It was Israel who helped get nuclear material to Pakistan via South Africa. Who said so? A former FBI whistle blower and she had the documents and bills of lading to prove it.

There is only one nation on earth that has ever been deranged enough to nuke innocent people and did.

Will the whiners about Persia just get over it. They have never attacked anyone in the last 200 years and are not likely too.

Just leave them alone, they are not breaking any law.

Unlike us.

Solthechef

The article by Creveld is flawed.

1. It does not consider whether Iran will provide nuclear material to the terrorist organisations that they bankroll.
2. It neglects the fact that Iran doesn’t need to launch their weapons to do major damage to the region. Iran can merely threaten to launch weapons thus bringing neighbouring countries to full alert. This has the possibility of destroying Israel’s and other Middle Eastern countries economies. Exactly like bomb threats, every aggressive move Iran makes will have to be seriously responded to, up to the point of evacuating all citizens to bomb shelters.

Ahmedinejhad is a completely unpredictable character. He thinks he communicates with the Mehdi who has been hiding in a well for 1100 years. He drops letters into the well to communicate with him. His primary goal is to bring back the Mehdi.

ShadowMinister.

We all know who sanctions hurt the most. In this case it is without doubt going to affect the pro western groups within Iranian society. Even though they punish the innocent extremely disproportionately, sanctions do sometimes work on countries which are run by pragmatists. The Iranian leadership are sooo far from pragmatists that they could be considered poster children for the antonym. Irans leadership believe without doubt that they are doing God’s work. Sanctions will not deter them , it will only make their people suffer.

The argument that Iran only wants a peaceful nuclear program is laughable. No one believes it, it is merely a smokescreen for the soft left to feel good about the fact that yet again they are going to stand by and do nothing. It also masks the virulent hate that many soft lefters have for Israel and the US.

Keith

That is pure apologism. Israel is not expanding its borders. In fact it has given back the Gaza Strip recently. Israel has a history of returning the land it has taken in return for peace. Just ask the Egyptians about the Sinai.

You are forgetting that ALL of the land Israel occupies was taken after Arab armies invaded Israel. Three times. Israel is attacked daily by rockets supplied by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

Israel has recently provided evidence that the Syrian regime has North Korean nuclear material. But you call Israel a threat to peace. Are you MAD.

How do you do anything ‘covertly and openly’? Show me any evidence of Israel’s military adventurism. Israel has been fighting to protect itself, whilst surrounded by enemies, for 60 years. Yet they are still attacked daily. I would like to know what you would do if extremists lobbed missiles into your home day after day.

Its soft lefters like you who make things worse. There is virtually unanimous agreement that Iran is lying about it nuclear program. Iran wants Nuclear weapons. You are helping them get them and it will blow up in all of our faces if they do.

Marilyn,

Your hatred of the US is obvious but your logic is a far less so. It seems you have been visiting the soft left websites. I’ve seen the ‘Iran hasn’t attacked anyone in 200 years’ quote many times now.

First Iran attacks Israel every day through their funding, arming and training of Hezbollah, Hamas and other terrorist organisations. Iran is also sending weapons and special forces to train and fight the coalition in Iraq.

Secondly, the Islamic Republic is only 30 years old, so it is pointless to talk about what Iran did before then.

Thirdly, they are breaking the law by developing Nuclear Weapons. Ahmedinejhad has vowed to wipe Israel off the map. Wake up. Iran doesn’t need a peaceful nuclear program. Oil based power is sooo much cheaper for a country like Iran that has its own oil. So why do they want nuclear power stations?

Paul.L

Like many opponents of Israel you seem to misunderstand the Israeli Psyche. [That's one good reason I always recommend to my Palestinian friends and their supporter to catch as many Israeli films as possible.] It is a common error to project the impact Israel's bomb has on the Arab regimes on to the Israeli public. Last year with thousands of Hezbollah rockets landing on Israel the economy and even the stock exchange continued to boom. Israelis are not easily intimdated. [Disclosure: I am an Israeli.]

The Iranian regime is far from being irrational as its continual trade (even in weapons) with Israel indicates. It fully understands that either directly attacking Israel or even providing nuclear weapons to Hezbollah [which I Presume is what you refer to as a terrorist organisation.[ Will cost it dearly. The Iranians know very well that Israel has got the capability to obliterate their country even after a successful Iranian first strike. That's why Van Creveld and a substantial section of Israel's intelligence community are sleeping soundly.

PaulL

You contradict yourself in your first few sentences.

'Israel is not expanding its borders.'

'You are forgetting that ALL of the land Israel occupies was taken after Arab armies invaded Israel.'

So Israel taking land is not expanding it's borders ...according to your logic? And you reckon I'm an apologist?

No I'm not mad. But I question the logic of anyone who accepts Israel isn't illegally nuclear armed and is not a menace to peace in the region. As I do the logic of anyone who sees the illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land are not an extention of it's borders. I also question the balance of anyone who accepts it's ok for one side to be illegally nuclear armed but not the other.

Oh btw I'm not a leftie. I've been a member of the Liberal Party and have always had a very liberal outlook on life. My views represent a liberal democratic world view which is quite balanced and arrived at after consideration of all points of view. Which you would not be familiar with because it is is quite unlike your extremist view of justifying or ignoring Israeli agression in the mid east. And Israel is not a liberal democracy as your mates try to portray.

You can do some things covertly and other things openly... Did you miss the obvious?

Keep up the good work, Marylin, your philosophy is backed by many believers in the Realpolitik of the Balance of Power.

Bit like the Martins and the McCoys, who if we can't get the wealthy arogant Martins to disarm, arm the McCoys to match.

Similar to what has been allowed between India and Pakistan.

Reckon Bismarck would have thought about it, as he used his Realpolitik to work in ways to suit.

As when he was annoyed by the peristent war-mad French in 1778, assembling his brand new long range guns on the French border and firing them all the way to Paris, telling the French he was not in mind to take France right now, because it could set the whole of Europe aflame.

Bismarck died in 1908, and it is said that if he had been alive in 1914, WW1 would never have begun. Thus as Maynard Keynes later mentioned, WW2 might never have begun.

Only wish we had a Bismarck or a Keynes alive and aboard right now, for they both exhibit the real Realpolitik we need right now.