http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/957982.html

Israel is the only member of the United Nations that is being openly threatened with destruction – not just as a country but as a Jewish state. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who never loses an opportunity to sow hatred against the Jews, is busy drumming up support for the annihilation of Israel with remarks like, “Israel is a dried-out rotten tree that can be knocked down in one storm,” “The countdown has begun for the destruction of Israel,” and “It is very doubtful that the Holocaust happened, but if it did, why should the Middle East have to pay the price?”

The president of Iran has a mouth like a sewer. Even the UN secretary-general says he is shocked. Maybe he is, but how come neither he nor the Security Council has issued a word of condemnation? The world doesn’t remember, or maybe it never sunk in, that Hitler also started out with hatred of the Jews. He rose to power on the back of this hatred, and brought upon us a world war that killed 50 million people on four continents.

Ahmadinejad, like the wily salesman in a Persian bazaar, has managed to dupe the UN agencies and the International Atomic Energy Agency into believing that Iran’s nuclear research is for peaceful purposes only and not for building a bomb. He has recruited the aid of South Africa, Indonesia, Vietnam, Libya and other Israel-loving countries to save himself from sanctions. Without the votes of China and Russia in the Security Council, for example, Iran will come out as pure and untouched as the driven snow.

Even worse, Iran is getting help from these supposedly respectable countries and reputable international companies to obtain the materials he needs for nukes and missiles. From time to time, the president can’t resist putting these long-range missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads on parade, just so everybody can see what’s what.

The fact that the reactors, the centrifuges, the uranium-enriching facilities and other nuclear-related research centers are scattered underground in a variety of locations proves that Iran has learned something from Israel’s bombing of the Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981. We are on the top of their list, not only as a target but even more so, as a threat and an obstacle.

On more than one occasion, secret envoys have been sent to reassure Israel that Ahmadinejad is not omnipotent. Yes, he is the president, but his “rebbes,” the real rulers of Iran, would chop off his hands before letting him get near the launch button.

According to Prof. Itamar Rabinovich, a former ambassador to the United States, Israel has reason to be worried. Not only because the president of Iran is openly pushing for its destruction, but because he is peddling his hate to Islamic fundamentalists everywhere.

In Rabinovich’s opinion, Israel doesn’t have too many options for dealing with the Iranian president’s threats. It could submit a complaint to the international court in the Hague, which can take years, and by that time, Ahmadinejad will be in an old folks’ home. It could also demand that the Security Council issue a condemnation or call for Iran’s nuclear program to be forcibly stopped. The trouble is that in a forum like the Security Council, Israel is liable to lose.

Another possibility is for Israel to get parliamentarians of European Union countries to convince their governments to stop selling bomb-making materials to Iran. But the most important thing of all is to make the U.S. Congress understand the dangers that loom over its sane allies in the region. From what we are hearing these days, the next American president is not going to be as friendly or involved in the war on Islamic extremism as George W. Bush.

From some corners, Israel is being reassured that the threats to destroy it are all talk. This is not the opinion of Prof. Bernard Lewis, who advises that the Iranian threats be taken very seriously, because there is an apocalyptic Shia sect out there liable to wake up and do something to hasten the arrival of its messiah, Imam al-Mahdi. It is no coincidence that Hassan Nasrallah is also prophesying the coming destruction of Israel based on such messianic beliefs.

Even if Ahmadinejad doesn’t use the bomb – if he ever gets his hands on one – there is no question that this threat looming over our heads is liable to undermine the whole concept of Israel being the only safe haven for the Jewish people. Under the circumstances, it is important for Israel to avoid collective punishment of the population of Gaza, lest it lose international support for its efforts to block the Iranian nuclear program.

Without making light of the power of the Israeli Air Force and its excellent pilots, this is not something we should be doing on our own. Israel needs the cooperation, consent and support of the United States and the European Union in order to defend itself.