Inevitability...

In today's Thüringer Allgemeinen (I know, every reads this...) there is an interview with Jacob Edery, who visited the offices of that newspaper with members of the Knesset. Minister Edery is the Minister for co-ordination between the Israeli administration and the Knesset.

This is the key paragraph in the story (and is really the only paragraph...):

In German:

Die USA müssten darum dieses Problem lösen "mit ihrer gesamten Macht". Da Irans Führung auf ihre militärische Stärke und dabei ebenso auf die Öl-Waffe setzen würde, bliebe kein anderer Ausweg mehr. Die USA hätten auch nicht die Zeit bis zur nächsten Präsidentenwahl. George W. Bush, so der Minister, müsse Kommando-Unternehmen einsetzen, "je früher desto besser". Schließlich würden die Iraner ihre nukleare Industrie verbarrikadieren. Den Europäern einschließlich der EU-Führung warf Edery vor zu ignorieren, dass sie selbst Teil des Konfliktes geworden und ebenso bedroht sind.


In English:

The US must solve this problem "with all of its powers". Since Iran's leadership will be using its military capabilities and will also want to use it's oil as a weapon, there is no other alternative. The US will also not have time to wait out the next presidential election. George W. Bush, according to the Minister, will have to use commandos "the earlier the better". The Iranians will be barricading its nuclear industry. The Europeans, including the EU-leadership, have chosen to ignore the fact that they have become part of the conflict and are as threatened as Israel.

This is my quick-and-dirty translation (took me 2 minutes) and hence any errors of translation are mine.


But this goes to underscore the point I made earlier today and which I have made in the past: now is the time to deal with the problem with the smallest loss of life and destruction.

Or does Europe want to wait until both Iran's and Israel's bluffs - bluffs in the sense that any deterrence strategy is the bluff that the weapons WILL be used of deterrence fails - are up on the table and the keys are half-turned in the firing controls?


Germany has quite a strong reputation in the Middle East (not the least because Hitler killed so many Jews, as repugnant as that might be and as little as that may have to do with the current German administration and the history of the Federal Republic) and if German politicians had the necessary sense they'd be out there pushing their good offices.

Instead they hide their heads in the sand and pretend that nothing's going to happen...

Inevitability is what brought us WW1 and the devastation of Europe.

Will inevitabilitynow bring the devastation of the Middle East, with a nuclear wastelands called Israel and Iran? With perhaps the destruction of a western European or US city as collateral damage as terrorists continue their attempt to reshape the world as they see fit?



It doesn't have to end that way, but it certainly is heading that way.