In New Middle East, Tests for an Old Friendship

[New York Times] Steven Erlanger - Most Israelis say they believe they have only one true ally in the world, the United States. But Israel is haunted by the specter of a nuclear-armed Iran. "Our big worry is that they [the Americans] will wait too long to act, after it is too late to stop the Iranians from gaining the knowledge to build a bomb," said one senior Israeli official. The world looks different to nearly all Israelis across the political spectrum than it does to people in most other countries. "Unlike Bush, an Israeli leader looks at Iran through the prism of the Holocaust and his responsibility to the ongoing existence of the Jewish people," said Yossi Alpher, former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University. "So we may be willing to do the strangest things."


2006-11-14 01:00:00

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