TO DO, OR NOT TO DO, THAT IS THE QUESTION!
May 3, 2008
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
The gut wrenching decision of whether or not to attempt to knock out the Iranian Nuclear facilities is the most painful and confusing one that faces Israel and the United States. If the Democrats gain the Presidency in November, then the agony of the decision will be totally on Israel’s shoulders, for the Democrats will shy away from war like cats shy
away from water.
The steep mountain slopes and deep narrow valleys of Iran provide a natural defense against missile and aircraft attacks, and are capable of even being a slight disadvantage to “smart” warheads and bombs.
But the main obstacles to effectively destroying Iranian missile sites rests with deep submergence of sites in steel reinforced concrete, anti-missile and aircraft missile systems, and a vast scattered system of the sites across the vast expanses of Iran’ s rugged topography.
The Excerpt by Dennis Ross, which follows our heading, is well worth reading on the pros and cons of our present
and future dealings with the Iranians, and the effect Iran’s procurement of nuclear weapons will have on the Middle East countries.
The second article from the Jerusalem Post contains remarks
from the IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.
General Ashkenazi that show the resolve of Israel not to allow themselves and their descendants to be wiped off the face of the earth.
Begin Excerpt from Jerusalem Center for Public Information Daily Alert
April 29, 2008
Choices and Strategies for Dealing with Iran
Dennis Ross (Washington Institute for Near East Policy)
On April 24, 2008, Ambassador Dennis Ross testified before the Senate Homeland Security Committee:
The Iranians probably will solve the technological problems that have limited their ability to operate their centrifuges on a non-stop basis within a year’s time. And, once they have done so, they will be able to enrich uranium and stockpile fissionable material.
This tells us that our current policies are not going to prevent Iran from acquiring the capacity either to assemble nuclear weapons or build a break-out capability.
Arab and Israeli leaders with whom I have spoken fear that should Iran have nuclear arms, it will transform the landscape of the region. Iranian leaders will feel emboldened to use terror and terror groups to threaten or subvert others in the area, including particularly those who might be inclined to pursue peace with Israel, knowing that their nukes provide an umbrella of protection or a built-in deterrent against responses.
Tell the Israelis that Iran will act rationally, knowing that Israel can retaliate if Iran ever used nuclear or dirty bombs against Israel, and they are not reassured.
Even former Iranian President Rafsanjani, who is seen as more pragmatic than Ahmadinejad, has said that Iran could absorb many nuclear bombs and survive, while Israel, given its small size, could not survive even one.
Israelis also question whether that segment of the Iranian leadership (which believes in the apocalyptic return of the “Hidden Imam”) can actually be deterred – and believe that they cannot run the risk of trying to find out.
Begin Jerusalem Post Article
‘We take threat to destroy us seriously’
JPost.com Staff and AP, THE JERUSALEM POST
May 1, 2008
“We will never allow our sons and daughters, our parents and grandparents to be wiped off the face of the earth again,” IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi said Thursday in his address at the March of
the Living ceremony in Auschwitz Birkenau in Poland. “We have learned our lesson and we are taking threats to destroy Israel seriously.”
Ashkenazi alluded to current threats to Israel’s existence, calling “to all nations and all national leaders to combat hatred on the face of the earth, to eradicate it and to act decisively against manifestations of anti-Semitism in the world.”
“We will not be able to say we did not see – the writing is on the wall, clear and distinct,” he warned.
“I stand with pride and passion as a commander, a son to a Jewish state that possesses might and strength, and I pledge: Never again; never will we stand helpless, [depending] on the charity of others,” Ashkenazi continued. “We, the soldiers of the Israel Defense Force – the emissaries of people and nation – stand here today in IDF uniforms and raise
Israel’s banner with pride in the name of tens of thousands of IDF soldiers and commanders who consider themselves the executors of the will, the prayer and the dream of our six million brothers whose existence was cruelly cut short.”
Some 12,000 young Jews, Poles and World War II survivors took part in the March of the Living Thursday, an annual event at the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau that honors the memory of those who perished in the Holocaust.
Ashkenazi led the march along with 160 IDF soldiers participating in the “Witnesses in Uniform” educational program. Israeli ambassadors from Hungary and Poland, along with ministers from both countries were also present. Participants hailed from 54 different countries.
This year’s march, the 17th, started with the blowing of the shofar, or ram’s horn, at the iron gate – crowned with the words “Arbeit Macht Frei,” or “Work Sets You Free” – that leads into the former camp of Auschwitz.
Participants carrying white-and-blue Israeli flags were led by some camp survivors on their two-mile trek between Auschwitz I, which was primarily a work camp, and Auschwitz-Birkenau, the death camp itself, containing nothing but wooden barracks and ruins of the gas chambers.
The Mourner’s Kaddish – the Jewish prayer memorial prayer – was said at a huge stone monument to the camp’s victims at Birkenau.
At least 1.1 million people, including Jews, Poles and Roma, perished in the camp’s gas chambers or from starvation, disease and forced labor. The camp was liberated in January 1945 by Soviet troops.
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