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Bombing and bombardment - but to what end?

With talk of Israel "taking on" Iran - or at least bombing it in some way - to restrain the so-called miscreant country gaining nuclear proficiency, Gideon Levy, writing in Haaretz, ponders what would be achieved by such action, both short and long term. He postulates the question of how Israel might seek a better way to reach accommodation with its neighbours, including Iran. The alternative, Levy suggests, isn't all that comforting for Israel.

"But talking about an action against Iran is not our main problem. For or against bombardment, Israel never thinks in terms of beyond tomorrow. It acts like a person who puts buckets in a house with a leaky roof instead of thoroughly fixing the roof. So we bombard Iran, and even if it is successful and we do not have to pay a heavy price for it - a dubious scenario - what happens then? What will happen when Egypt wants a bomb? Will we bomb again? And Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and Iraq? And perhaps Hezbollah has some "dirty bomb" or other? And will we "allow" Turkey to go nuclear? Will we bombard and bombard, and live forever by bombardment?

Israel can fix the holes in the roof only if it seriously tries to be accepted in the region. Such acceptance will be the only guarantee of its existence beyond the next bombardment. A real chance for this was created in the Arab peace initiative that Israel is ignoring in intolerable arrogance. Our national effort continues to be aimed only toward expanding the range of the F-15 and options for in-flight refueling. Nothing has been done in the opposite direction - grounding the planes and refueling diplomatically.

Imagine peace with the Palestinians, the Syrians and most of the Arab world. Would Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dare threaten Israel then, too? On what pretext? Imagine that Israel announces it will not attack Iran until all other means have been exhausted, simultaneously calling on the West to talk to Iran about security guarantees. Does it sound unreal? Will we not contribute more this way to reduce the danger? After all, Iran has so far shown itself to be a rational country, not insane. We refuse to pay the price of peace; we continue to prefer the price of bombardment. But this time the price might be a particularly heavy one."

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