Joe Biden wants to rejoin the Iran deal. President Trump mocked Laura Inghraham for wearing a mask. You can just cringe at the stupidity of both of them.
Matthew Kroening explains here
what is wrong with the Iran deal. It just does not fundamentally resolve the
issue. Snapback sanctions - if Iran is caught in violation the sanctions will supposedly
“snapback” in place. Sunset clause - after 15 years Iran could have as many
enrichment facilities as it wants.
Nature:
To be clear, the science supports using
masks, with recent studies suggesting that they could save lives in different
ways: research shows that they cut down the chances of both transmitting and
catching the coronavirus, and some studies hint that masks might reduce the
severity of infection if people do contract the disease.
The number of new infections in the US is approaching 200
000 per day. Michael
Osterholm said yesterday: “We are now living in the most dangerous public
health moment since 1918 “. His basic message: “Stop Swapping Air!”
President Trump asked
for options for attacking Iran last week, but held off.
Why is it that we cannot have leaders who understand the dangers
from Iran and the virus at the same time?
So we are back to the article I
wrote in 2008. Israel now has two
months, till January 20, 2021 to make up
its mind.
Facing Iran, Alone
We are back in 1940
In May 1940 Britain stood
alone facing Nazi Germany. The USSR had signed the Ribbentrop-Molotov
nonaggression pact; the US had not entered the war yet.
On May 7, Leo Amery spoke in the
Commons, attacking Neville Chamberlain's government, quoting Oliver Cromwell:
"You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I
say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!"
On May 10, 1940, Winston Churchill
became Prime Minister.
Ever since the US government's
National Intelligence Estimate report it has become increasingly probable
that Israel will be the one to tackle Iran. With the election
of Barack Obama this is now almost certain. We are back in May
1940.
There are many who believe that, for all
their talk, the Iranians would never launch a nuclear attack. The 12th Imam is
for the masses, the way Marx was, the argument goes, and not to be believed in
verbatim. How many Arab or Muslim leaders have become suicide bombers to get
the virgins? None.
But comparing Communists with the
followers of the Islamic prophet is misleading. For one, the Communists never
produced suicide bombers and we already have had 148 explode here
in Israel. Muhammad Atta was not the top leader, but he was
among the educated, for whom education was just a tool to be used in
accomplishing his jihadi goals. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is
an ardent believer in theMahdi, the Hidden Twelfth
Imam, the four-year old who went into hiding in a well 1,140 years
ago. The idea that Iran itself may become a nuclear suicide bomber is
real.
Those who question Iranian motives are
projecting Western values, almost patronizingly so. The privileged party
members in the USSR, the so-called priviligentsia, would not dream of
sacrificing themselves. They had their closed shops, hospitals and pharmacies,
access to foreign media and, most coveted of all, access abroad. They enjoyed
their privileges. The Iranian mullahs are no Bolsheviks.
The world watched Hitler rearm, reoccupy
the Rhineland in 1936, annex the Sudetenland in October 1938 and the rest
of Czechoslovakia in March 1939, and rape Austria in 1938.
As Churchill put it, they kept feeding the crocodile hoping they would be eaten
last.
Anyone who reads about the policies and
the press of the 1933-1940 period cannot but be struck by the similarities. We
know what happened then, yet we are following almost the same path. Scary.
Might Israel strike
at Iran before Obama takes over? As reported in the Jerusalem
Post, Benny Morris says yes. Most other analysts disagree. I believe that
it is in the US interest for Israel to destroy the Iranian nuclear sites, since
the destruction and the rise in oil prices resulting from a non-nuclear Iranian
retaliation would still be much less than the consequences of a nuclear war
following an Iranian nuclear strike on Israel and an Israeli nuclear
retaliation.
There is only one remaining scenario
left.
On February 10 Israel goes to
the polls. The leaders we elect will be our last line of defense. Help will not
come from the Europeans, the United Nations and not even from the US. The
decisions that will determine the survival of this country will come from
Benjamin Netanyahu, Moshe Yaalon, Benny Begin or Tzipi Livni.
Take your pick.
