Israel 'preparing to handle' nuclear Iran

http://www.jnewswire.com/library/art...?articleid=888

By Stan Goodenough
December 2nd, 2005

The Jewish State of Israel and the Islamic Republic of Iran inched closer to conflict Thursday with a declaration by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that Tehran’s progress towards acquiring a nuclear bomb was unacceptable to Israel.

Islamic eschatology holds that the Muslim world will destroy Israel and all Jews everywhere before “judgment day” arrives. According to the Koran, it is the duty of all good Muslims to participate in the eradication of the Jews.

While the Arab states have not had nuclear weaponry to deploy against Israel, Iran has been defiantly working on its program, dismissing concerns and warnings from other nations and claiming that it was only pursuing nuclear power for peaceful purposes.

Addressing a gathering of news editors in Tel Aviv Thursday, Sharon said Israel “cannot accept a situation where Iran has nuclear arms.”

The prime minister was speaking a day after his Military Intelligence chief advised the government that if anything was to be done to stop the Iranians, it would have to happen before next March, or would be too late.

Sharon said the Iranian threat would not only affect Israel, but the entire Middle East along with numerous other countries. He appealed to all nations that understand “this grave danger” to join the efforts to contain it.

The Israeli said his country should not lead these efforts as they were already being spearheaded by the United States.

While the West was able to deal with Iran militarily, however, other channels should be exhausted before that option was resorted to.

Iran has reacted with fury on previous occasions when Israel has discussed the need to prevent it from going nuclear.