Dore Gold on Iran's nuclear umbrella for terrorists

[Spengler]

Dore Gold on Iran's nuclear umbrella for terrorists on the Spengler Blog


by David P. Goldman


This should be obvious, but it needs to be restated. Israel's former ambassador to the United Nations did so yesterday:

Dore Gold: Nuclear Iran Would Create Terrorist Umbrella

Former Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Dore Gold warns that a nuclear-armed Iran would shift "the entire balance in the war on terror" by providing terrorists with a nuclear umbrella.

Speaking at a briefing at the British House of Commons on Oct. 12, Dore — also a former adviser to Israeli prime ministers — said Iran's nuclear program endangers "the security not just of Israel but of the entire Middle East, and I would say the world."

Gold said that as of this past August, Iran had enough nuclear fuel to produce two atomic bombs, and a missile with the capability of striking Israel and Saudi Arabia.

"So if you take the fact that Iran is one of the largest supporters of international terrorism today, and you team that up with the nuclear capabilities that I’ve been describing, you have a security situation which the West has not yet seen," Gold said.

"The whole point of George W. Bush’s decision to remove the Taliban after 9/11 was to send a very clear message: 'You attack the American homeland and we will take down your regime.'

"But fast forward to 2012. Iran has operational nuclear weapons that can strike deep into Europe, and eventually towards the eastern seaboard of the U.S. Will the U.S., U.K., and NATO as a whole have the same freedom of maneuver to say to states that support terrorism, 'We will take you down if you attack us?'

"Will the U.S. Congress authorize sending forces abroad against a state armed with nuclear weapons? In other words, the entire balance in the war on terror shifts, because the state that is the largest global sponsor of terrorism today now has nuclear capabilities . . .

"This nuclear umbrella of Iran will unfurl and will be able to provide protection, not just to Shiite Hezbollah, but to Sunni organizations such as al-Qaida and Hamas."

Gold, now president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, raised the possibility that Israel could strike Iran's nuclear facilities if the international community does not take action.

"I will say that Israel has been thinking about this problem for a very long time," he said in remarks published on the Web site of The Henry Jackson Society, a London-based organization that promotes the foreign policies of former U.S. Sen. Henry "Scoop" Jackson.

"The Israeli air force has been training for action and all options are on the table. But I would say the official position is that there is hope, even at this late date, that the key players in the international community will take action."

He added: "You might think that Iran’s behavior at present is brazen and risky. It looks much less brazen and risky if you recall how often Iran has already defied the West and got away with it."

[Richard Greene]

Spengler,

Funny you posted this just after I read it and signed up for Gold's talk on November 2nd at the Skirball in Los Angeles.>

Working to ensure that Never Again remains more than a mere slogan
Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors
wiith

One Jerusalem
David Horowitz Freedom Center, and
Mere Rhetoric Media

Welcomes

Ambassador Dore Gold

Monday, November 2, 2009 - 7 p.m.
Skirball Cultural Center
2701 North Sepulveda Blvd. ● Los Angeles

One of Israel's greatest living foreign policy experts, Ambassador Dore Gold will be speaking about his new book The Rise of Nuclear Iran: How Tehran Defies the West and about the threats posed by a resurgent Iran arming itself with weapons of mass destruction.

Gold has served as Israel's ambassador to the United Nations and has been direct envoy to the leaders of almost a dozen Arab states. In The Rise of Nuclear Iran he brings his unique experience and knowledge to bear on the diplomatic and military dimensions of Iran's drive for nuclear weapons. Sounding the alarm about the nuclear threat has earned Gold vociferous attacks from America's liberal foreign policy community, which seeks to avoid a confrontation with Iran at all costs. He will be speaking about all that and more, before taking questions from the audience.

The Rise of Nuclear Iran systematically lays out the elements of Iran's weaponization program: highly enriched nuclear material, long-range ballistic missiles, and nuclear-capable warheads. The revelation of the Qom enrichment facility and Iran's subsequent missile tests have confirmed all of Gold's warnings, making his book required reading for anyone who seeks to understand Tehran's current and future plans.

Now Ambassador Gold will lay out a bleak case against the West's "sticks and carrots" engagement policy and highlight the consequences of its likely failure: a "nuclear umbrella" for global terrorists, a Middle East dominated by Shiite hegemony, a Western hemisphere subject to Iranian threats, and a ever-present genocidal shadow over the Jewish State.

Tickets are $10 per person

Seating is Limited

Pre-registration is recommended for this event

To register email RSVP@CJHSLA.org

or click http://cjhsla.org/doregold.htm


A safe and secure Israel is vital to world interest.
A safe and secure Israel is a prerequisite to genuine peace in the world.
Visit us at http://www.cjhsla.org

Children Of Jewish Holocaust Survivors (CJHSLA)is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization committed to the promotion of Western values against the dual threats of complacency at home and political Islam abroad.

We believe that a safe and secure Israel, prospering as a Jewish State, is a prerequisite to long-term global peace.

