I agree with Rhosty. I believe a Middle East war is almost inevitable. And nuclear weapons will certainly be used. Concerns about this where expressed in the 1960s by UK by Middle East Scholars taking part in the Anti nuclear demonstratons organised by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmanent (CND) and by Bertrand Russel in his book “Can Man Survive”.

Today the world is sitting on an economic time bomb which if it explodes will be the trigger for war between Israel and Iran. If the GFC is brought under control that merely postpones war which may be caused by other arab states poking their nose it.

Its a Catch 2 situation. And Julie Bishop's concern is appreciated but the poo will hit the fan in a nuclear war. Julie should keep her nose out of this given Abbots pro Israel stance.

@worldwatcher. One of the problems with Ms Bishop's presentations is that they are not "facts" as you would have it. Rather, she presents a viewpoint and a very selective one at that. She seems incapable of actually learning from the evidence. One example (and there are many) is her constant repetition of the phrase, or variation thereof, of Iran's "nuclear programme". What programme is this exactly? It has twice been the unanimous view of all 16 US intelligence agencies that Iran does not have a nuclear weapons programme. Yet Ms Bishop persists in advancing the Israeli view that such a programme exists.

As David G and others have frequently pointed out, Israel is a major nuclear weapons armed power, but that is never acknowledged, even tacitly, by Ms Bishop.

Iran is a signatory to the non-proliferation treaty and everything it is doing is in accordance with its obligations under that treaty. Israel is not a signatory and what it does is manifestly not in accord with the obligations of treaty signatories. Again there is a stunning silence from Ms Bishop.

The sanctions regime which Australia enthusiastically embraces is inevitably leading to death and suffering for millions of ordinary Iranians. The sanctions time is based on the lie that Iran has a nuclear weapons programme. Again, silence from Ms Bishop.

If and when she shows she has some actual knowledge of what is really going on she might justify her status as opposition foreign affairs spokesperson. Until then her arguments have little or no credibility.

Julie,

there are a couple of factors not mentioned that will prevent an attack by Israel.
Iran has drone technology. Iran have missiles capable of targeting Israeli cities with conventional warheads.
Any attack by Israel on Iran will be met with rockets raining down on Israeli cities. And we all saw how quickly the gutless Israelis backed down after rockets reached Tel Aviv and Jeruselum during it's recent capitualation to the Gazans.
We also saw how impotent the US was in the peace talks which were dominated by the Egyptians. The end of the blockade of Gaza and the cessation of the murders of Hamas leaders. Neither of those things could ever have occurred had the US and Israel dominated the peace talks.

And Btw lets not forget Hamas is the elected government of all the Palestinians. It received more support than Abbas but due to non recognition by Israel and the world 'leaders' Hamas has never been able to undertake it's elected function. Abbas has become an impotent puppet of Israel and its supporters.

Things have already changed in the mid east. It no longer matters who is elected in Israel. It's only power card now is it's nuclear aresnal... which it has indicated it will use. If it undertakes that action it will be condemned by the entire world ... including Australia and it's leaders.

So Ms Bishop “is doing her best to further our understanding of the region” and we do not know that she has “made any alignment with the policies of Israel or the U.S.”

We could have a rough guess though, couldn't we?

Ms Bishop is sufficiently pro-Zionist that she once, as Shadow Foreign Secretary, accused her own country, without any supporting evidence that she was willing to reveal, of forging the passports of other countries. This was in defense of Israel’s alleged forging of Australian passports for which Israel received a rare reprimand from the Australian Government, although merely to point out to them that this was not the action of a friendly country.

US Intelligence sources inform us that Iran is nowhere close to having nuclear weapons. We also know that Israel has at least 200 warheads (possibly 400) and “crazy Benny” as its leader, hell-bent on initiating yet another attack on a neighbouring country.

Back to the US. Stop supplying Israel with arms and money and tell it that a single democratic secular state west of the River Jordan would ease a lot of tensions.

Did not the UN Atomic Inspection group report that they were not given
unfetted access to Iranian facilities. If I remember correctly they
reported that Iran was processing uranium beyond the point needed for power reactors.
I don't think that is something that could be just brushed aside.

That would not just make Israel very nervous.

The Iranians are coming! the Iranians are coming!

It is as comical as it is untrue. But “The Countering Iran in the Western Hemisphere Act”, which as of Dec. 28 is an official US law, is not meant to be amusing. It is riddled with half-truths, but mostly complete and utter lies.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33520.htm