Israel should attack Iran's nuclear program while it can and before the desperate Iranian regime detonates its bombs.
Iran is the world's most aggressive state sponsor of terrorism and has been seeking to develop nuclear weapons for decades. It is said that it is very close to becoming possible. That's why Israel and (sometimes) the United States have taken actions both openly and covertly to undermine Iran's nuclear program, threatening to attack it as a last resort.
Until recently, Iran had some deterrents against such attacks. One is the presence of the Iranian-backed Shiite terrorist organization Hezbollah in Lebanon. Hezbollah has stockpiled hundreds of thousands of rockets aimed at Israeli cities and built a network of tunnels, weapons depots and hideouts near the Israeli border in preparation for a future invasion of northern Israel. Israel knew that if it attacked Iran, Hezbollah would launch a major armed attack.
Another deterrent was Syria. The Iranian regime, along with Russia, developed an alliance with dictator Bashar al-Assad. Iran used Syria as a conduit for weapons to Hezbollah and the Syrian army as a buffer against Israel. Syria's air defenses, reinforced by Russian radar and surface-to-air missiles, were both an early warning system and a deterrent. Israel attacked the arms convoy but avoided more ambitious plans, especially in light of Russia's presence.
The fact that Israel could not easily fly over Syria meant that it would have had to use a longer and more circuitous route. Israel retaliated for two ballistic missile attacks by Iran this year, both from outside Iranian airspace. The fact that Israel had to look for alternatives also made its plans more vulnerable to disruption — after the Obama administration leaked plans to attack Israel from Azerbaijan in 2012 to thwart it. Like when.
The Obama administration preferred to use diplomatic means, even though it participated in a covert effort to use the computer virus Stuxnet to disrupt Iran's centrifuges. The 2015 nuclear deal with Iran was the result of President Obama's efforts, but it was riddled with loopholes and allowed Iran to become a de facto nuclear state about a decade later. President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018, but President Joe Biden wasted years trying to restore it.
Iran took advantage of Biden's diplomatic erraticism to accelerate its uranium enrichment and encourage proxies, including the Yemeni Houthi rebels, whom the Biden administration foolishly removed from its list of terrorist groups.
Over the years, Mr. Obama and Mr. Biden gave Iran access to billions of dollars in previously frozen assets, ransom payments and oil revenues. These have enabled Iran to finance not only its nuclear program and advances in ballistic missile and drone technology, but also its terrorist proxies. Iran quickly created a “ring of fire” around Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Hamas in Gaza. A terrorist group in Judea and Samaria. Iraqi Shiite militia. and Yemen's Houthi rebels.
But Iran and its proxies underestimated Israel's will to fight, even under pressure from the Biden administration to ease pressure.
Israel destroyed Hamas after it attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and kidnapping another 250. Hezbollah has joined in attacks on Israel, firing rockets at civilian communities and farms. And Israel eventually fought back, removing Hezbollah's leadership and eradicating it from Israel's borders.
With Hezbollah weakened, Syrian rebels seized the opportunity to attack Assad's regime, which relied on Hezbollah as a shock force in its genocidal civil war. The government unexpectedly collapsed due to the advance of rebel forces.
With Assad gone and his forces in hiding, Israel has destroyed nearly every major weapon they left behind, including Syria's infamous chemical weapons. Israel also eliminated Syrian air defenses, just as it had damaged Iran in October.
Iran's leadership has traditionally been able to afford to wage wars on other people's territory, but it is now in its weakest position since the Iran-Iraq War and perhaps since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Israel and Iran can no longer be deterred. Attacked by the United States or other regional adversaries using conventional means. They may accept President-elect Donald Trump's offer to negotiate a new relationship as an alternative to war.
Or it could choose to go nuclear, as North Korea did.
Establishing that the Iranian regime has nuclear weapons would give it new immunity from attack, especially since it has demonstrated the ability to fire missiles at Israel and other countries.
Nuclear development carries risks such as international economic sanctions, but Iran's leadership understands that the regime's defeat in a war started by Iran could prompt an uprising by its domestic rivals. There are definitely some people who do.
There is therefore a very real danger that Iran will accelerate the development of a nuclear weapon, and a real opportunity to prevent Iran from doing so, but only if the regime can rebuild its defense and terrorist proxies. may not come back.
Israel, and the world, will regret this missed opportunity.
Biden told Israel not to attack Iran's nuclear facilities, but it is in the process of withdrawing. President Trump has said that Israel should be attacked, but he hopes the situation will calm down before he takes office.
It's now or never.
Joel B. Pollack is a senior editor at Breitbart News. Breitbart News Sunday Sunday nights from 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM ET (4:00 PM to 7:00 PM PT) on Sirius XM Patriot. He is the author of a recently published e-book. Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 US Presidential Election. his recent book, red novembertells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is the recipient of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter @joelpolak.
