seriously from the first (and, presumably, nip it in the bud).
He also took time to do a bit of show and tell on the recent clashes over rockets that also thwarted the planned Sept 24 hostage taking and mass murder attacks using tunnels:
Yes, a double war crime, in a context where an implication of the twistabout blame the targetted victim accusations is that the world has now -- ominously -- de facto endorsed human shield tactics and rocketing of civilians.
Mr Netanyahu (for all Israel's own sins and errors) is credibly right, but between short-sighted pols, superficial of biased journalists and those who in their imagination view the West as the "real" global problem and hope to see a powerful IslamIST bloc as a counter-weight I doubt his warning will be heeded. My deep pessimism about our global geostrategic situation continues. END
PS: Again, cf here for balancing perspectives on the history of modern Israel. The RH column of this blog gives more.
PPS: Full text here.
