Monday, February 18, 2008
Hez to "destroy Israel": Threat, or prediction?
An Iranian general has declared that Iran's proxy, Hezbollah, will soon destroy the "Zionist regime." As is usual with Iranians, it is impossible to know whether Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari's remarks were a threat or a prediction. Ought Israel be entitled to regard statements such as these as threats? If not, why not?
5 Comments:
By 
Elijah, at
Mon Feb 18, 12:43:00 PM:
- the timing of the comments by rowan williams and the republishing of the danish cartoons are very interesting
Hezbollah rocket forces there are a strategic threat to Israel's existence and a strategic checkmate by Iran and Syria against Israel's nuclear arsenal
By Viking Kaj, at
Mon Feb 18, 01:32:00 PM:
If the Zionists do not understand by now that their neighbors from Casablanca to Kabul do not mean them well then there is something seriously wrong in the State of Isreal. Who is worse, the shias or the sunnis, hezbollah or hammas, Syria or Iran? Which general or other crazy do you take seriously this week? In my book, the Isrealis are justifiably paranoid about everyone else on the planet at anytime. Which still does not excuse their actions and reactions.
By the way, according to my spouse who works for SAS in Newark, the Danish PM and Foreign Secretary are still traveling with extensive security details thanks to those cartoons.
By 
, at
Mon Feb 18, 04:46:00 PM:
Sorry, Viking, but your reasoning makes no sense. They have a right to be paranoid, but their responses to threats -- which have been measured -- aren't justified? To which current reactions are you referring? And why shouldn't they be permitted to defend themselves? (They've shown great restraint with the crap that's been going on in Gaza, but the MSM doesn't write about restraint much, does it?)
The Israelis have a right to take such demagogues (who purport to be leaders but know very little about positive leadership) at their word. To do nothing would be perilous. They almost got caught flat-footed in 1973 when they weren't prepared for the Yom Kippur War -- they won't make that mistake again.
The Centrist
By , at
Mon Feb 18, 04:56:00 PM:
The actions of Iran are the flip side of the boy who cried wolf. They are, instead, the wolf who cried boy.
Rather than one who loses credibility and succor because of over-reaction to unrealistic threats, the Iranians are like a wolf who keeps feinting at the boy, all the while denying that there is any ill intent.
The boy is justified if, one day in the woods, he finds that the wolf is unguarded and rids himself of the threat.
By Assistant Village Idiot, at
Mon Feb 18, 09:29:00 PM:
