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Iran's Bluster Isn't a Bluff
(Los Angeles Times) Martin Indyk - There is plenty of International Atomic Energy Agency evidence to indicate that Iran is bent on acquiring a nuclear weapons capability and that this goal is broadly supported by all of Iran's political factions. Four years ago, the supposedly moderate Hashemi Rafsanjani explained that in a nuclear exchange, Iran could withstand a second strike, whereas "the use of a nuclear bomb against Israel will leave nothing on the ground." Iran has been waging an ongoing war against Israel by proxy for more than a decade. The Iranian intelligence service trains, funds, arms and directs both Hizballah, which operates out of southern Lebanon, and Palestine Islamic Jihad, which carries out terrorist operations against Israeli civilians. Even now, when more than 80% of Palestinians want the current calm to continue, Iran is pushing Islamic Jihad to provoke violence. Ahmadinejad's declaration, therefore, was just one of those moments when the world could no longer avoid noticing Iran's decades-long aggression toward Israel.