Love of the Land: Israel And A Nuclear Iran

Israel And A Nuclear Iran

Eamonn McDonagh
Z-Word Blog
17 February '10

Ariel Ilan Roth maintains that Israel’s objection to Iran acquiring nuclear weapons is not based on a fear that those weapons would be used against it as he believes that the certainty of a devastating Israeli response is likely to deter the ayatollahs.

He also discounts the idea that Iran might provide its client Hezbollah with a nuclear weapon and sets out the core of the first part of his argument concerning Israel’s attitude to Iran’s nuclear ambitions like this:

Israel fears that Iran’s nuclear ambitions could undermine its qualitative superiority of arms and its consistent ability to inflict disproportionate casualties on adversaries — the cornerstones of Israel’s defense strategy. […] most Israelis believe the key to enduring peace in the Middle East is convincing Israel’s adversaries that ejecting Israel through force is an impossible task not worth pursuing. […]The Iranian nuclear program threatens Israel’s ability to do this in two ways. First, an Iranian nuclear capability would likely force Israel to restrain itself due to fears that Iran’s nuclear weapons could provide an implied security guarantee to other anti-Zionist forces — the sort of guarantee that would prevent Israel from causing the massive losses it has in the past, while giving anti-Israel forces the confidence to keep up the fight.

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Love of the Land: Israel And A Nuclear Iran