Is Netanyahu's Patience with Iran Running Out?
Joel C. Rosenberg
(Washington, D.C., January 24, 2012) -- Does Israeli Prime Minister
Netanyahu think the West is taking decisive action to stop Iran from
getting the Bomb, or does he think the West is fiddling while Tel Aviv
runs the rising risk of burning? That's the Big Question as tensions
continue to mount in the epicenter this week. Iran is making new threats
to close the Strait of Hormuz to oil shipments, just days after
test-firing missiles over the Strait. The U.S., Britain and France are
sending additional naval forces into the Gulf. The European Union is
taking new steps to impose an oil embargo on Iran. The U.S. is taking
steps to sanction Iran's third largest bank, though dragging its feet on
actually sanctioning Iran's Central Bank.
Will such Western moves be enough to stop Iran from building an arsenal
of nuclear weapons? Personally, I'm not convinced. Such moves would have
been good a few years ago. Now they strike me as too little too late,
especially after the Obama White House disastrous decision recently to
cancel joint military exercises with Israel for fear of being "too
provocative" towards Iran. But it doesn't matter what I think. What
matters is what Netanyahu thinks. If he decides the West isn't doing
enough and Iran is going to get the Bomb, then he is going to hit Iran
hard, soon, and without warning.
In that context, it's worth noting a speech Netanyahu gave Tuesday
warning his nation that the world has not internalized the lessons of
the Holocaust. "Speaking at the Knesset just days before International
Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27), Netanyahu reasoned that the
Jewish people must not put their fate in the hands of the international
community," reported the Jerusalem Post. "Posing a rhetorical question,
Netanyahu asked, 'How does the world react to the calls for genocide
against the Jews today? Seventy years after the shoa [Holocaust], Iran
is calling for us to be wiped off the map, Hezbollah is calling for our
extinction, as are many in Hamas….The Jerusalem Mufti [Sheikh Muhammad
Hussein] called on Sunday for Jews to be killed wherever they
are…echoing his predecessor Haj Amin Al Husseini, who actively helped
Hitler and Eichman,' he said. 'I do not hear the international community
condemning this. I hear them condemning buildings in the West Bank. But
I don't hear them condemning this incitement,' said Netanyahu."
Could Netanyahu be signaling that his patience -- and that of the
Israeli government and military -- is running out?
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