Israel Matzav: Bolton urges Israel to attack Iran

Saturday, September 01, 2012

Bolton urges Israel to attack Iran

In an interview that was published on Friday, former US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton told Maariv, a Hebrew daily published here in Israel, that Israel should attack Iran on its own because Barack Hussein Obama never will (Hat Tip: Jack W via Breitbart.com).

Speaking to Maariv's Tzach Yoked, Bolton said that "there is no way at this stage to prevent Iran from going nuclear without use of force. It is very unfortunate in my opinion, but I see no possibility that Obama will use military force, and therefore it falls upon Israel. I think that even though the Administration says that containment is not its policy, it will become its policy the day after Iran possesses nuclear weapons. They won't like it, but they do believe that a nuclear Iran can be contained, just as we contained the nuclear Soviet Union during the Cold War."

"Iran is not in a race for building one or two bombs," Bolton continued. "I think they believe that time is on their side and they will continue with what seems like a well thought-out plan, mostly because they believe that the United States under Obama's leadership will do nothing. And of course, they are afraid of Israel, but I think they trust Obama to pressure Israel not to do anything, and until now this has proved right."

"I think Israel, like any other country, has a legitimate right to self defense," Bolton told Maariv. "Israel has twice attacked enemies that were developing nuclear weapons, and it has the right to do so in this case as well."

Bolton, who is serving as a senior foreign policy adviser to the Romney campaign, also gave an interview to the Intermountain Jewish News, which included the following:

Question: “Absent interference by the Obama administration, would there be direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians? Is the obstacle really the Obama administration?”

Answer: There really is no responsible leadership on the Palestinian side — someone who can make commitments and honor them. The burden is on the Palestinians to come up with leadership with a legitimate basis, a leadership that understands that peace goes back to UN Resolution 242 and the acceptance of Israel.

In 1947, the original UN plan would have created a state of Israel about 40% of the size of Israel within the 1967 lines — and the Palestinians rejected that!

It is tragic for the Palestinian people that their leaders are so focused on abstract political objectives.

A couple of years ago, my opinion was that Egypt should take responsibility for the Gaza Strip and the West Bank should be reincorporated into Jordan. That won’t work today.

Some Palestinians are abandoning the two-state solultion. But the one-state “solution” is an ill disguised plan to eliminate Israel.

Unless Israel and the Palestinians develop trust between themselves, on both sides of the table, with leaders who can make commitments, there will be no peace.

Question: “And Iran?”

Answer: I have said for four years that neither sanctions nor diplomacy will work [i.e., stop Iran’s nuclear progam].

This makes it more likely for military intervention to take place.

It’s a race between sanctions and between Iran getting a nuclear option.

If the military option [is to be used], it’s a very undesirable option. But the others are worse.

The US has much greater [military] capabilities [than Israel]. That’s why Israel wants the US to do it. I believe the US should do it because we’ll get blamed anyway. Therefore, we might as well make sure it gets done right.

I blame not only Obama, but the [G. W.] Bush administration.

Sanctions are only good if they are comprehensive, swiftly applied and rigorously enforced. Obama has met none of those conditions.

[To those who say that Obama’s sanctions have hurt Iran’s oil industry:] I don’t believe Iran’s oil statistics. For the first time, Iraq’s oil exports are above Iran’s, but this is likely because Iranian oil is counted as part of Iraqi oil. Iraq imports Iranian oil and then Iraq exports its own oil — so its own oil statistics go up.

And, Iran has money-laundering capabilities that would make the drug cartels envious.

Yes, this should have been handled by the Bush administration, but four years of Obama have made it much worse.

Israel will have to go it alone. Sometime between October 9 and November 6 of this year. Count on it.

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Campaign 2012, Iran sanctions regime, Iranian nuclear threat, Israeli attack on Iran, John Bolton