WarSclerotic

The blatantly anti- Semitic remarks recently made by Iranian Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi at a United Nations-sponsored conference in Tehran provided the world with a glimpse into the dogmatic creed of the ruling Ayatollahs in Iran.

At a gathering last month ostensibly dedicated to the war on drugs, Rahimi charged that “Zionists” are “the main elements of the international drugs trade” and declared that the Talmud teaches to “destroy everyone who opposes the Jews.”

Rahimi’s despicable remarks, which are reminiscent of the lies spread by Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels, are in fact based on the doctrines of the Ayatollahs which are taught in the schools and institutions run by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

Rahimi, like Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Defense Minister Ahmed Vahidi, Energy Minister Majid Namjoo and other senior Iranian figures, rose through the ranks of the Revolutionary Guards, where they imbibed the extremist Shi’ite ideology of the Ayatollahs. After entering the political arena, they assumed critical positions in the Iranian regime.

The Revolutionary Guards, which were established by Ayatollah Khomeini after the 1979 Islamic Revolution to serve as a loyal military force with the task of safeguarding the regime, went on to become the strongest force in all of Iran. The Guards have their hands in everything, and their control now extends to a variety of fields which include large banks, the petroleum industry, charitable foundations, educational institutions, religious courts and most importantly of all – Iran’s nuclear program.

THEIR FAR-REACHING power was evident during the June 2009 riots in Iran in the wake of allegations of fraud in the presidential elections, when the regime crushed popular protests with an iron fist and did not hesitate to fire on their own people in the streets for the crime of thinking differently.

The extreme fundamentalist ideology of the Revolutionary Guards is the source of Iran’s foreign policy. Their aspiration to build nuclear weapons, the anti-Semitism and the struggle against Israel, along with opposition to the West and support for terrorist organizations, all derive from the religious belief that Islam and the rule of the regime must be imposed on the entire world as a means of bringing about the appearance of the Shi’ite redeemer, whom they refer to as the “Zahure Mahdi.”

CLEARLY, THE combination of nuclear weapons in the hands of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards together with their fundamentalist ideology would constitute a grave threat the likes of which the world has never known until now.

When Iranian officials openly express their hatred for the Jews, and utilize every podium to declare their intention to wipe Israel off the map and erase Western culture, it should be obvious that under no circumstances should they be allowed to obtain the nuclear know-how needed to implement such designs.

Hence, Rahimi’s appalling remarks should serve as a wake-up call to all those who until now did not wish to comprehend that a nuclear Iran would pose the greatest threat to regional and international stability.

In the 1930s, it was the SS, and today it is the Revolutionary Guards. Then it was Nazism, and today it is Khomeinism. The poison of Goebbels and Hitler against European Jewry is now being spoken by Rahimi and Ahmadinejad. The Jewish people have already learned the lesson that such words cannot be ignored. We made a promise to ourselves and our children: “Never Again.” I can assure you that we will stand by our promise.

The writer is Israel’s Minister of Environmental Protection.

Amid increasing tensions over the vital Strait of Hormuz shipping lane, the United States is constructing a missile-defense radar station at a secret site in Qatar and organizing its largest-ever minesweeping exercises in the Persian Gulf, the Wall Street Journal quoted US officials as saying Monday.

The bolstering of the US military in the Gulf is designed to defend the US, Israel and EU countries against Iranian rockets, officials said.

The radar base in Qatar will supplement two similar X-band radars already in place in Israel’s Negev and central Turkey, according to officials. Together, the three sites will form an arc to detect missile launches from within Iranian territory. The report also stated that the installations will also be linked to US missile interceptor batteries.

The Journal report came after the US Navy deployed small underwater drones capable of destroying sea mines to the Persian Gulf, according to The Los Angeles Times. The US has also sent a navy ship, previously slated for decommissioning, to help with mine-clearing operations, part of a series of moves indicating a gradual US build-up as tensions with Iran smoulder.

Four US minesweepers arrived in the Gulf last month to bolster the Fifth Fleet and ensure the safety of shipping routes in a waterway through which 40 percent of the world’s seaborne oil exports flow.

Tensions have simmered in the Gulf with big-power diplomacy to ease the nuclear dispute at an impasse and Israel renewing veiled threats to attack Iranian atomic sites from the air if sanctions and negotiations fail to curb Iran’s nuclear advances.

