Hope for Israel

Giving a brief statement after his formal appointment to the position of Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu said:

"Iran is seeking to obtain a nuclear weapon and constitutes the gravest threat to our existence since the war of independence. The terrorist forces of Iran threaten us from the north. For decades, Israel has not faced such formidable challenges. The responsibility we face is to achieve security for our country, peace with our neighbours and unity among us." ~ from the AFP.

Meanwhile, Obama's Administration has received reports that:

"In their first appraisal of Iran’s nuclear program since President Obama took office, atomic inspectors have found that Iran recently understated by a third how much uranium it has enriched, United Nations officials said Thursday. The officials also declared for the first time that the amount of uranium that Tehran had now amassed — more than a ton — was sufficient, with added purification, to make an atom bomb." ~ from the New York Times.

Senator Cardin (D-MD) told Israel on Monday, February 16th that:

"...there's little difference between the policies of President Barack Obama and his predecessor over Iran — both want to keep Iran from getting nuclear weapons. Iran's got to stop financing terrorist activity. Iran's got to give up its desire to become a nuclear weapons power. Its as clear as that." ~ from the AP via MS-NBC.

Given The new Administration's direction of "Tough Talk", I somehow don't think that the Senator's reassurances were all that reassuring.

So far, Obama's diplomacy has struck out with everything from his famous "No Preconditions" (Iran apparently had some), to the bizarre sport-stunt Women's Badminton Team that was refused entry into Iran. It doesn't appear that this situation is going to improve any time soon.

Netanyahu is known as a hawk in Israeli politics and at this rate, Israel might just have to go it alone in it's own defense. Reports are fairly common that Mossad is active in Iran, working to slow or even stop the enrichment of weapons grade uranium. Hopefully the new PM can continue to keep this a cold-style war, or at least a "luke-warm" one.

Oh, and lets call a spade a spade, shall we? Israel is already fighting Iran. Hezbollah and Hamas, regardless of their genetic heritage, count as such in my book.

By the way, I have mental pictures of Iranian women playing Badminton in burqas. I'm sorry, but that's just funny...