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| Author: | Noah Feldman, Adjunct Senior Fellow |
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August 10, 2008
New York Times Magazine
Summer is the time for blockbuster movies—and, it seems, for talking up war with Iran. Five years ago, after Baghdad fell so easily, hard-liners were talking about pushing the fight on to Tehran. Two years ago, Israel and Hezbollah fought a proxy war, leading to speculation that their patrons, the United States and Iran respectively, might well find themselves on the battlefield. Last year, Iran was testing missiles, and the Bush administration was taking a tough line about Iran’s move toward nuclear proliferation. This year, with the end of George Bush’s presidency close at hand, speculation is rife that Israel, with tacit or explicit American assistance, might seize the opportunity to bomb Iranian nuclear installations before a new and possibly less sympathetic president takes office.
The prospect of an Israeli attack on Iran before the next president’s inauguration in January is not just the stuff of airport thrillers. Much of the Israeli military establishment and Israeli public currently believes that a nuclear Iran is an existential threat. This gives Israel a motive for action much stronger than that of the U.S., for whom an Iranian bomb would primarily be a blow to our interests in the gulf region. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert or whoever emerges as his successor in September might well be prepared to take risks that would not be worth it for the United States, especially given the vulnerability of our troops in Iraq.
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