Is Israel Bluffing?

Is Israel Bluffing?

A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

The world press is assuring us that Israel will strike Iran by Christmas.  Hedging their bets, a bit, some proclaim: early in the New Year. 

Now, while I am all for an Israeli strike on Iran to take out Iran’s nuclear facilities, I am troubled by all the extremely public saber rattling. It isn’t like the Israeli military to make a public show of military preparations for a raid.

Having read and consulted Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” on numerous occasions, I can see the importance of keeping the enemy guessing and off balance by playing the world’s media like a Stradivarius.   First class militaries, the world over, know one of the greatest weapons they have at their disposal is the near total ignorance of military maneuvering by the press.  Call it misinformation or propaganda; the world’s premier armed forces spoon-feed it to the world press.  That’s what I think is happening now.

Yes, Israel is going to strike Iran. I haven’t a clue when.  And that is the way Israel wants it.   In the meantime they have Iran’s nerves on edge and that gives Israel the advantage.

Look.  I can relate to Israel.  I remember a scrawny kid in my high school class.  He was the bookworm of our class.  Plus, he wore glasses. You just KNOW he caught the dickens, right?  You’d be wrong.  See, he earned the reputation of being that “crazy kid who would hurt you badly if you messed with him.”  And that was true.  He would attack, with the least provocation, his classmates, even his adult teachers, if he felt threatened. Only the unenlightened messed with him … and then only once. That kid spent a lot of time in the Principal’s office, and in the Superintendent’s office.  Yet, somehow, he managed to graduate at, or near, the top of his class and win election as the student body president … and he dated some of the prettiest girls in his class.  

Yes, I knew him very well.  He was small – but he was determined not to be bullied – and -- he would HURT you!  He didn’t give a darn whether you liked him, or not.  But you would be very wrong not to respect him.

See, he learned to harness and channel that fears and his concerns and make them work to HIS advantage. 

Normal human beings understand that a frightened human being is earth’s most dangerous animal. A cornered, frightened, animal (including human beings) will lash out and commit totally unexpected actions risking everything, including their lives, because they believe they have absolutely nothing to lose. Often they are successful in extricating themselves from harm simply because their behavior was unexpected.

Now.  Refocus on Israel.  Israel is small, arguably frightened, and -- Israel will most certainly hurt anyone suffering from the lack of common sense that would cause the wary to avoid a military confrontation with (some would argue) the second best military on earth. 

But, then there are fanatics, all over the globe, blinded by religious zeal that are more than ready to sacrifice their lives to appease some god or other.  They are the people who pose the greatest danger to all normal human beings on the earth. I have long accepted that when confronted with a man intent on giving his life in an effort to take mine, the kind thing to do is expedite his journey and send him on to his afterlife and allow him to sort it all out with his personal deity.

One must consider that Israel is confronted with this sort of paradise mania every day.  For the most part, we here in the west have come late to this fray.  Only in the past decade, or so, have we really come to understand the toll of living under conditions of constant threat.  And we Americans STILL do not comprehend that Israel can lose its entire country, its very existence, in a single “lucky” blow from its enemies.

Iran intends to wipe Israel from the map.  They have told us so in plain English.  That was no threat.  It was a statement of intent.  Israel would be foolish to believe otherwise.  And Israel is NOT foolish.

Iran with nuclear capabilities is a threat that cannot be tolerated by Israel.  It ought not be tolerated by the European nations and the United States.  But, unfortunately, we have a President who feels more at home with the weak-kneed European governments than with real warriors like the Israelis.

I am satisfied that Israel is going to attack Iran -- and soon.  If things were, as they ought to be in Washington, DC, the United States would be flying alongside those Israeli aircraft dropping bunker-busting bombs on Iran’s underground nuclear facilities.  One must remember that Iran has boasted that their first nuclear bomb is for Israel and their second nuclear bomb is intended for the United States.  We Americans are under a nuclear threat from Iran just as the Israelis.

When we step back and look objectively at current events on this planet, it is easy to ascertain that Israel has a much better leader in Benjamin Netanyahu than the United States has in B. Hussein Obama.  That is VERY clear.

I honestly think there is a streak of envy in Mr. Obama, envy over Mr. Netanyahu’s leadership capabilities. That would explain Obama’s public snubbing of Mr. Netanyahu.  The differences are so clear.  Mr. Netanyahu, as a former Israeli Special Forces officer, understands that a leader leads from the front.  Mr. Obama has PUBLICLY proclaimed his preference for leading from behind.  The two men could not be MORE different. 

While the leaders of these two nations are so different the peoples are more alike than different.   Many Americans consider Israel something of an extension of the United States.  We feel drawn to offer protection to Israel and we hate it when the US government fails to back Israel to the hilt.

If Israel is forced to go it alone against Iran, President Obama will most certainly feel it at the ballot box next year.  That is a promise.

(For more on the Israel/Iran situation, please read the article HERE.)

J. D. Longstreet