Will They Or Won't They?

NewsMax.com seems to have information indicating that, if push comes to shove (at least prior to Sharon's stroke), Israel would not be willing to partake in a pre-emptive strike against Iran, similar to the one made by the IAF on June 7th, 1981, where fighters bombed the Iraqi Osirak reactor.

The Osirak attack was censured by the UN when it passed resolution 487 which "strongly condemns the military attack by Israel in clear violation of the Charter of the United Nations and the norms of international conduct." (S/RES/487).

History shows, however, that Iraq had purchased an MTR reactor, of French design and a type called Osiris (named after the Egyptian god of the dead). The French named the reactor Osiraq, from "Osiris" + "Iraq" (French Osirak), and the Iraqis named it Tammuz 1, for the Babylonian month in which the Ba'ath Party took control of the Iraqi government in 1968.

French involvement didn't end there; in addition to the reactor, construction, and technical assistance, the French sold around 12.5 kg of 93% highly-enriched uranium-235 fuel (HEU) to the Iraqi government. One French worker (how odd!) was killed on Iraqi soil during the Osirak bombing.

Some Iraqis referred to the reactor as "OChirac" after Jacques Chirac (then mayor of Paris and now French President), because of Chirac's involvement in the sale of the reactor to the Iraqis in the '70s.

History shows that the Israelis did the right thing at the right time, for the right reason, clearly putting a crimp in Iraq's budding nuclear program.

Now, however, some six months ago, an "influential member of the Jewish community" recently told NewsMax about a private conversation he had with Ariel Sharon.

NewsMax reports:

When asked if Israel would use military force to take out Iran's weapons program, Sharon said they would not.

"We are not going to do the world's dirty work," the Prime Minister said, our source quotes the Prime Minister as saying.

Make no mistake about it: our source says Israel views Iran's weapons program as a serious threat to the Jewish state. But our source notes that Iran also poses a risk to her Arab neighbors and the United States.

Doing what I call the "logical extension," it seems that Sharon was saying Israel viewed this as an international problem -- with the United States left, once again, to deal out the dirty work -- work that Israel, at one time, didn't mind doing.

Further: I suspect this was Ariel Sharon posturing for an individual he knew would take the information to the proper end users -- America and the international community. Do the math: Israel lies much closer to Iran than do our Atlantic shores. I believe this was Sharon attempting to gather support for the strike he was being forced to consider.

Sharon had already made a major mistake by clearing Gaza, exposing his country's "soft, white underbelly" to the PA Komodo Dragon that would see itself ripping Israel's entrails into the dirt.

Would he or wouldn't he?

More importantly, Ehud Olmert, 60, is Israel's acting PM. Pending elections, Olmert left the harder Likud party to co-found Kadima with Sharon -- a more "centrist" party. Would Olmert?

Binyamin Netanyahu, 56, former PM from 1996 to 1999, has thrown his hat once again into the electoral ring. A little know fact about him: his brother Yoni Netanyahu died in the July 4th, 1976 "Raid on Entebbe" -- the only Israeli to die there -- in the attempt to free Israeli hostages from a hijacked Air France Airbus A300. Yoni planned and led the entire rescue effort. All the hostages survived. Yoni was killed by Ugandan soldiers.

I know what Bibi would do.