This past March, 2014, I released my book Iran’s Final Solution For Israel—The Legacy of Jihad and Shi’ite Islamic Jew Hatred in Iran. Reviews of the book have appeared at Breitbart, Pajamas Media, The American Thinker, and the Canadian magazine Convivium. Following the announced “extension” of the “P5 +1” negotiations for another 7-months, this past Monday, November 24, 2014, I wrote an updated Preface to the book, which will be incorporated into a new edition that will soon be available at amazon.com.
They [the Jews of Iran] live under profound oppression because they are considered as outlaws or outcastes. [T]he capriciousness of the governor and the pack of his subordinates weigh upon them [the Jews]; they use any pretext to plunder the Jews with impunity, for there is no one to whom the Jews could turn or dare to turn to complain of their oppression except the governor himself, who is the judge of his own case…If a Jew crosses the road dressed decently or hazards to mount a horse, the spectators complain that he dares to present himself as a believer. If on the other hand he is wearing miserable rags, the young rascals of the streets, excited by persons much older, pursue him throwing mud and stones at him…In the cases of jurisprudence, the Jew cannot invoke in his favor the benefits of the law; it is certain that the Muslim will testify against him, while one cannot trust the latter’s words nor that of his witnesses… One of the principal causes of the misery of the Jews is stirred up by the priests and descendants of the [Muslim] prophet, the Mullah and the Sayyids [Muslim clerics]. Living in opposition to the government, they surround themselves with the riffraff of society—brigands, highway robbers—to whom they throw as fodder all who fall into their hands, above all the Jews, inoffensive human beings not protected by the law… [E]ven the obtainment of a firman declaring the emancipation of the Jews and the abolition of all exclusion and restriction in regard to them, would not be sufficient to guarantee in the future its strict execution. Besides, the great distances which separate from the capital the numerous agglomerations of Jews, serve to give security if not a guarantee of impunity to the persecutors.
No deal is better than a bad deal. The right deal that is needed is to dismantle Iran’s capacity to make atomic bombs and only then dismantle the sanctions. Since that’s not in the offing, this result is better, a lot better.
Expanding upon Mr. Netanyahu’s observations, the lack of a signed agreement provides Israel with a fortuitous, if evanescent strategic opportunity.
It is imperative for all those who aren’t ignoring the Iranian nuclear threat, or abiding complementary syndromes of dangerous delusion on the Left (“The Trusting Khomeini/Khamenei/Rouhani Syndrome” up11) and Right (“The Trusting Montazeri/Green Movement Syndrome” up12) to understand that Israel must strike, now, as a temporizing measure.
The following extracts from two Montazeri public addresses in 1987 (both verbatim translations, and contextual summaries, provided by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency’s open source translation office, the Foreign Broadcast Information Service up18), replete with sanctions from the Koran, hadith (traditions of Muhammad), and Islamic jurisprudence, make plain whom he viewed as the primary “infidel targets” for the Iranian Islamic Republic’s jihadism (and Jew-hatred), i.e., Israel (“Jews”), and the U.S. Montazeri also enunciated an unabashed call for a global jihad.
“The Muslims should clearly recognize the main danger to Islam and the Islamic lands, which is the United States and international Zionism”…Grand Ayatollah Montazeri emphasized: “One cannot fight against the United States and Zionism merely by holding meetings and chanting slogans. The ulema of Islam and all the Muslims should make some serious decisions.”…The deputy leader then quoted a large number of traditions from the Prophet of Islam from both Shi’a and Sunni books…In the same connection, he referred to the need to establish Islamic governments and traditions and behaviors as did the noble prophet, and said that his holiness did not remain quiet in the face of oppression. He [Muhammad] did not sit in a corner and merely pray, although all his prayers would have been answered. On the contrary, he [Muhammad] carried out an uprising and had about 80 military clashes. He [Muhammad] called on the Muslims to arise, and he established a just government and powerfully implemented Allah’s laws, injunctions, and justice among the people.
As illustrated by interviews conducted in 2003 and 2006, Montazeri reiterated his ongoing support for Sharia supremacism, shared the current Iranian regime’s opinion about (and negotiating tactics for procuring) the Islamic Republic’s “right” to pursue “peaceful” nuclear technology, and re-affirmed his bigoted, strident opposition to Israel’s existence.
[Interviewer]: So in future generations, when the number of professors, physicians, high-ranking experts, etc, will be more women, will Islam be able to have an ijtihad and modify these unjust laws because they no longer correspond with reality?
The Glick-Ledeen “Trusting Montazeri/Green Movement Syndrome” approach stands in stark contrast to what I advocate in brief at the conclusion of this book, updated and elaborated in an essay (“End the Bush-Obama Fecklessness: Destroy Iran’s Nuclear Facilities Now”), published November 10, 2014. up23 The November 24, 2014 pronouncements regarding extension of the P5 +1 negotiations make plain that only continued Iranian obfuscation and delay loom going forward. However, now that not even the faҫade of agreement currently exists, Israel has been granted another window of opportunity—i.e., there is no “deal” yet affirmed that the Israelis are “sabotaging,” let alone bound to uphold.
