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|  | Iran's Ahmadinejad – should we fear him? Photo: AP
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In praise of balance of terror
Mideastern version of Cold War may very well be a positive development
Asaf Gefen
The prime minister's call to prevent the introduction of nuclear weapons into the Middle East was clear and decisive, although it would have been more convincing had it been delivered in Dimona. There's something odd about a state fighting against regional nuclearization while boasting a 50-year nuclear history ("according to foreign sources.")
Then there's the question of effectiveness. Netanyahu's words regarding the need to curb the Iranian bomb were orderly and passionate, and drew no less aggressive declarations by the leaders of the United States, France, and Britain. Yet it appears they could have been even sharper, and could have summed up all the statements with two words: We're scared!
Because we all know that even after all the declarations, and meetings in Geneva, and sanctions, Iran will have a bomb (and a few years later, more states in the region will have a bomb, and after that local councils too, and within a decade or two every millionaire will have a private atomic bomb in his basement.)
And then, there is of course the military option, which includes a bold IDF operation that will manage to put off the apocalypse by a few years. Hence, it would be better to stop wasting time on efforts to curb the inevitable, or in the words of Dr. Strangelove, Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.
A nuclear winter has several direct advantages: As opposed to conventional missiles, which happen to land in specific spots and discriminate between cities and civilians, a radioactive bomb, especially in a small state such as ours, guarantees fair distribution of the catastrophe that will not discriminate against anyone.
But seriously speaking, not everything is grim. They like to scare us with words like "strategic change" and "balance of terror," but after 50 unbalanced years where we had nuclear ambiguity and the other side had nothing, perhaps it's not such a bad idea. The world existed for more than 40 years in the shadow of a balance of terror and survived. In the Middle East, a cold war could be a refurnishing change after all the sweaty wars we've been through.
They tell us that as opposed to others, the Iranians are simply crazy, yet in the US and Soviet Union people thought the same terrible things about each other. Mostly because there was someone there to convince them to think like that.
In retrospect, most Cold War damages were not caused by actual battles, but rather, by paranoia. Perhaps we need to learn the lesson and stop worrying about the Iranian bomb. On the other hand, after all those years, it won't be easy to find a new hobby.
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