Ha’aretz Columnist: ‘Benjamin Netanyahu Was Right’ on Iran
JUNE 27, 2013 12:27 PM 14 COMMENTS
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Ari ShavitAyatollah Ali KhameniBenjamin NetanyahuHa'aretz IranHaaretzIran NuclearIran nuclearizationIran sanctionsIran The EconomistMoshe Efrat
The Israeli Haaretz newspaper.
An unlikely voice is sounding the alarm on a nuclear Iran—the liberal Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, which is well known for its often diametrical opposition to official government policy.
Columnist Ari Shavit,taking as his source a recent article in The Economist that declares it will be impossible to stop Iran from going nuclear, warns “We’re out of time. We’re really out of time.”
“Via the Economist, the mainstream of the international community admitted that its campaign against Iran’s nuclearization has ended in failure. And via this journal, the school that favors containing a nuclear Iran came out of the closet,” Shavit writes.
He continues: “What the world promised would never happen is happening at this very moment. What the top ranks of Israel’s defense establishment promised would never happen is in fact happening. Iran is becoming a nuclear power, while Israel (which is sunk in summer daydreams ) stands alone.”
Dividing into two camps those who advocate containment or reject the severity Iran’s nuclear ambitions (the optimists), and those who warn of Iran’s impending nuclear breakout (the pessimists), Shavit lands on the side of the latter.
“The international optimists and the Israeli optimists were wrong, big time. Surprise surprise: Benjamin Netanyahu was right,” he writes.
“While the optimists were misled by their illusions, the pessimist read reality correctly. While the defense establishment and the media establishment were smitten with weakness and apathy, the pessimist kept sounding alarms,” Shavit writes, adding, “Wolf? Wolf? Wolf! A strategic wolf with nuclear teeth is now at the gate.”
Meanwhile a former research fellow at the London School of Economics wrote in Israeli daily Ma’ariv Thursday that Western sanctions against the Islamic Republic were having little affect.
Moshe Efrat wrote that Iran’s foreign exchange reserves of roughly $96 billion, as well as other newly implemented economic policies such as raising minimum wage, will keep the country afloat and the middle-classes happy for the foreseeable future.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday the dispute over his country’s nuclear program could easily be resolved if the West were to stop being so stubborn.
“Some countries have organized a united front against Iran and are misguiding the international community and with stubbornness do not want to see the nuclear issue resolved,” Khamenei’s official web site quoted him as saying.
“But if they put aside their stubbornness, resolving the nuclear issue would be simple,” he said, without clarifying his demands of the Western nations.
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