Why bother with Iran?

Submitted by Ken Besig Israel (Israel), May 10, 2010 at 12:45

The Iranian nuclear program is a very difficult problem created by a religious fundamentalist regime which truly believes that God has chosen Iran to lead and rule all mankind. The Iranian regime has no fear or respect whatsoever for Barack Obama and the United States or any other Western leader or country, furthermore the Iranian regime holds these leaders and countries in utter contempt and sees them as diseased and decadent sinners who deserve the worst possible fate that God could ever send them. Achmadinejad has called the West's bluff so often and so clearly that it is obvious that neither Western sanctions or the threat of military force has made or will make any impression on them.

On the other hand the Israeli Palestinian conflict and it's endless negotiations involve two leaderships both of which crave the favor of the Obama Administration and the largesse of the United States and will do almost anything to please the US. There is almost no chance at all that either the Palestinians or the Israelis will do or say anything which might cause the Obama adminstration any sleepless nights or difficult decisions. Of course the talks might break down again for the hundredth time, the two sides will of course accuse each other of bad faith, there will harsh words exchanged now and then, but nothing will happen that we haven't seen or heard a couple of dozen times before. The Palestinians will continue to stonewall the Israelis, reject any Israeli offer of any kind which doesn't include a provision for dismantling the Jewish State, and will do everything they can to derail the talks and blame the Israelis.

Now Dr. Pipes, and be honest, which of these two international problems would you rather deal with if you were a lazy, narcissistic, appeasement oriented, and badly misinformed leader like Barack Obama? That's correct, the Arab Israeli one because there is no chance of failure and it requires no difficult and dangerous military intervention like the Iranian one does.

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