Thank you Graham for responding, it is a sad situation whereby responses from authors on OLO is declining, nice to see you monitoring and resonding to posters.

I agree with some of your response comments, there is no doubt the general Israeli population is growing more and more frustrated by the day and the feeling appears to be moving toward other options.

I still feel the current leader of Israel has a prepared agenda and that he is ready, willing and when forced, able to fulfill 'his' mission as he see's it.

If you look at the historical record, his current aims and agenda would guarantee his immortality with the fervent fundemental Jewish minority and perhaps this is what drives his agenda, it is difficult to tell if we will ever know.

The recent collision of a US warship and a Japanese oil tanker within the Strait's of Hormuz is a classic example of the type of 'incident' he is looking for, one that would, in his eye's legitimise a pre-emptive strike on Iran, no matter whom is to blame, and more importantly the likely global consequences of such action.

US inertia and the general apathy in the international community is ripe for the picking for the likes of Netanyahu and his megolomaniac followers, I still have great reservations about any diplomatic solution, vis the liklihood of a pre-emptive strike by Israel, unfortunately to the detriment of the general ME and the rest of us on this small green planet.

Chris:

I’m not really sure whether you are being sarcastic or just extremely naïve. It sounds to me like you are trying to apologise for what the Iranian clerics did or did not say.

We have Ahmadinejad threatening to erase Israel from the map, only to be explained by apologists that he was mis-translated: What he really meant was to erase Israel from the “pages of time”. This sounds so much better doesn’t it? Almost a message of love.

Then we have Ayatollah Khomeini himself with some brilliant quotes, such as:

“We do not worship Iran; we worship Allah. For patriotism is another name for paganism. I say let this land [Iran] burn. I say let this land go up in smoke, provided Islam emerges triumphant in the rest of the world.”

It really warms your heart doesn’t it? With such great regards for his own country, I’m sure he can be counted on to respect the security of the countries surrounding him.

But I have no doubt he was mis-quoted. What he really meant to do was to spread a message of peace and tranquillity.

Good post Awv....

A great spray from the late Khomeini. It's so good in fact, I would rate it as being positively Churchillian! The old bulldog would have given his eye-teeth for an oratory like that.

I think Ahmadinejad said, "Like Nazism and Communism before it, Zionism will disappear from the pages of time."

Scary stuff!

.... but hardly worth fighting over.

Another ME nation is being demonized in preparation for an attack, sound familiar?

All those armchair strategists who are Israel's partisans are welcome to volunteer for the IDF.

Yeah, the world needs a nation of imperialist religious fanatics to start dropping nukes on Iran like a hole in the head.

Why don't the more intelligent world leaders (are there any?) state clearly that the creation of Israel was a gigantic mistake and create another Israel somewhere else on Earth where the deluded, anachronistic Children of God can't threaten mankind with the possibility of nuclear extinction? The Antarctic sounds good.

If a mistake has been made, and it has, then reverse the wrong decision!

Is that too simple?

The is no such thing as a balencer in the Middle East. Nothing can counter balance a true Democracy that is Israel with a murderous, medieval Theocracy. This is stupidity of the top level, Democracy is a balence system, anything other is just a machine to consume people as object lessons. Ongoing repression in Iran to crush demonstrators, just the people to play with Nukes.