Everyone knows that the nation of Iran is
the number one threat facing Israel today.
And there are many reasons why Israel is concerned
about Iran building a nuclear bomb.
Here are just a few that I heard from Israel’s
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Listen.
***
Benjamin Netanyahu: The militant Shiites in
Iran are openly racing, and boasting that
they are racing, to develop nuclear weapons
with the explicit announced goal of wiping
Israel from the face of the earth, re-establishing
the Caliphate (of course under militant Shiite
Iranian rule).
The Caliphate includes the territories from
Iran to Spain, developing long-range ballistic
missiles first that are targeted to every
European capital and within a decade to reach
the eastern coast of the American mainland.
If Iran acquires nuclear weapons, everything
that we’ve been talking about will pale
in comparison.
Because the power to extend power, to threaten,
to realize the threats, to make good on the
threats, will be on a level that we have not
seen, nor one that we can readily imagine.
It will put the oil reserves of the Gulf under
their sway.
They could easily bring down governments or
fold them into their realm.
And, of course, they might make good on their
twisted ideas of ending Zionism and extending
their realm by other means.
So this is threat to the entire world, and
it cannot be seen as anything but that.…
Now, you know, if the Middle East turns into
a nuclear powder keg, that’s very, very
bad.
And you really don’t, we really don’t
want that happening in our world.
***
Ankerberg: Now, why is it that no one in the
world wants a nuclear power keg in the Middle
East?
What would happen if Iran does get the bomb
and the unthinkable happens, a nuclear exchange
with Israel occurs?
Anthony Cordesman, an American national security
analyst who has also served as a director
of intelligence assessment in the office of
the US Secretary of Defense, has written,
“If Tehran gets the bomb and a clear exchange
with Israel occurs, some 16 million to 28
million Iranians would be dead within 21 days,
and between 200,000 to 800,000 Israelis would
die.
Jordan would also suffer severe radiation
damage from an Iranian strike on Tel Aviv.”
He estimates, it is theoretically possible
that the Israeli state, economy and organized
society might just survive, but Iran would
not survive as an organized society.
Further, Cordesman expects that Israel would
need to keep a reserve strike capability to
ensure no other power can capitalize on the
Iranian strike and might target key Arab neighbors
such as Syria, Egypt, and the Persian Gulf
states.
He goes on to say a full-scale Israeli attack
on Syria would kill up to 18 million people;
recovery would not be possible.
At the same time, a Syrian attack on Israel
with all of its chemical and biological warfare
assets could kill up to 800,000 Israelis.
But, he says, Israeli society would still
recover.
Then if there’s an Israeli attack on Egypt,
Cordesman does not give a death toll here,
but believes it would certainly be in the
tens of millions.
He does say it would mean the end of Egypt
as a functioning society.
Then Cordesman says we must recognize that
the oil wells, refineries and ports along
the gulf would also be targets in the event
of a mass nuclear response by an Israel convinced
that it was being dealt a potentially mortal
blow.
The resulting nuclear contamination would
mean the permanent loss of oil from the Middle
East.
He sums it up this way.
Being contained within the region, such a
nuclear exchange might not be Armageddon for
the human race; but it would certainly be
Armageddon for the global economy and the
end of the oil age.
