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Comment and Opinion

World Affairs: Iran and the Israeli dilemma, by Alan Johnson

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“The Iranian regime has long been committed to the destruction of the State of Israel. Its programme to build a nuclear weapon is close – just how close is unclear – to reaching the “zone of immunity” after which a dash to produce nuclear weapons cannot be stopped. This combination of eliminationist antisemitism and nuclear capacity has placed the most fateful decision since the founding of the state on the shoulders of Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defence Minister Ehud Barack: whether or not to conduct pre-emptive military strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities.

The dilemma is excruciating. And it faces the world, not just Israel. A nuclear Iran would set off the blue touch paper on a regional nuclear arms race as well as creating a shield behind which Iranian proxies (militias, terror networks) could run amok. More: British Prime Minister David Cameron, reporting intelligence from his national security advisor Kim Darroch, told a parliamentary committee that ‘there are signs that the Iranians want to have some sort of intercontinental missile capability, so we have to be clear this is a threat potentially much wider than just Israel and the region.'”

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