It’s time for Israel to force Iran to think the unthinkable
There is one way for Israel to ensure its security for decades: a preemptive nuclear strike on the Iranian regime
By professional coincidence, I happened across this disturbing article on the Iranian threat by Colonel (res.) Prof. Gabi Siboni and Brig. Gen. (res.) Yuval Bazak of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security. It is a worst-case scenario article, which are never pleasant to read—or write—but there is nonetheless considerable value in the attempt to “think the unthinkable,” if only in order to head it off.
Siboni and Bazak’s thesis is a simple one: The Iranian regime has adopted a two-pronged strategy against Israel. One, of course, is nuclear. The second is conventional, but just as dangerous. The regime seeks to use its proxies in Gaza and Lebanon, as well as the weaponization of the Israeli-Arab community, to shatter Israeli society and induce Israel’s Jewish population to flee “back to Poland,” as the Palestinians tend to put it. The solution proffered by Siboni and Bazak is for Israel to get over its “addiction to quiet” and go on the offensive through the possible conquest of Gaza and large parts of Lebanon.
On the whole, the authors present a plausible analysis of the Iranian regime’s intentions. Their solution, however, is unworkable. Israel does not want to reconquer Gaza, let alone invade Lebanon. For one, the enormous expense and high casualties of such an operation would be prohibitive and unacceptable to the Israeli public. It would also be more or less impossible due to international and American opposition.
However, pace Siboni and Bazak, Israel has alternative and more effective weapons than territorial conquest at its disposal. There is an “unthinkable” answer to the unthinkable threat they describe: a preemptive nuclear strike on the Iranian regime.
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