CJHS insists that the last Holocaust imposes upon all people of good will a moral and political imperative to prevent the next one.

If any Spenglerites from So. Calif. attend, send me a private e-mail.

[PaulR]

Can anyone tell me - what is Israel waiting for? To this distant observer, it appears that time is not on Israel's side. Has not Israel already established the policy that Iranian nukes are an existential threat to Israel, or is there still debate within the Israeli political-class on this? Or could it be that Israel not have confidence in their ability to decisively win what would be a multi-front war with the Iranians should they attack Iran's nuclear program? They certainly can't be waiting for the USA ie) Obama, to take any serious action, are they?

[Richard Greene]

PaulR:

Ever heard the saying "Don't shoot till you see the whites in their eyes"?

[Marcus]

. . A safe and secure Israel is vital to world interest.
A safe and secure Israel is a prerequisite to genuine peace in the world. . .

Why so?

Why is a "safe and secure Israel" vital to "world interest" and a "prerequisite to genuine peace in the world" any more than, say, a safe and secure Darfur or Somalia or France or . . . ?

[PaulR]

PaulR:

Ever heard the saying "Don't shoot till you see the whites in their eyes"?

And what exactly constitutes "the whites in their eyes?"

[Richard Greene]

. . A safe and secure Israel is vital to world interest.
A safe and secure Israel is a prerequisite to genuine peace in the world. . .

Why so?

Why is a "safe and secure Israel" vital to "world interest" and a "prerequisite to genuine peace in the world" any more than, say, a safe and secure Darfur or Somalia or France or . . . ?

Marcus,

1. Israel is a true liberal democracy in land of human-rights hell holes and dictatorships.

2. Israel is one of the most multi-ethnic and multi-cultural states on earth, united by a humanistic (Judeo-Christian) belief system and worldview, and not race, ethnicity or bloodlines; in this respect Israel is a microcosm of the USA.

3. Israel is the tripwire for Europe & America in the clash of Islamism vs. the West, and as the "Jew of the nations", it is the miners' canary in the world-coalmine.

4. Israelis greatly admire America, and I would venture to say, they love America more than your average Frenchman, let alone Darfurians or Somalis (remember "Black Hawk Down," Marcus?).

5. I'm sure I left out some other important points, which other posters, including our moderator, should feel free to add.

Take the Israel Test, Marcus. I hope (and pray) you pass it.

[Marcus]

. .3. Israel is the tripwire for Europe & America in the clash of Islamism vs. the West, and as the "Jew of the nations", it is the miners' canary in the world-coalmine.
Take the Israel Test, Marcus. I hope (and pray) you pass it.

Only #3 comes remotely close, Richard, as an answer to my questions. Try again?

I took the "Israel Test," such as it was, and can only say I rejected zero-sum economics decades ago . . if I ever believed it. That said, the article was too facile, too simplistic, particularly here: "You believe that capitalist achievement comes at the expense of others or of the environment. You believe that 'behind every great fortune is a great crime.'"

Some capitalist achievement does come at the expense of others and the environment, and behind some great fortunes there are great crimes.

"From the union of power and money,
from the union of power and secrecy,
from the union of government and science,
from the union of government and art,
from the union of science and money,
from the union of ambition and ignorance,
from the union of genius and war,
from the union of outer space and inner vacuity,
the Mad Farmer walks quietly away."
— Wendell Berry

[Richard Greene]

PaulR:

Ever heard the saying "Don't shoot till you see the whites in their eyes"?

And what exactly constitutes "the whites in their eyes?"

Above my pay grade: Those who know will never say, those who say, do not know.

[Richard Greene]

. .3. Israel is the tripwire for Europe & America in the clash of Islamism vs. the West, and as the "Jew of the nations", it is the miners' canary in the world-coalmine.
Take the Israel Test, Marcus. I hope (and pray) you pass it.

Only #3 comes remotely close, Richard, as an answer to my questions. Try again?

Marcus,

I think that if the US quarantined the Arabo-Muslim and Irano-Muslim world, and then cut off all foreign aid to Israel, Israel would be better off. Today Israel has the worst of both worlds: A US government that is friendly to its enemies and unfriendly to its only real friend in the Mideast, and a Eurabia that sides with the Arabs and sends materiel to the Iranians.

Unlike Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq ad nauseum, Israel has never asked America to spill blood for it. Do I need to tell you what most Lebanese, Saudi Arabians*, Kuwaitis, Iraqis, etc. think of America? I hope not!
====================================================================================================
* "I summon my blue-eyed slaves anytime it pleases me. I command the Americans to send me their bravest soldiers to die for me. Anytime I clap my hands a stupid genie called the American ambassador appears to do my bidding. When the Americans die in my service their bodies are frozen in metal boxes by the US Embassy and American airplanes carry them away, as if they never existed. Truly, America is my favorite slave." —King Fahd Bin Abdul-Aziz, Jeddeh 1993

[Richard Greene]

Some capitalist achievement does come at the expense of others and the environment, and behind some great fortunes there are great crimes.
"From the union of power and money,
from the union of power and secrecy,
from the union of government and science,
from the union of government and art,
from the union of science and money,
from the union of ambition and ignorance,
from the union of genius and war,
from the union of outer space and inner vacuity,
the Mad Farmer walks quietly away."
— Wendell Berry

Marcus, you'd be in good company with many of my Jewish friends, closet Trotskyites*.

