The last chance

There are many citizens in Israel today who are convinced that the State and the IDF can pulverized any enemy. Syria? Right away. Syria and Hezbollah? We’ll barely break a sweat. Iran? We can have them for breakfast.

Those who do not only believe in the IDF’s power also recruit God to the mission. The IDF combined with the Creator? How can the Iranians face all the armored corps divisions as well as God?

It’s quite strange to hear such people talk while we’re still marking the 36th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, where we narrowly averted a stinging defeat. Since then we’ve also had the Lebanon War – which did not produce songs and celebratory albums, for good reason.

The people who are fully convinced of our ability to deliver a devastating blow against the Iranians have no clue what we are dealing with here, or what such war entails (and this will be war!) They are still caught up in the dreams of the Six-Day War and the Entebbe Operation. They also have no interest in the details. In their view we are the greatest in the world, God’s emissaries on earth, and we’ll win.

Yet what if we cannot put an end to the Iranian nuclear program? And what if the Americans, who well understand the entanglement inherent in an Iran strike, will tell Netanyahu and Barak to “sit still”? What will we do then?

The people who believe in our amazing capabilities will say something such as “enough with this nonsense.” We’re the greatest. And by the way, I have a question: If we are capable of launching a strike and are familiar with what’s inside every tunnel in Iran’s immense territory, how come we still don’t know, after four years, where Gilad Shalit is behind held?

The world is silent

Based on what happened in the past few days, there is no more point in words and speeches in the UN or anywhere else. One does not need to be an Israeli official to work out the following equation: Iran has, or will soon possess, a nuclear bomb. The Iranians have long-range missiles. The Iranians have a mad leadership headed by a madman. The Iranians also turned us into the nemesis, a military target, and their doomsday vision.

Meanwhile, the Iranians are also observing the United States and are thinking to themselves: They’re not that impressive. Ahmadinejad has a thousand temptations to press the button.

For Israel, a military strike on Iran (even an American one) will have huge implications, for generations perhaps. A thousand firemen or statesmen will not be able to put out this blaze. Such offensive, should it be launched, will provide work for the great grandchildren of current Iran experts.

The Free World doesn’t have too many options, and mostly it has no time to waste. The opposite is true: The sand in the hourglass is running out. What is left to do now, immediately, is to tighten the sanctions and enlist the entire world to this cause. Even so, it will take a long time; years. South Africa withstood the pressure for years before collapsing, and in this case we’re dealing with nukes, not with apartheid.

Perhaps if we saw the establishment of a global headquarters, and had dozens of states endorse the sanctions, maybe we could have done something. The time has come for the world to enlist to the cause – yet the world is silent. Get to work already!