Paranoid or Prescient

Israel has issued the signal warning that Iran has years ago initiated a national goal of creating atomic arms and viable systems to deliver them. The warning went essentially unheeded with some marginal sanctions to inconvenience the Islamic Republic but nothing being done that would actually thwart Iran from weaponizing nukes. Today, reports emerged that America's European allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization suddenly declare the need for missile defense out of an abundance of concern over Iran whose growing menace they assiduously avoided seriously addressing up until now. Presumably, Iran is so close to the point of no return in gaining atomic warheads that Europe must now hedge its bets that Iran will act either rationally or in self-interest. Israel had promoted the seemingly obvious intentions and looming threat of a fanatical mullah state armed with the ultimate weapon and perhaps willing to bring forth the End Times to summon the Mehdi, but the Jewish state was presumed to be exaggerating the threat to cause an over-reaction in the West that would mitigate the need for Israel to launch such preemptive action themselves. The Israelis were perceived as egging on unnecessary sanctions or even military action, using hyperbole and ginned up intelligence estimates to motivate America and her allies to declaw what was basically only a threat against the Jewish state. Only now and possibly too late, Europe is waking up that it too may be under Iran's proverbial guns (in this case, nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles) and requires a credible shield. This realization, this belated awareness means little in the Middle East where even the Arab nations around the former Persia are left to fend for themselves and are in some cases, even at this late hour, starting their own nuclear programs, which will mean proliferation and catastrophic instability. For years, Israel has urged the world to act seriously to deter Iran's burgeoning nuclear ambitions but was rebuffed. Now the West and the International Atomic Energy Agency concede Iran is not transparent and may be embarked on a hidden weapons program, but there is still no consensus to act to blunt Iran's aggressive plans. In Europe, the only unity that exists is a determination to protect themselves- Israel and her Arab neighbors under threat of extortion or obliteration by Iran be damned. So, before the mad mullahs and Ahmadinejad cause a nuclear mushroom cloud over where Tel Aviv used to be, Israel must prevent that by any and all means, even if that means the Jewish state must act alone and for herself.