Rosenberg: War with Iran?

Posted by johnhouk on Nov 17, 2008
 Ever since rumors of Iran going beyond the use of peaceful technology with their nuclear program there have been hints of military strikes (and HERE) from either Israel or the USA or both to set Iran’s nuclear back.

It became clear as Bush’s popularity began to shrink coupled with zero support with the Russian and Chinese portions of the United Nations Security Council that the Bush Administration was not going to involve the USA in a military strike against Iran. This so much the case a political rumor escaped that Ehud Olmert visited Bush to get the go ahead for Israel to do a solo strike against Iran’s nuclear capability. Bush did not give that go-ahead.

Now the rumors are beginning to fly again and only action will verify the difference between reality and rumor.

That rumor is that Israel is considering a solo strike against Iran before President Elect Obama takes Office on January 20, 2009. The reasoning being that Bush’s hands are even more tied and President Elect Obama is so pro-Arab that he will be more ambitious to strip Israel back to the pre-1967 borders before Arab invaders made yet another attempt to destroy Israel – and lost. Coincidently this pre-1967 border plan is a Saudi initiative.

Setting this up for you, you really need to read Joel C. Rosenberg’s article on this situation.

JRH 11/17/08 (Hat tip to Don Moore of Blind Conservatives)
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War with Iran?

By Joel C. Rosenberg
Posted by Administrator
November 17, 2008
Israel and the Middle East

    (Jerusalem, Israel, November 17, 2008) — Israel is unlikely to launch massive airstrikes to neutralize Iran’s nuclear weapons program before the U.S. inauguration on January 20, 2009, barring dramatic new intelligence that points to an imminent Iranian attack.


That’s my sense of things here after spending nearly a week on the ground.
There is scant evidence of a nation preparing for imminent hostilities. The Israeli political system is engaged in gearing up for elections next February 10th. What’s more, senior Israeli officials are still urging the U.S. to take the lead on stopping Iran. “We must unite our forces, led by the international community, led by the United States of America,” said outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in an address to some 4,000 Jewish leaders from around the world. He called for bilateral and international sanctions on the Islamic Republic of Iran and told American Jewish leaders: “Each and every one of us needs to play a role - lobby your government, lead your organization or identify a project that can exert additional pressure on Iran….It must become more costly to Iran to pursue nuclear weapons than to give [them] up.”

Last Thursday, I had the honor of addressing the World Likud Congress (pro-Israel political activists from the U.S., Africa and Europe) here in the holy city. I was on a panel of Israeli and Iranian experts on the threat posed to the Jewish State by the Ayatollah Khamenei, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the current regime in Tehran. While I agreed with much that my fellow panelists said, I was struck by their lack of urgency for Israel to take action. One said that Israel shouldn’t strike unless its leaders can be absolutely certain that by doing so Iran will not be able to build the Bomb for at least another ten years. Another suggested Israel should not infuriate the incoming Obama administration by launching attacks on Iran without a clear green light from the new President.

I respectfully disagreed. First, let’s be clear: there is almost no scenario by which the Bush administration is going to launch attacks on Iran in the next sixty days or so and thus hand an on-going war to a new American President. Second, the Obama administration has made it crystal clear that it is not going to make neutralizing Iran’s nuclear threat via military means a priority, much less a top priority. Just the opposite: Obama intends to launch “unconditional” negotiations with Tehran. So waiting for the U.S. to “take the lead” is a non-starter at this point. Third, Israel faces an existential threat from Iranian nuclear weapons and it cannot afford to wait much longer. Once Iran has the Bomb, six million Jews here will be in supreme peril. There will never be a “perfect” time to strike Iran, and Israeli leaders will never be able to be certain ahead of time just how long their attacks will push Iran back from getting the Bomb. But is not buying five more years of security - if ten are not possible - still worth it? Fourth, Israel should never surrender its national security decision-making process to Washington. Did Jerusalem wait for the U.S. to act against the enemies of the Jewish people in 1967? Did Jerusalem wait for the U.S. to bomb Iraq’s nuclear facilities in 1981? Fifth, more than ever, Israel leaders like “the sons of Issachar” described in I Chronicles 12, “men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do.”

[UPDATE: President-elect Obama now says he supports the Saudi "peace" initiative. This would require Israel to go back to its 1967 border, re-divide Jerusalem, give up the strategically vital Golan Heights, and give away all of the Biblical lands of Judea and Samaria and the strategically vital Jordan Valley.]

As I’ve written previously, war with Iran will be horrific at many levels. I do not wish for it. Indeed, I am praying passionately for the peace of Jerusalem, as the Bible teaches me to do. But the notion of Iran’s genocidal, apocalyptic leaders getting weapons of mass destruction in their hands is completely unacceptable. I am, therefore, resigned to the possibility that there may now be no other option but for Israel to launch preemptive strikes, since it is increasingly clear Washington won’t.

As I have no influence on such decisions, I am focusing on helping Israelis prepare for the next war. For much of the past week I have been with my Joshua Fund team here in Israel, working with local Jewish and Christian leaders to stockpile emergency relief supplies. I have also had the privilege of preaching at two Israeli congregations to encourage local believers here to continue walking with the Lord, loving their neighbors, praying without ceasing, and girding themselves for the dark days that very well may lie ahead. More on that in my next dispatch.

[AP: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert speaks during the General Assembly of the United Jewish Communities in Jerusalem, Sunday, Nov. 16, 2008. Olmert told the gathering that Iran is still trying to make nuclear weapons, and the world must make a concerted effort to stop the project.]
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