A window is now open for Israel to put an end to Iran’s nuclear pursuits
By MIKE EVANS
The Bible records Moses’s proclamation, “So the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm…with great terror and with signs and wonders,” in Deuteronomy 26:8.
During the High Holy Day of Yom Kippur the Western Wall of Jerusalem was packed with tens of thousands of Jewish men and women praying for that mighty hand and outstretched arm to deliver them from an Iranian pharaoh, whose plans are much greater than turning straw into bricks. Instead, his plot is to wipe Israel from the map with an atomic bomb in order to usher in the Mahdi, the twelfth descendant of Mohammad.
President Barack Obama’s inability to stand up to Syria, a terrorist state and proxy of Iran responsible for gassing its own population, will be a certain signal to the mad mullahs in Tehran. The message: They have nothing to fear by going atomic. The leaders in Iran fully believe there is nothing to back US threats against them.
Having had more than twenty meetings with Iranian diplomats, including former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, I am convinced they believe the US is weak and fearful and will never attack. One Iranian diplomat told me that if it was impossible for the US to do anything against little Syria, it would certainly not do anything against big Iran.
With more US planes, personnel, ships, and submarines in the Middle East than at any other time since the Persian Gulf and Afghan wars, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu must make the hardest decision of his career. He must decide: Should Israel attack Iran while this window is wide open and the US has the full capability of complementing an assault against Iranian targets?
Israel’s primary targets would be the Arak, Bushehr, Isfahan, Natanz, and Seghand nuclear facilities. Another dozen smaller facilities devoted to Iran’s nuclear efforts would also be targeted. The prime minister is aware that the moment Israel attacks, Iran will make good on its threat—closing down Persian Gulf shipping lanes with mines and blockades, and at the same time, destabilizing the world economy. Much of the world’s crude oil passes through the Gulf. Arab countries that either turn a blind eye or permit Israel to use airspace would be threatened, as would US military bases and embassies in the Middle East.
The move would force President Obama to immediately confirm to the US public that he had authorized a selected attack on all retaliatory targets once he had been informed of an attack by Israel. Such a move would be necessary to protect US interests in the region. The president would have been checkmated by Netanyahu, and compelled to do what he would not do in Syria.
As Mr. Obama’s plane landed in Israel on March 20, 2013, I was with Brigadier General Tomer Bar receiving a high-level briefing at the strategic Northern Command Air Force Base. I asked, “When you feel that the danger from Iran has reached the point of no return and has become an existential threat to your nation, will you depend upon President Obama and the world to support you?”
The military leader looked into my eyes and then up at a picture on the wall. It was a framed picture of the overflight of the Auschwitz concentration camp by Israel Air Force jet fighters in 2003 that hangs at every air force base. Beneath the picture is a plaque that reads, “We the Israel Air Force pilots in the skies over the camp of atrocities have risen from the ashes of millions of victims and we carry their solemn cry. We salute their courage and pledge to serve as the defenders of the Jewish people and their state of Israel. Auschwitz, September 4, 2003.”
He presented me with a copy of the photograph, and wrote on it: “The voice of thy thunder was in the heavens; the earth trembled and shook” (Psalm 77:18). He turned to me and added, “We will not determine our national security by any American president; only by ourselves.”
At the United Nations General Assembly last year, Prime Minister Netanyahu drew a red line that Iran must not be allowed to cross; Iran has already reached that point. A window is now open for the State of Israel to put an end to Iran’s nuclear pursuits.
The ancient Scriptures record, “In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war…” It now appears that Mr. Netanyahu may well have another historic first in the fall of the year, a mighty hand and outstretched arm will deliver his nation from the threat of nuclear annihilation.
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Dr. Michael Evans is a #1 New York Times bestselling author. His latest novel, The Locket, based on the pursuit, arrest, trial and execution of Adolf Eichmann, debuted at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in June.