The question arises as to why more than 12-years after the August 14, 2002 revelations about Iran’s Natanz and Arak nuclear installations up24—6-years under the Bush II Administration, and another 6-years (and counting) during the Obama Administration—sound, practical U.S. geostrategic arguments, and actions, such as those advocated by Professor Matthew Kroenig, have been dismissed. up25 My book examines at some length, the origins of this tragic, yet entirely avoidable failure of imagination, and will, rooted in intellectual sloth, and cowardice.
From Iran , a revisionist and risk-acceptant state, we can expect…reckless behavior. Iran will almost certainly be willing to risk nuclear war in future geopolitical conflicts, and this will mean that it will be able on occasion to engage in successful nuclear coercion. It also means that, in playing these games of brinkmanship, it will increase the risk of a nuclear exchange.
…Isfahan and Arak are above ground and therefore are easy military targets. We [the U.S.] could easily destroy these facilities using air- or sea-launched cruise missiles, launched from U.S. B-52 bombers operating outside Iranian airspace or U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf.
Natanz is buried under seventy feet of earth and several meters of reinforced concrete, and Qom is built into the aide of a mountain and is therefore protected by 295 feet of rock. To destroy these sites we would need to use the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, or MOP. The MOP weighs 30,000 pounds and according to open source reporting, is capable of penetrating up to 200 feet before exploding. Some simple arithmetic (200 feet is greater than 70+ feet) suggests that Natanz doesn’t stand a chance. It is unlikely that the MOP could penetrate into the enrichment chamber of Qom in a single shot (295 feet is greater than 200 feet), but we could simply put subsequent bombs in the crater left from a previous bomb and thus eventually tunnel our way in. Putting multiple bombs in the same hole requires a fair bit of accuracy in our targeting, but we can do it. In addition to destroying their entrances, exits, ventilation heating and colling systems, and their power lines and sources. The MOP can only be carried on the U.S. B-2 stealth bomber. Since it can be refueled in midair, the B-2 can be sent on a roundtrip mission from U.S. bases in Missouri and Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean to its targets in Iran and back home again without stopping. The B-2 could also be escorted by stealthy U.S. F-22 fighters, or F-16s, to protect it against fighter aircraft.
would almost certainly succeed in its intended mission and destroy Iran’s key nuclear facilities.
There is absolutely no doubt that a strike on Iran’s nuclear facility would significantly set back Iran’s nuclear progress and create a real possibility that Iran would remain non-nuclear for the foreseeable future.
Moreover…[a] strike…would stem the spread of nuclear weapons in the Middle East and bolster the nonproliferation regime around the world.
Despite the geographical distance, we are attached to the hearts of the Palestinians. How is it that our slogans and goals are identical to the slogans and causes of the Palestinians? Why do we strive to become martyrs and risk our lives for the Palestinian cause? The answer is that the religion of Islam has designated this for us – this goal, this motivation, this belief, this energy – so that we, here, can muster all our energies in order to annihilate the Zionist entity, more than 1,400 kilometers away. We are ready for that moment in the future.
The “Trusting Khomeini-Khamenei-Rohani” brain trust shaping current Obama Administration Iran policy maintains the good general Salami doesn’t mean any of this, and it is somehow mere “cultural bluster.” Conservative “Trusting Montazeri/Green Movement,” self-styled “Iran shenasans” (“Iran experts”) would argue the good general is simply “distorting” Shiite Islam and we must be patient, support the (Soylent) Green Movement up32 of Iranian Jeffersonian Democrats, and at some unstated future time point, “regime replacement” will solve the Iranian nuclear weapons, and all other such problems engendered by the “distortion of Shiite Islam.” Accordingly, we must ignore the hard data that show 83% support for the Sharia in Iran, up33 or the 63% of Iranians who insisted that Iran should continue to develop its nuclear program, up34 even at the height of the period of strictest international economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
Hope springs eternal such gimlet-eyed Americans will elect equally astute political leaders also endowed with the courage necessary to authorize targeted military strikes which complete a task Israel will have initiated by 2015: destroying, or severely damaging the Islamic Republic of Iran’s current nuclear development facilities, forestalling, and perhaps even preventing long term, a nuclear weapons-armed Iran.
up1. Jim Sciutto, Nic Robertson, Holly Yan, “New Iran Nuclear talks deadlines: March 1, July 1, 2015,” CNN, November 24, 2014 [http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/24/world/meast/iran-nuclear-talks/index.html?hpt=po_c1%20%E2%80%A6]; “P5 +1” = the U.S., Britain, France, Russia, China, i.e., the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, plus Germany.
up12. Iran’s Ayatollah Montazeri, and the “Green Movement” he allegedly inspired.
up25. Matthew Kroenig, A Time to Attack: The Looming Iranian Nuclear Threat, New York, N.Y., 2014.
up35. Kroenig, A Time to Attack, pp. 176-177.