Will She or Won't She?

Clairol’s old ad asked the tantalizing question, “Does she, or doesn’t she?” posing the Earth-shaking question of whether some woman dyed her hair or not but subliminally asking all kinds of other questions about said woman and what she does and doesn’t do.

The title question, “Will she, or won’t she?” is similarly packed with innuendo but related to significantly more profound import, namely, Will Israel attack Iran before Iran is nuclear-capable and missile-capable of reducing much of Israel to a glowing, molten puddle.

The stakes are incredibly high, not only for the State of Israel but for the United States, the Mid East, Western Europe, and much of the rest of the globe.

Should Israel stage a pre-emptive assault on Ahmadinejad’s nuclear and nuclear- delivery facilities, it would face a severely adverse reaction from a world and a United Nations which historically haven’t wildly embraced either Jews or their homeland. Should Israel not attack Iran and have one or more of its cities obliterated, its retaliation against Iran would surely be far worse than pre-emptive surgical strikes.

What to do?

To say the geopolitical situation is complex and grave would be gross oversimplification. Israel has often shown it doesn’t conduct its foreign policy with a watchful, cautious eye toward international or American opinion even though the United States is its chief benefactor, arms supplier, and possibly its lone, reliable ally. However, change is in the air and its new, feisty prime minister, Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu seems well aware that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are no George Bush and Condi Rice.

The Bush administration often demonstrated a total, unflinching commitment to the State of Israel. Despite the support of the vast majority of American Jewish voters for Obama and despite the very powerful Jewish Lobby in this country, the Obama administration has been less than committed, and Bibi is well aware of that as well.

What to do?

Political considerations are never simple matters. Even Julius Caesar, backed by the indomitable Roman army, had to placate, cajole, and intimidate when necessary the various factions in Rome as well as in the provinces. Israel is no Rome and Netanyahu is no Caesar and his options are very few and very limited.

How would the United States react to such a strike? Israel has acted unilaterally before when it staged successful raids on Libya and at Entebbe . . .
(Read the rest at http://genelalor.com/)