Iranian officials issued a string of hawkish statements over the past week, including a renewed threat to close the Strait and destroy US bases in the region “within minutes” of an attack .Iran has repeatedly warned of reprisals for any Israeli or US-led strike on its nuclear installations, whose activities it says are purely peaceful but the West suspects are geared to developing the means to produce nuclear arms.

Reuters contributed to this report

One of the explanations that has been given over the past year to explain the opposition voiced by Israel’s former security chiefs – ex- IDF chief Gabi Ashkenazi, ex- Mossad chief Meir Dagan and ex-Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin – to an attack against Iran has been that they know what will happen the day after.

At least some of the current occupants of those three positions accept this explanation. IDF Chief of Staff Lt.- Gen. Benny Gantz, for one, predicted in interviews in April that Iran would ultimately refrain from developing a nuclear weapon. In private meetings he has predicted that international pressure could potentially delay a possible confrontation with Iran until 2013.

The reason for the relative sense of moderation is that these security chiefs will have to deal with the fallout from an Israeli strike against Iran – regardless of whether it is successful – that is expected to include missile fire from Lebanon, possibly as many as 1,000 rockets a day, from Gaza, Iran and maybe even Syria. They want to avoid that war if possible.

This does not mean that they would prefer Iran be allowed to go nuclear, but rather they would like to wait until the very last moment before taking action to allow diplomacy and sanctions to get the job done for them.

Smartly, Israel is not publicly revealing its plans.

While the case might be different in private meetings – like those held this week with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and US National Security Adviser Tom Donilon – American officials have in the past complained about the Israeli ambiguity when it comes to its Iran planning.

In January, for example, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that Iran was nine months away from entering what he coined the “immunity zone,” a point in the nuclear program that would make an Israeli military strike ineffective.

In recent briefings, Barak has walked away from that prediction and now declares that the immunity zone is not something that will be reached within weeks but also will not take several years to arrive.

How much of Barak’s saber rattling was genuine and how much was a bluff is not completely clear, although the defense minister has openly admitted it was largely aimed at getting the world to impose tough sanctions on Iran – and in that it succeeded.

For Israel though, there are two windows coming up that could potentially be convenient for a possible strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Before the US elections: While Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta predicted that Israel would attack Iran between April and June, those months have passed and the attack has not yet happened. Nevertheless, the upcoming months are an ideal window for a strike from an operational perspective.

The main reason is that up until October the sun is still shining in the Middle East and the few clouds in the skies allow for relatively easy surveillance and reconnaissance over potential targets, a critical component of a potential operation. Historically, this is also the window in which Israel attacked two previous reactors – Iraq’s nuclear reactor in June 1981 and Syria’s reactor in September 2007.

Another possible consideration for the state is that in October, the US European Command and Missile Defense Agency will be in Israel for the much-anticipated Austere Challenge missile defense drill. It will include the deployment of American missile defense systems in Israel, in addition to Aegis missile defense ships that will anchor off Israel’s coast.

With the extra layer of support already here, an attack that will be followed by unprecedented missile fire from Lebanon, Gaza, Iran and possibly Syria might not sound that bad.

After the US elections: The above would only be true if the US agrees to an Israeli strike before the elections or Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu feels confident enough to defy US President Barack Obama’s request that he wait.

The advantage in waiting would be that if Obama wins the elections, he might feel less restrained to take action on his own against Iran than he would have before the vote. On the other hand, Netanyahu’s thinking might be that it is worth waiting until after the elections anyway, when Mitt Romney might be elected president – providing the prime minister with what he believes could be a more sympathetic ally in the White House.

Ultimately, one of the reasons that Israel is reluctant to take action now is because an attack will not solve the Iranian threat forever. It will delay its pursuit of a nuclear weapon but then again, the argument goes, so could covert action or even a possible deal reached by the ayatollahs with the West.

“Either way, this is something that will continue to accompany us for many more years to come,” a senior defense official explained recently.

What could throw all of these calculations off is an Iranian decision to go to the breakout stage now, to begin enriching uranium to military-grade levels and to assemble a nuclear device. If this happens, Israel’s strike plans are moved up and neither the elections, Obama or Romney will be able to stop the Israel Air Force.