Israel's curious relationship with Iran

Submitted by Mozza (United Kingdom), Jun 28, 2012 at 06:07

I would add one more point – based on the following examples of Israel's non-retaliation: 1) the two attacks on the Jewish community in Argentina which were allegedly carried out by willing Iranian proxies 2) the arming of both Hezbollah and HAMAS. Example 2 is simply war through proxies but it is still a war being played out between Iran and Israel. In both examples there does not appear to have been any significant military retaliation to discourage the Iranian regime against further adventurism.

Only if Iran has 'something' to lose will it decide that it is inappropriate at the current time to pursue a policy of 'interference' – and the only thing that the current Iranian regime is concerned with – is its survival – which if its oil facilities were bombed (as an example) would represent an economic nightmare for Iran – as it exports little else of significant value.

It would upset the Chinese…but I suspect that just as China views North Korea as a useful irritant so with Iran. It has to be in the interest of nations to tone down rhetoric but Israel vis–a-vis Iran has been mostly making lots of noise but not doing anything to significantly impact the Iranian economy (re cyber warfare – it is difficult to determine just how much if any long term damage is really being done).

According to Wikipedia: In FY 2009 the (petroleum) sector accounted for 60 percent of total government revenues and 80 percent of the total annual value of both exports and foreign currency earnings.

www.thebilateralist.blogspot.co.uk

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