Obama’s Iran Moves Could Start World War III

On the issue of Iranian nukes, France has effectively replaced the U.S. as Israel’s strongest ally and as the most sober-minded advocate of caution when negotiating the single greatest threat to global security. Incredibly, Saudi Arabia is reportedly replacing the U.S. in providing logistical support for an Israeli strike on Iranian nukes.

While the Obama administration has suggested that critics of the current Geneva deal are “on a march to war,” it is that very deal—which gives Iran a nuclear breakout capacity—that will force the states most threatened by Iran to take preemptive military action.

Even if one accepts Obama’s apparent view that decades-long alliances matter no more than U.S. assurances do, there are other compelling reasons for Obama to reverse his disastrous Iran policy before it’s too late. Granting an Iranian nuclear weapons breakout capability will produce catastrophic consequences (many of which Obama himself acknowledged, in his March 2012 speech):

1. The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) will effectively be finished. The world’s most volatile region will become even more explosive as other regional players scramble to establish their own nuclear arsenals to counter Iran’s. And rogue nations will realize that by following Iran’s deceptive playbook, they too can develop a nuclear capability.

2. The force of U.N. Security Council resolutions will be further diluted, as Iran will continue flouting six of them with impunity.

4. Terrorism could go nuclear, should Iran share some of its nuclear materials with the terrorist groups it supports.

The Jewish people have a long memory, and it pervades the thinking of Israeli civilians and top brass alike. Thus, Israel’s brief history is replete with daring military operations to protect its security. In Netanyahu’s speech at the last U.N. General Assembly, in what may have been Israel’s final warning to the world to deal with the Iranian nuclear threat before Israel must, the prime minister summed up—from his personal family history—the collective experience that guides Israel on fateful decisions:

“One cold day in the late 19th century, my grandfather Nathan and his younger brother Judah were standing in a railway station in the heart of Europe. They were seen by a group of anti-Semitic hoodlums who ran towards them waving clubs, screaming ‘Death to the Jews.’ My grandfather shouted to his younger brother to flee and save himself, and he then stood alone against the raging mob to slow it down. They beat him senseless, they left him for dead, and before he passed out, covered in his own blood, he said to himself, ‘What a disgrace, what a disgrace. The descendants of the Macabees lie in the mud powerless to defend themselves.’ He promised himself then that if he lived, he would take his family to the Jewish homeland and help build a future for the Jewish people. I stand here today as Israel’s prime minister because my grandfather kept that promise.”

Obama should know by now that if he forces Israel’s hand, then Israel alone will neutralize the Iranian nuclear threat, regardless of how messy the aftermath may be. Netanyahu—like any other responsible Israeli leader—would rather bring about World War III than the last Israelis.