Israel Matzav

Standing silent in the face of Iranian provocations

On Friday, Iran breached its border with Iraq and took control of an oil well in Iraqi territory. As usual, the world stood silent. Michael Ledeen, who refers to this as the extended finger from the mullahs' clenched fist, explains why this could be significant for Israel.

[T]oday’s event is part of a well established pattern: Iran attacks us and our friends and allies, and we look away. This is the theme of Accomplice to Evil. Just as we dithered and “negotiated,” as the Nazis prepared the Second World War, and then as the Soviets prepared the Cold War, so we have dithered for thirty years as the Islamic Republic has waged war against us. Do not think for a minute that this sort of appeasement is unique to Obama; the unique thing about the current phase is that we are so open about it.

There will probably be other events for us to ignore in short order. Top Iranian officials, including the head of the national security council and the defense minister, have recently visited Damascus, where they met with the leaders of the region’s terrorist leaders, and those killers, along with Syrian officials, will soon go to Tehran for further meetings. This suggests, to me at least, that an escalation in the terror war is now under way, and I expect to see a considerable tempo of killing in the near future. That is likely to include attacks in Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Israel.

I do not expect us to respond effectively. Our own leaders are even shying away from increasing the sanctions against Iran. With this sort of fecklessness, the regime will press ahead with its mayhem, and our friends in the region will be very cautious.

Israel faces more terror attacks and Iranian nuclear weapons. The Obama administration will continue to stand silent - unwilling to even impose sanctions against this brutal regime, let alone come to the defense of any of its allies in this region.

Ledeen quotes Vaclav Havel on how to deal with tyrants:

“…they respect it when someone is standing his ground, when someone is not afraid of them. When someone soils his pants prematurely, then they do not respect you more for it.”

Obama's pants are long since soiled and are just getting worse with his calls for 'engagement' and 'dialogue.'

What could go wrong?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:51 AM