A Case for the survival of Israel

By, Rohan Mathur

 

All of us have been through a phase in our life where we had an annoying cousin or friend who we quarreled with and calm was always kept by a mature adult in the family. I am asking the people and the government of the state of Israel to do the same. We all are aware of the ongoing tensions between Israel and its arch rival- Iran. Just to give everyone a background to this complex problem, Iran wants to have the capability of enriching uranium to produce nuclear energy even though it has the 2^nd largest deposits of Natural gas. But Israel is concerned that Iran will use it to make a nuclear weapon thus creating the 2^nd holocaust. Though these fears are genuine, they are not as real as the Jewish state may want the US and the word to believe. Iran is a nation with a well educated middle class and a vibrant society. It is not a threat to US interests as the hawks in Israel would have us believe.

Iran is a shitte majority nation unlike the oil-rich Gulf States who make up the Sunni majority nations. These nations are closely aligned in an unholy alliance with the US but are adamantly against the state of Israel. Such hypocrisy would make anyone’s head wobble.  The oil-rich states were wary of the Iraq Invasion as Iraq is a predominantly Shitte majority nation which was being ruled by the Sunni majority. The overthrow of the regime in Iraq has created an ally of Iran which they dislike. Along with Iran backed Hezbollah, this created a shitte crescent from Iran to Lebanon. This is truly the biggest nightmare for the Arab states. This is also true for Israel. So what we see is a targeting of Iran by both sides to limit its powers and its influence. I am not suggesting that Iran has a right to a nuclear bomb but the question to be answered is who decides that. All the major powers are nuclear armed and Israel is rumored to have its own.

The media is abuzz with stories that Israel is thinking of bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities. This will be a monumental folly. Israel should not compare bombing Iraq’s nuclear reactor in the 80’s to Iran. As Iraq learned in the 10-yr war between itself and Iran, even though Iraq was backed by the whole world, the war was inconclusive. Not a single inch of territory was annexed. By bombing Iran, Israel would have to face its wrath and drag the US into another war for no fault of its own. We should not give a chance to Iran to bomb US allies in the gulf like Kuwait and Saudi Arabia where tens of thousands of US troops are stationed.  This would be catastrophic for the already volatile oil markets. Iran has a number of warheads already aimed at these vital installations. This would give Iran the excuse it was looking for to get rid of the gulf monarchies once and for all.

Iran also controls the strategic straits of Hormuz which controls about 40% of trade for nations like India, China, Japan and the whole Far East. We should not fall into this trap laid out by Iran and Israel should have confidence in its retaliatory strikes. It should prepare its defense mechanisms so that any strike by Iran can be intercepted and shot down. This is one headache President elect Obama does not need and want at this time nor should our ally and friend Israel. I would strongly plead with the Israeli government and media to instead focus its energies on resolving the conflict with Palestinians so that we can see an end to this once and for all. This would win Israel lifetime of peace and security. President elect Obama would have a vital role to get this message across to them in order to safeguard US interests too and may be the biggest foreign policy victory the world has ever seen. That would really be the change we all have been looking for.