Israeli Elections

by Rees
2-9-2009
8:24 P.M.

In less than 24 hours, Israel will have a new Prime Minister. I'm hoping that the Israeli voters will elect Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu. I've followed him from the time he was previously Prime Minister. He is the only one of the major candidates that will make the difficult decisions that will be necessary to protect Israel now and into the future.

The current Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is a corrupt appeaser. There will be charges filed against him right after the election is over.

Tzipi Livni is the acting Prime Minister and the actual Foreign Minister. She has been in lock-step with Olmert and is the architect of the horrible cease fire agreement with Hizbullah at the end of the 2006 Lebanon War.

Then there is Ehud Barak. He is one of the most highly decorated Israel Soldiers ever. However, you would never know it. He was Israeli Prime Minister that in collaboration with Bill Clinton offered everything including the kitchen sink to Arafat. It's very fortunate that Arafat turned it down because it would have been a disaster for Israel.

Olmert, Livni and Barak collectively bungled the 2006 Lebanon conflict and now the recent conflict with Hamass in the Gaza Strip. They prematurely ended both conflicts without meeting the objectives that justified using the IDF forces in the first place. They just had Hamass on the ropes and in a position where they could have basically removed them from power. Yet, they stopped so the troops could be withdrawn by Obama's inauguration. What a waste of lives.

The rockets continue to be launched from Gaza into Southern Israel, along with sniper fire and road-side bomb attacks on IDF forces. Nothing changed!

Iran is the single biggest foreign policy issue not only for Israel, but also for the United States. Olmert, Livni and Barak have conveniently avoided doing anything about Iran. They did eliminate the Syrian nuclear reactor that was in the process of being built. That was a total surprise to everyone, including the United States. It absolutely needed to be done, but it was a shock that the Olmert government would actually follow through given their constant groveling to Assad and their willingness to cede the Golan Heights to Syria.

Olmert, Livni and Barak do not have a plan to deal with Iran. This basically means that they don't have a forward-looking plan for Israel. There is no security for Israel as long as Iran is supplying weapons to Hamass and Hezbullah. If Iran is allowed to build nuclear weapons, there is no reason to doubt that they wouldn't utilize Hamass and/or Hezbullah to possibly deliver and explode a small device inside Israel. Or, Iran may just prefer to just launch one the minute their nuclear weapon ballistic missle program is ready.

The Iranian mullahs have no fear of death. If fact, it's just the opposite. They want to usher in the return of the 12th Imam and they believe that it will happen when they have their war with Israel. That's the point that the European's and Obama's foreign policy advisers choose to ignore. They believe you can negotiate with Iran. Well, you can't. And it's never going to change.

Bibi (Benjamin Netanyahu) has clearly stated that he will not allow Iran to have nuclear weapons. He knows that the future of Israel depends on that.

There is no doubt that most people understand what that statement means. It means that Israel must use their military to attack the nuclear facilities in Iran. Europe and Obama's team are scared to death about this option. The issue is how long do you continue to negotiate with Iran when the past five years of negotiations and UN sanctions have acheived absolutely nothing. I believe Obama and Europe will continue to talk until Iran tests a nuclear weapon, and then they'll just throw up their hands and say, "Well it's too late now, we're just going to have to live with a nuclear Iran."

That is the short-term easy way out, but in the long-term a catastrophe. What will Obama do if Iran develops nuclear weapons and then they get into a nuclear standoff with him. The U.S. obviously has superior military and nuclear capabilities, but that won't matter to Iran. They know they will be ab;e to kill thousands of people and the U.S. won't be able to stop their initial launches. When Iran makes their first nuclear threat, will Obama be ready to make the difficult and only decision that can be made? Will he hesitate in his decision and cost additional lives?

Iran will use their nuclear weapons. They can either be dealt with now or later. There will be many lives lost in dealing with them now, but the number will increase 100x if the decision is delayed until after they obtain their nuclear weapons.

"Hoping" that Iran will respond like a civilized society is just being in denial of who they really are and what their culture and religion believes. Talking won't change it.

I wish the best for Bibi and the Israeli people. I would fight along side them if I could. This isn't just about Israel and Iran, it's about the struggle between good and evil, and evil must be defeated.
Rees