[Locke II]

Why on Earth would Israel attack Iran? Their Idea of gaining a few years against Iran in a nuclear arms race is ridiculous. They would Lose against Iran, mainly because other Muslim nations would back Iran, and other countries would turn away from Israel in disgust. Back Down Now, Israel, or there will be dire consequences

[ReactionaryRichard]

Why on Earth would Israel attack Iran? Their Idea of gaining a few years against Iran in a nuclear arms race is ridiculous. They would Lose against Iran, mainly because other Muslim nations would back Iran, and other countries would turn away from Israel in disgust. Back Down Now, Israel, or there will be dire consequences

This won't be a war that the Jews themselves fight. This will be war that American sons and daughters will die in. AIPAC is in direct control of American foreign policy.

[park]

They would Lose against Iran, mainly because other Muslim nations would back Iran

only Syria and Hezbollah

[EastCoastAmerican]

Israel is not crazy.

Being surrounded by several countries who want to wipe the nation off the face of the Earth inevitably instills an aggressive foreign policy in the populace. Ahmadinejad really hates Israel and Jewish people in general, and Iran being a leading producer in nuclear material puts Israel on edge.

Granted, Israel has US backing and any nation which nukes the country will face devastating retaliation. But the political leaders of Iran and other Middle Eastern nations whip up anti-Israel sentiment with talks of violence and "driving the Jews into the sea." Jimmy Carter's negotiations with Egypt were an historic moment because he got the government to tolerate Israel's existence. Short of open warfare, many Middle Eastern countries will do everything in their power to cripple Israel. But some nations did resort to open warfare, like the Six Day War.

A war with Iran will be crazy and terrible for all participants, but the right-wing nationalists in Israel want to look tough by promising force against Iran if they get nuclear arms, while Ahmadinejad wants to look tough by threatening to destroy Israel.

[park]

Israel is religion extremist like Iran so it looks crazy

[ArtAllm]

Ahmadinejad really hates Israel and Jewish people in general, and Iran being a leading producer in nuclear material puts Israel on edge.

There are still a lot of Jews in Iran, and these Jews are even in a privileged position in their homeland. It is ridiculous th talk about Ahmadinejad hating Jews. I think that it is mainly Jews who hate Iranians, not vise versa.

A war with Iran will be crazy and terrible for all participants, but the right-wing nationalists in Israel want to look tough by promising force against Iran if they get nuclear arms...

Zionists are threatening to attack a peaceful and sovereign nation that uses her right on peaceful use of atomic energy. That is what people call hubris.

Israel has illegally built atomic bombs and is now threatening with aggression a country that may have the capability to do what Israel has already done. That is chutzpa!

... while Ahmadinejad wants to look tough by threatening to destroy Israel.

That is another Zionist lie, Ahmadinejad never threatened to launch an unprovoked attack on Israel, he only threatened with a retaliation.

[Franker65]

Iran has threatened Israel on numerous occasions and the Israelis are just answering those threats. Any hint of danger to their state and they'll act like operation focus in 67 or Osirak in 81. If you do look at the big picture however, neither Iran nor Israel have the capability to fight each other in a long drawn out conflict. If Israel is going to do this, they'll need American support.

[redcarpet]

Both Bibi & Olmert before him
backed down, so I guess it's not going to happen.

[Social_Critic]

Franker I sure hope Obama can stand up to the Israel lobby and avoid getting us into another war for those thugs in tel aviv.

[redcarpet]

He's been defiant for 1 term, and
Bush two before him.

[Bertram]

The conflict stems much greater than a religious one. Israel is surrounded by enemies, it has to act in it's rational self interest. While this may have long term negative effects on Israel, who is losing allies in the region, Israel's ability to quickly deploy military force acts as a deterrent and prevents it from being engaged in any large scale conflict (least for now).

[redcarpet]

It's not rational to blow up nuclear facilities.
The radioactive material could spread across
the Middle-East, including towards Israel
itself. Like the Chernobyl incident did across
Europe.

[Locke II]

Suppose Isreal does bomb a facility? what happens?
Specifically, What does Russia do?

[redcarpet]

Well general agreement in Israeli military
assessment is only habout alf of the facilities
will successfully be destroyed.

That the nuclear energy program will just
be delayed. The radioactive fallout will either
just occur internal to Iran killing a 100,000 or so
or worst; spread across the Middle-east and
kill whom knows how many.

Everything else....unknown possibilities, most
of them bad.

[Darryl]

Israel is not crazy they are very clever and devious and they know they have plenty of back up from america and the rest of the e.u and the west.

[ghostrider1152]

Locke II, you are clearly not aware of the little fact that Gulf nations will not support Iran at all, Mr. Asad could have helped but he is too busy massacring Qatari and Saudi mercenaries that Al-Jazeera calls "Free Syrian Army". Israel is having knee-jerk reactions to Iranian nuclear program, and they have their reasons after psychopathic Ayatolla was screaming about wiping Israel off the face of the Earth, while his servant Mahmoud was too busy denying Holocost. Middle East in general is totally messed up region full of sociopathic leadership and US oil-dollars, dangerous mix I say.

[Locke II]

this thread is like the skeleton in my closet, from when I was an idiot. disregard practically everything I said when i was a brainwashed westerner

[Travesty]

Iran has threatened Israel on numerous occasions and the Israelis are just answering those threats.

Here's a question, for those that argue that should Iran get nuclear weapons then, they would be used against Israel. Having one nuke detonate in Israel would pretty much wipe out the entire country. Now is an Islamic theocracy prepared to destroy Jerusalem and wipe out the third Holiest site in Islam? Is it prepared to wipe out the Palestinians whose cause it championed since the Islamic revolution. How they will explain it to their base of support but also to the rest of the Muslim world?

[Rich]

Having one nuke detonate in Israel would pretty much wipe out the entire country.

No it wouldn't. wiping out the Tel Aviv conurbation would take out a lot of Jews, very few Arabs and would only cause modest radiation in Jerusalem. Of course in the short term little would happen and a nuclear attack would be very unlikely. But Egypt, Saudi and possibly a post Assad Syria would respond by going nuclear themselves. It would be very bad news indeed for Israel.

[Travesty]

Really? the distance between Jeruslam and Tel-Aviv is like 50 km's. Depending on the yield the blast radius could be about 5-10 km's or more, Or an air burst detonation the radius would expand. The Radiation would surely reach Jerusalem. But you're right it depends on the bomb they will be using, and smaller yield bombs will probably be used just to wipe out population centers.