WarSclerotic

We’ve gone mad, and we need to stop. This, in a nutshell, has been the story from the past few days and weeks.

More and more commentators who don’t have the slightest clue are delving into psychological analyses, trying to determine what motivates Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak. They have been called action junkies and have been said to be motivated by political interests, and their psychological makeup and relationships with their parents have been picked apart.

And this is all being done with an air of upmost gravity, with a furrowing of the brow as if representing the pinnacle of intellectualism. Truth be told, this is merely part of one huge, systematic breakdown. Indeed, only one possibility isn’t being discussed: Could our leaders actually be right? And if they are right, what does that say about the recent symphony of criticism against them? Because in the meantime – and this is not subject to speculation – the Iranians are listening to us and are continuing to act determinedly and without pause toward acquiring a nuclear weapon.

The leadership in Tehran has made it clear time and again that it intends to eliminate the State of Israel. There isn’t a word it hasn’t used to describe its intentions. There were days in the past when well-intentioned people would respond to any combative statement in Arabic by explaining it was meant for “domestic consumption” only. Since then it has been shown that when they say, “We want to kill you,” they certainly mean it.

The Iranians repeatedly clarify what they want to do to us, and they are working to build the means with which to achieve it. And even though everyone agrees it’s preferable for the U.S. to do the job, there is also the possibility that it won’t. After all, the Americans have twice vowed to prevent a country from building a nuclear weapon, and have twice failed to keep that promise, most recently with North Korea.

So, a few retired experts come out of the woodwork and explain to us that we still have more time. The truth is they don’t know – very few do. This does not prevent them, however, from furrowing their brows in earnest and explaining how we cannot completely destroy the Iranian nuclear program, rather only buy more time. Buy more time? This is precisely what we did during the War of Independence in 1948 and every war since: We’ve just bought more time. Meanwhile, all this time we have bought has somehow added up into the years of our existence as a state.

However, since this still isn’t enough, in recent days several media outlets have been preoccupied with analyzing the weak points in Israel’s defenses. There’s a water leak in a bomb shelter here, or not enough gas masks are available over there. Who does this help exactly? Ah yes, Shaul Mofaz. As transportation minister in 2008, he declared that the Iranian nuclear program must be stopped, causing gas prices to soar through the roof across the globe, and was immediately asked by then Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to keep quiet. He indeed kept quiet.

In the meantime, he became the leader of the opposition, vowed to stand at the head of the social justice protests, joined the government and forgot all about the protests, drew criticism, resigned from the coalition over the new ultra-Orthodox enlistment proposal (after voting for the same Tal Law that exempted them in the first place), and now is saying that he was squeezed out of the coalition because of the Iranian issue. Right, of course.

And then, as the cacophony of criticism was reaching its crescendo, President Shimon Peres chimed in. On the eve of the bombing of the Iraqi nuclear reactor, Peres sent a letter to then Prime Minister Menachem Begin in which he predicted Israel could be “alone like a tamarisk in the desert,” if it bombed the reactor. Several years have passed, but in an interview with Channel 1 the same Peres said, “As long as we’re talking about destruction, Iran can also be destroyed.” Now he has voiced his opposition.

All the while, strategy “experts” like Amos Oz, with backgrounds in theater and poetry, draft their petitions and claim to know when, where and from which direction not to attack Iran. And the madness reaches one new level and then another. Enough of it; it’s insane already. We need to stop. We need a little quiet here.