Don’t Bomb Iran

Israel’s opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu told a conference that only two and a half years remained until Iran  acquires nuclear weapons,  adding: “That’s 700 days, and today is another day”  reports Ynet today or August 10, 2009.   He wants military action before the weapons program “comes alive”, and asserts that  nuclear deterrence theory (MAD) will not deter an Iranian nuclear attack and its drive to a world conflict.

Addressing the high-profile  IDC Herzliya conference he apparently repeated his  last year’s comparison of  Ahmadinejad and  Hitler - last year was 1938 “well, it’s 1939 now” and   “Hitler first embarked on a world conflict, and then attempted to gain weapons of mass death. Ahmadinejad is going about it in the reverse order.”

“Netanyahu had consulted the eminent Middle East historian, Bernard Lewis, and asked him whether a situation of mutually assured destruction (MAD) would deter Iran from using nuclear weapons.  ‘MAD is not a deterrent, but a catalyst, to bring back the (Shiite messianic figure of) the Mahdi… millions of people would die,’ Netanyahu cited Lewis as saying, adding that deterrence was an irrelevant concept to the fanatical Shiite sect which has taken control of “Iranian weapons, weapons developments, and vehicles to launch them.”

full Ynet story is here