We must take Iran seriously...

A nice article by Daniel Goldhagen,author of "Hitler's Willing Executioners" in the New York Sun.

Iran already has missiles that can hit Israel. It is currently developing nuclear weapons, which has put it at loggerheads with the United States and much of the west. If Iran acquires nuclear weapons, it would be easy for it to destroy Israel, producing a second Holocaust. Israel is a geographically tiny country the size of Maryland. Three missiles could render its three major cities, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Haifa, uninhabitable and kill hundreds of thousands. As Rafsanjani knows, even one strategically placed missile near Tel Aviv, where Israel is only about ten miles wide, would effectively destroy the country. True, Israel has nuclear retaliatory capability with its submarines, but as Rafsanjani has so clearly said, the exchange destroying Israel would only "harm" Islam, a "rational" price worth contemplating paying.

The Iranian leaders' genocidal intent is clear. The means may soon be available. What is to be done? We must not treat the Iranian leaders' words as mere bluster and merely condemn them as Kofi Annan has done with tepid "dismay," but take them seriously as a portent of possible policy. It is imperative that Iran not acquire the means to put its leaders in a position where they can seriously "contemplate" carrying out their stated wishes. Israeli leaders know this and have said as much. Tommy Lapid, a member of Israel's Knesset's Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee, recently said that if the U.S. and the Europeans do not stop Iran, "when the situation reaches the point of no return, Israel will have to act."

This is not mere Israeli paranoia. If Bin Laden, animated by an Islamicist ideology similar to that of the Iranian leaders, had been able to hit New York with a nuclear missile, would he have not done so? Who in New York, London, Paris, or Berlin would sit idly by if a Bin Laden or an Ahmadinejad were about to develop a nuclear missile after stating his wish to destroy the U.S., Britain, France, or Germany? Would not the targeted country's allies, would not all democratic countries, do everything possible, including militarily destroying the would-be mass murderer's nascent genocidal capabilities? Why should it be different when Israel is the target?

The Iranian intent to destroy Israel had nothing to do with a just settlement of the Israeli Palestinian conflict, as the Iranian leaders themselves have made clear. They see the very existence of Israel to be an offense against Islam because it is an outpost of the values they decry most, those of democratic pluralistic countries. Not all Islamic people and leaders would like to wage war on the democratic west. But some would. Israel might be the first nuclear target but it might not be the only one. To allow the current Iranian regime to acquire nuclear weapons would be as irresponsible as were those who did not take Hitler seriously.