Israel Matzav

Ahmadinejad smiling all the way to the bank?

Unfortunately, the nightmare pictured at the top of this post seems well on its way to becoming reality.

On Saturday night, Israel once again urged 'international action' on Iran.

An announcement by Iran’s nuclear chief of plans to build new atomic facilities in the country, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s newest warning regarding Israel’s demise, underline the need for “determined and effective international action,” a senior government official said on Saturday night.

“Ahmadinejad’s continuous outbursts of extremist rhetoric only prove to the entire international community the seriousness of the threat posed by the Iranian regime’s pursuit of nuclear weapons, and heightens the need for determined and effective international action,” the official said.

Ahmadinejad, referring on Saturday to escalating tensions in the Gaza Strip, said IDF action would “cost” Israel “too much.”

“I say to the Zionists and their supporters that they have already committed enough crimes,” he told an Iranian crowd. “A new adventure in Gaza will not save you, but hasten your demise.”

Faced with the prospect of new sanctions because of Iran’s nuclear defiance, Ahmadinejad said that such penalties would only strengthen his country’s technological advancement and help it to become more self-sufficient.

“Don’t imagine that you can stop Iran’s progress,” Ahmadinejad said in remarks broadcast live on state television. “The more you reveal your animosity, the more it will increase our people’s motivation to double efforts for construction and progress of Iran.”

The Iranian president claimed US pressure on Iran had backfired and made Washington more isolated in the eyes of the world.

In fact, according to Arutz Sheva, Ahmadinejad's threat against Israel was even more explicit.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad once again threatened Israel with annihilation, saying over the weekend that if Israel attacks Gaza again, it will bring Israel “closer to certain death. I want to tell the Zionists and their supporters that they have committed enough crimes already,” he said adding that “the new adventure will not save you.”

But the sanctions being touted by the Obama administration are too little and too late. If China doesn't veto them in the Security Council.

Restricting the movement of leaders of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (such as preventing them from taking ski vacations in Europe), or enforcing various insignificant financial restrictions, will certainly not stop the uranium enrichment programs at Iranian nuclear facilities.

Just yesterday U.S. President Barack Obama announced that there is evidence that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, and warned that the entire Middle East would be 'destabilized' if they succeed in attaining nuclear arms, and further trigger an arms race in the region.

Yet it is highly unlikely that Obama's chosen line of action to stop this growing trend will prove to be the right one. In an interview on CBS Obama stressed that a united international community will back the soon-to-be-approved sanctions against Iran.

That is true.

The President said that a nuclear Iran is not only bad for America's national security, but also for the entire world. An impelling proclamation, but not what is going to stop the Iranians.

The President went on to say that in time Iran's economy will be influenced by their actions. "We're going to ratchet up the pressure and examine how they respond but we're going to do so with a unified international community," Obama said.

The trouble is that time is exactly what is lacking in the equation. According to analysts across the globe, Iran will be able to manufacture nuclear warheads by the end of this year. Perhaps Tehran is not in any particular rush to produce nuclear weapons so as to avoid provocation. Yet while the Americans debate what to do with Iran after the expected failure of the current sanctions, the centrifuges will continue to enrich uranium in either the Natanz or Qom nuclear plants.

Will Prime Minister Netanyahu run Obama's red light on Iran? Will a new Congress with more Republicans and fewer Democrats make a difference? Or will we be facing a nuclear Iran nine months from now - a prospect that might cause 23% of Israelis to leave the country?

What could go wrong?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:40 PM