Israel still fails to understand that strongarm tactics won't win it secrurity
Israel still fails to understand that strongarm tactics won't win it secrurity
By The Daily Star
Friday, November 09, 2007
Editorial
Israel provided yet another example on Thursday of the double standards by which it feels entitled to operate on the world stage. Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz demanded that the international community replace Mohamed ElBaradei as the head of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, saying that he has not done enough to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions. Mofaz, whose own country has openly threatened to launch a military attack on the Islamic Republic, leveled the utterly absurd allegation that "the policies followed by ElBaradei endanger world peace." Mofaz' ludicrous remarks can be summed up in one simple word: chutzpah.
ElBaradei, a recipient of the Nobel peace prize, has taken great pains to ensure that the controversy over Iran's nuclear program does not result in another Iraq-style invasion or attack on a country on the basis of false evidence that it is developing weapons of mass destruction. The UN watchdog chief's own warnings that there was "no evidence" that Iraq was producing WMD were largely ignored, as are his current warnings that there is "no evidence" that Iran is developing nuclear weapons. Ironically, ElBaradei's cautious but thorough approach has now earned him the scorn of nuclear-armed Israel, one of only four nations in the world that has never signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty designed to limit the spread of atomic weapons.
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Mofaz's mind-boggling effrontery also coincides with a whirlwind of rumors that an Israeli military strike on nuclear power facilities is imminent. What the vast majority of Israeli officials fail to understand is that such an attack would pose an enormous and genuine threat to world peace, as well as to the long-term survival of the Jewish state. Strongarm tactics have both failed to bring Israel the security it craves and served to stoke anti-Israeli sentiment across the region. And now that the fear of what was once imagined to be an invincible Israeli war machine has been buried in the battlefields of South Lebanon, increasing numbers of Muslims are ready and willing to defend themselves and their nations against the next Israeli attack. Sadly, the Israelis fail to realize that in view of the alternative scenarios, ElBaradei remains their best defense against the alleged threat of a nuclear-armed Iran.
