Zev Chafets writes in the new Jewish World Review:
In an interview in an Israeli newspaper this week, Giora Eiland, Israel’s national security adviser, made a startling statement: November will be the “point of no return” for taking out the Iranian nuclear program.
“Point of no return” is a phrase with a history. In 1981, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin demanded to know when Saddam Hussein’s nuclear plant at Osirak, Iraq, would reach it. Military intelligence then, as always, was muddy. Some of Begin’s advisers counseled patience. Others warned that delay could be fatal. The most influential advocate of the go-for-it approach was Begin’s minister of defense – Ariel Sharon.
Who is going to stop him this time? Probably not John Kerry, if elected. Further down in the article, Chafets recounts a conversation between key Kerry foreign policy adviser Richard Holbroke and Bill O’Reilly:
“It is rather significant that the United States is now selling Israel over $300 million worth of bunker-busting bombs. They don’t need those for the Palestinians,” Richard Holbrooke told Bill O’Reilly on Sept. 23. O’Reilly was visibly surprised by the clear implication of this observation. Holbrooke is, after all, the leading Democratic spokesman on foreign affairs, John Kerry’s presumptive secretary of state.
O’Reilly: “But wouldn’t that be a disaster, to have the Israelis do it?”
Holbrooke: “I’m not advocating this.”
O’Reilly: “Right.”
Holbrooke: “[But] let’s realize where we are. In 1981, the Israelis attacked the Iraqi nuclear plant at Osirak. President [Ronald] Reagan personally criticized Israel. Today, we all recognize that Israel was 100% right to do it.”
Never mind the obvious questions about which planet O’Reilly is on (is that why the spin zone “stops here”?), it’s clear, as Chafets points out: This may be America’s last remaining point of 100% bipartisan foreign policy agreement: Israel was right to smash the Iraqi reactor 23 years ago, and it should be equipped for a similar job in Iran.
Well, it apparently has been equipped – or is about to be – and guess who’s “irked”? Meanwhile, back at the Debka ranch, we learn this morning “Iran is now able to launch a missile with 2,000-km range capable of hitting Israel and southern Europe. This was announced Tuesday by former Iranian president Rafsanjani, second highest authority in Tehran regime after hard line ruler Khamenei.”
October surprise? November surprise? Either way it should come as no surprise.
MEANWHILE: The Mullahs’ Greatest Enemy warns us not to play defense.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member