Louis Phlips: Blog 5

Last class we briefly went over the fact that Israel is essentially the only nation in the world that is threatened with annihilation. In fact, Israel’s existence has been questioned since its very beginning not only by states, but also by many different non-state actors.  There are several existential threats, including the threat of being attacked with weapons of mass destruction, such as by Iran attacking Israel with nuclear weapons. This is a very serious issue; Freedman states that “once Iran gets nuclear weapons, it will have little problem delivering them against Israel. Both Iran’s ballistic and cruise missiles would be able to destroy their targets within minutes” (Contemporary Israel, 312). If Iran is able to successfully build a nuclear weapon, Israel is in great danger.

The question is, what should Israel and the West do to stop Iran? This is a very serious question, since, arguably, Iran is one of the biggest, self-proclaimed enemies of the West and one of the most serious threats to stability in the Middle East. Iran is one of the main state sponsors of terror and proudly delivers weapons to organizations such as the Hezbollah, Al-Qaeda and Palestinian terrorists. But the biggest threat is the possibility that Iran can fully develop its nuclear program and build a nuclear bomb.

I fully understand that for Israel, a nuclear armed Iran is not an option. Not only would it create an existential threat to Israel’s pure existence, but it also poses a grave danger to the US, and the United States should fully support Israel’s undertaking to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons.  While the United States and European Union have been setting up sanctions against the Iranian regime, these sanctions have been unsuccessful and have done very little to deter Iran from its nuclear ambitions. In the absence of hard sanctions, and with time running out until Iran has its nuclear weapons, a military response, as undesirable as it is, should be the next option.