Foreign
Israel and the United States have no easy choices when it comes to Tehran’s incessant push to become a nuclear power.
MISSILE THREAT In an Iranian news organization-supplied image, Revolutionary Guards test fire long-range Shahab-3 missiles. Facing Down a Nuclear Iran D BY YAAKOV KATZ
uring the second leba- non War in 2006, the Mus- lim militant group Hezbol- lah fired 4,000 short-to-
medium-range rockets into Israel from Lebanon, terrorizing Israel’s northern regions and killing 44 civilians. Hezbollah, a client of Iran, had an
arsenal of only 15,000 rockets then. Today, it is armed to the teeth with close to 50,000 rockets — including some missiles that can strike Israeli towns some 250 miles away. Those weapons are just a fraction
of the barrage that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) predict they will face if Israel, or the United States, were to
36 NEWSMAX | FEBRUARY 2012
launch a military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities. As Iran’s mullahs continue to engage the West in a peril- ous game of chicken over its nuclear- weapons program, authorities in both Israel and the United States know full well that Iranian retaliation to any attack could carry grim consequences for both nations. But can the United States and Israel afford to wait? In a December CBS News inter-
view, U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said that Iran could have a nuclear weapon “in about a year.” Israel believes that following an
attack, Iran would activate Hezbollah, Iran’s primary proxy in Lebanon. The objective would be to ignite a conflict
on the Lebanese-Israeli border, open- ing up a second front against Israel. One of the newest Hezbollah mis-
siles is the M600. It has a range of 250 miles and carries a half-ton war- head. Israeli intel believes that several hundred M600s are already deployed throughout Lebanon, with predeter- mined targets in their crosshairs. Israel would not be Iran’s only tar-
get. Iran and Hezbollah have devel- oped extensive terrorist infrastructure overseas. Israel fears that these cells, believed to be based mostly in Afri- ca and South America, but possibly in North America as well, could eye Israeli and American targets following any strike against Iran.
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