Should Israel bomb Iran?
I’ve blogged several times before about the possibility that Iran is seeking to develop nuclear weapons and the risk that Israel might seek to pre-empt what it sees as an existential threat by bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities. I’m sure that President Barack Obama and Prime Minister David Cameron are discussing this issue during the latter’s current visit to the United States.
For so many reasons, I believe that an attack by Israel at this time would be wrong and counter-productive and I understand that Obama and Cameron both take the same view. But many Israelis – including Prime Minister Netanyahu – take a different stance. Therefore I was encouraged to read this article by Israeli author David Grossman who argues:
“Instead of a one-dimensional translation of the Israel of 2012 into the Holocaust of European Jewry, one question needs to be asked: is it advisable for Israel, on its own, to enter into a war with Iran, a war whose consequences cannot be foreseen, in order to prevent a future situation that is dangerous indeed but that no one can be sure will ever come to pass? In other words, in order to block a possible disaster in the future, will Israel be driven to initiate a certain disaster in the present?”