OPINION:
Two omissions mar the timely commentary “Slender geopolitical threads on Israel, Iran” (On Geopolitics, Thursday) by Arnaud de Borchgrave.
The writer says Israel’s military chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Benjamin Gantz, was quoted “as saying he thinks Iran’s decision-makers are ’very rational’ ” when discussing the threat of Tehran’s nuclear weapons program.
Gen. Gantz told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz: “I think the Iranian leadership is composed of very rational people. But I agree that such a capability, in the hands of fundamentalists who at particular moments could make different calculations, is dangerous.”
Mr. de Borchgrave also writes that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak have concluded, among other things, that “the time for Israel to bomb Iran’s nuclear production sites is now” (i.e., at the height of the U.S. presidential campaign, when neither candidate would risk losing by criticizing Israel). But an attack during the presidential race might disrupt the U.S. economy and boost gasoline prices, inducing criticism of Israel rather than campaign-season pre-empting disapproval.
As the New York Times reported recently, Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Barak fear that the mullahs’ nuclear program may soon move into “zones of immunity” as sites are hardened and buried underground. This possibility, not the American electoral calendar, weighs most heavily on the timing of a potential attack.
ERIC ROZENMAN
Washington director
Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA)
Washington
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