About That Nuclear Reactor Destroyed in Syria -- Don't We Owe Israel a Resounding Thank You?

When Israel’s air strike last September destroyed Syria’s secret nuclear reactor, built with the help of North Korea to crank out plutonium on the Euphrates, Israel did more in one morning to advance the security of the free world than anything that has transpired in the past 17 years of feckless resolutions at the United Nations, or in the last three years at the Six-Party talks on North Korea. But who’s speaking up to say Thank You? Since the White House confirmed almost two weeks ago that what the Israelis hit was indeed a clandestine nuclear plant, built with no apparent purpose other than to make bombs, there has been a lot of earnest discussion and analysis — but if anyone outside the blogosphere has been saying a heartfelt thanks, it’s been so low-key I’ve missed it. On April 24th, the day the administration briefed the press, Bush welcomed Palestinian President Abbas to the White House, and told him “thank you” for coming. But in the White House press statement that day about the briefings on the reactor, Israel was referred to only by implication, as a sort of ghostly presence behind the passive voice; thus –“that reactor, which was damaged beyond repair on Sept. 6 of last year…”

Actually, it was Israelis who took the risk of flying into Syrian air defenses, and it was Israelis who took the risk of Syrian retaliation, and it was Israelis who ensured that Syria’s Yongbyon replica on the Euphrates would not become a factory supplying material to arm some of the world’s worst regimes with the world’s deadliest weapons. This was a blow on the side of the Free World, which is beset — like it or not — by a global war that is at core about who we are, and what we value. Seems like America should not be shy about telling allies like these, Thank You.