Iran and the EU...

Nice op-ed in the Jerusalem Post.

This week – when the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board convenes in Vienna – the EU will publish its response to Iran's breaking of UN seals at its Isfahan nuclear plant and making it fully operational again, in blatant violation of earlier undertakings. It is taking the EU an inordinate amount of time to express displeasure with Teheran, while not even going so far as calling for Iran's galling conduct to be referred to the UN Security Council.

None of us should be holding our breath. Nothing will come of European verbiage, because nothing is meant to come of it. All this should make Israelis exceedingly wary, since unabashed Iranian nuclear ambitions are perhaps the most potent existential threat to Israel just now.

President George W. Bush warned this weekend that the use of force remains an option. Europe, while hemming and hawing about the prospect of atomic bombs in the hands of fanatic ayatollahs, lost no time in lashing out at even the suggestion that Iran's arm be twisted to prevent it from wielding the most deadly weapons it can obtain.

The Iranian threat isn't a matter of intelligence analysis or speculation, as may have been the case with Iraq in recent years. Iran itself proudly proclaims that it is intent on going nuclear. Moreover, there's no doubt about its hostile objectives and support for international aggression, including terrorism.