Dealing with Iran's madness
Op-ed: Iran behaves like man suffering from illogical obsession, must be treated accordingly
One should handle radical regimes the same way we handle obsessive people – by setting limits.
The Iranian regime, at least in all matters pertaining to Israel, behaves like a man obsessed with someone else. It nurtures the madness, constantly deals with it, and has no way of seeing the scope of damage caused by this obsession.
As often happens, we cannot speak sensibly with the Iranians and there is no reason to do so, as their logic and judgment have been hijacked a long time ago by their madness.
A person who washes his hands a thousand times a day won’t stop doing it even if someone “explains” to him that there is no fear he will die because of germs. Similarly, the Iranian regime will not stop its uranium enrichment if we “explain” that it only causes damage to its own people.
One cannot address unbalanced elements in a reasonable way. When a person or nations are so deeply captivated by a false conception, the only thing that can truly help is electric shocks to the brain.
For this reason, the offer to allow the Iranians to engage in dialogue with the West without being under a threat of attack can be likened to the possibility that a man obsessed with washing his hands will receive a special sink and constant supply of soap if he promises to listen to a scholarly lecture about the futility of his actions.
Don't grant Iran's request
To Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s credit, in the case of Iran he was indeed the first to identify the extent of threat. Up until three years ago, the world did not view the Iranian nuclear program as the kind of threat we see today in terms of the scope of the danger or its urgency.
Netanyahu managed to convince the Western world of the threat's urgency, and at the same time managed to clarify the seriousness of his intention to act should the world fail to do so.
The success of our diplomatic strategy vis-à-vis Iran proved that we should not always toe the line with the West. At times, we should let the West toe the line.
Precisely for this reason, there is no need or reason to grant Iran any kind of space and accept its demand not to attack during the negotiations. It took time to convince the world that only an electric shock to Iran’s brainstem (the reactor) would lift an existential threat over Israel, and we must not convey a contradictory message now under any circumstances.