*E.G., A close lawyer friend of mine has a picture of Che Guevara hanging in his conference room.

[CognitiveDistoibance]

PaulR:

Ever heard the saying "Don't shoot till you see the whites in their eyes"?

And what exactly constitutes "the whites in their eyes?"

Above my pay grade: Those who know will never say, those who say, do not know.

It would seem the Iranians are investing in sunglasses, makes it hard to tell.

[Radical E.]

Why will Iranian nuclear weapons will facilitate terrorism more than Pakistani nuclear weapons will?

[Richard Greene]

Why will Iranian nuclear weapons will facilitate terrorism more than Pakistani nuclear weapons will?

Radical E:

You won't learn this stuff from watching CNN, Fox News or MSNBC>
1. Persians are twice as crafty as Pakistanis (and three times smarter than Arabs—ask any Persian, the truth is the truth).
2. Persians officially started modern era nation-state Islamism in 1979.
3. Persian Shi'ite Twelvers & Mahdists are a death cult, invented suicide bombings, look forward to the Apocalypse (not the Christian one, BTW) and the coming from "occultation" of the 12th Imam, the Mahdi (Messiah; not the Jewish one, BTW), which Khomeinites wish to hasten.
4. The Persians have a chip on their shoulder the Pakistanis don't have: thousands of years of mutual Arab-Persian enmity, nothing compared with Pakistani/Muslim-India/Hindu rivalry.
5. The Iranian mullocracy has been rabidly anti-American for over 30 years, committed a classical act of war upon the US ("the Big Satan") when it invaded the US embassy and took US diplomats hostage for 444 days, and was directly involved, via the Pasdaran in the Bekaa Valley, in the truck-bombing massacre of nearly 250 US servicemen in the early 80s Beirut Barracks Bombing, causing the greatest single-day loss of US Marines since the Battle of Okinawa in WWII. Also, agents of the Iranian mullocracy bombed Jewish "soft" targets in South America, per South American investigators.
6. Iran is the only UN member to directly, publicly and repeatedly call for the destruction of another UN member state, Israel ("the Little Satan).
7. Most state-sponsored terrorism is via Iran: Hezzballah (aka the Iranian Foreign Legion) and Hamas come to mind.
8. Persians need to be taught a lesson. (ask Spengler for details).

Next question...

[Radical E.]

Why will Iranian nuclear weapons will facilitate terrorism more than Pakistani nuclear weapons will?

Radical E:

You won't learn this stuff from watching CNN, Fox News or MSNBC>
1. Persians are twice as crafty as Pakistanis (and three times smarter than Arabs—ask any Persian, the truth is the truth).
2. Persians officially started modern era nation-state Islamism in 1979.
3. Persian Shi'ite Twelvers & Mahdists are a death cult, invented suicide bombings, look forward to the Apocalypse (not the Christian one, BTW) and the coming from "occultation" of the 12th Imam, the Mahdi (Messiah; not the Jewish one, BTW), which Khomeinites wish to hasten.
4. The Persians have a chip on their shoulder the Pakistanis don't have: thousands of years of mutual Arab-Persian enmity, nothing compared with Pakistani/Muslim-India/Hindu rivalry.
5. The Iranian mullocracy has been rabidly anti-American for over 30 years, committed a classical act of war upon the US ("the Big Satan") when it invaded the US embassy and took US diplomats hostage for 444 days, and was directly involved, via the Pasdaran in the Bekaa Valley, in the massacre of nearly 250 US servicmen in the early 80s Beirut Barracks Bombing, causing the greatest single-day loss of US Marines since the Battle of Okinawa in WWII. Also, agents of the Iranian mullocracy bombed Jewish "soft" targets in South America, per South American investigators.
6. Iran is the only UN member to directly, publicly and repeatedly call for the destruction of another UN member stae, Israel ("the Little Satan).
7. Most state-sponsored terrorism is via Iran: Hezzballah (aka the Iranian Foreign Legion) and Hamas come to mind.
8. Persians need to be taught a lesson. (ask Spengler for details).

1) Meaningless.
2) So what?
3) So the Iranian government would accept their own annihilation for purposes of jihad? Can any marginally informed adult seriously believe this?
4) Another meaningless instance of characterizing a nation with qualities of an individual person.
5) And what does this have to do with nuclear weapons? Note that the Beirut barracks attack did not prompt military retaliation by the U.S.
6) They dispute the legality of the State of Israel as presently constituted. Your rhetoric falsely implies that Iran has called for the destruction of Israelis.
7) Terrorism outside of the Middle East?
See #1)