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Facing Down Ahmadinejad

[New York Sun] Amnon Rubinstein - President Ahmadinejad's latest outburst removes the fog of misunderstanding surrounding the major issue of the Middle East - the survival of the Jewish state. Arab and Muslim opposition to Israel's existence has not really disappeared since 1948, when the Arabs sought to annihilate the fledgling state. Nevertheless, in recent years there were encouraging signs that the Arab world, having failed to crush Israel militarily, would learn to co-exist with the "Zionist entity." Ahmadinejad does not joke. He has the means to carry out his threat: Iran already has substantial missile capabilities and will soon have, unless forcibly stopped, nuclear arms. Israel is not only tiny - a speck on the map - but is totally unprepared for such a destructive blow. It has no shelters suitable to withstand a nuclear bombardment, and has no alternative sites to which people can retreat while awaiting clean-up of contaminated areas. Retaliation and the balance of terror that saved the world from nuclear Armageddon during the Cold War may not be sufficient to deter a fanatical regime that regards "wiping Israel off the map" as a divine duty necessary for ushering in a new, blissful Islamic era. This new era will place missiles and weapons of mass destruction in the hands of madmen, who seek to destroy civilization as we know it. The writer is president of the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya.
2006-11-01 01:00:00
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