Israel has a new government, lead by the hawkish Benjamin Netenyahu, with an ultra-conservative and hawkish block (the Likud Party) controlling their Knesset. The Likud block is sufficiently strong that they can overturn any government, calling for a new election, should the Prime Minister and the administration not perform to their liking. The controlling Likud supports and encourages the furtherance of new Jewish settlements on the West Bank. Their platform also rejects outright the concept of the formation of a Palestinian state and government. The U.S. disagrees strongly with both those positions.

It has been reported that Iran is somewhere between months and up to five years from the successful development of a nuclear weapon. Iran does have rockets with sufficient range to deliver nuclear a warhead on Israel and has tested them frequently. Iran's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has said he intends to remove Israel from the face of the earth. We should be aware that Iran is actually a constitutional theocracy and the ultimate political power in Iran legally lies with Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Supreme Leader of Iran. While the Ayatollah is ultra-conservative and a fundamentalist Shiite Muslim, his intentions relative to Israel are less well-known. But their religious precepts reject the Israelis as being among the most hated infidels.

New Prime Minister Netanyahu has said he would attack Iran to destroy their nuclear development activities. In fact, Israel requested "bunker-busting" bombs from the U.S. in 2008 (the Iranian facilities are located in deep bunkers or in mountains), but the U.S. denied the Israeli request.

There are now reports that Netanyahu has requested that the U.S. pre-emtively attack the Iran nuclear facilities with air strikes to protect against what he believes to be an imminent attack by Iran on Israel. Other reports suggest that Saudi Arabia has also suggested that the U.S. consider an attack on Iran to protect the Saudi oil industry from possible attacks from Iran or effects of an Iranian attack on Israel. It should be noted that Iraq and Iran are the only Shiite Muslim countries in the Middle East, all the other countries in the region are dominated by Sunni Muslims. The Sunnis and the Shiites are bitter enemies. Much if the violence in Iraq are sectarian attacks of one group against the other.

Our government has consistently said that Israel is our most important ally in the region and we have made clear statements that we would take any action, including military, to defend Israeli interests. Our relationship with Saudi Arabia is more difficult to measure. Oil is fundamental to our relationship and the Saudis have been quite successful over the years in using oil to influence the U.S. to perform as they wish. They treat us as an ally, but only at a distance. After permitting us to establish military bases in the kingdom when they were threatened by Saddam Hussein, they demanded that our bases be closed immediately after the conclusion of the first gulf war. We are not even permitted overflight rights over the kingdom. Saudi Arabia is the home to the most madrassas, which train young radical Muslim fundamentalists. They sponsor and fund hundreds of other madrassas in other countries. Most of the terrorists who flew the 9/11 planes as well as Osama bin Laden are Saudis.

Both Israel and Saudi Arabia, who we call our strongest allies in the Middle East, have apparently asked that we use our military power to neutralize the aggressive and militaristic Iran. Such an attack would clearly result in a rapid escalation in military conflict in the region and possibly terrorism there and elsewhere in the world. Iran has a well-trained standing army and air force of over 1 million soldiers plus about 500,000 trained reserves, all well-equipped with the latest weaponry provided to them by Russia. An attack against Iran would certainly result in their military response against Israel. Israel has an exceedingly well-equipped and trained army and claims it can defend itself. But we should be aware that the International Institute for Strategic Studies estimated the strength of the Israeli ground forces at 125,000 troops, including 40,000 career soldiers and 85,000 conscripts, with an additional 600,000 men and women in the reserves. A pre-emptive attack against Iran would also result in a likely escalation of terrorism in Iraq where the Shiites outnumber Iraqi Sunnis by a large plurality. How the other Sunni countries in the region might react is difficult to predict, but no other Middle Eastern Arab country has military capability anywhere close to that of Israel and Iran. An expansion of Iran-fueled terrorism in the Middle East and possibly in the rest of the world is also a possibility.

Our most important allies in the Middle East have apparently requested that we pre-emtively attack Iran. Israel has a powerful lobby in Washington. Saudi Arabia is a major source of oil for the U.S. We have been concerned about Iran's nuclear development program for years, but have not conducted diplomacy with Iran since the Shah was overthrown in 1979. The Iran President is a loose cannon and their Supreme Leader is an ultra-conservative and has been bitterly critical of Israel, but whether he would order or approve an attack on Israel is uncertain. Whether Iran really would initiate a nuclear attack on Israel is uncertain. But if they did, the damage to Israel would be complete before anyone could react. Saudi Arabia has estimated that normal weather and wind patterns would blow the radioactive materials resulting from a nuclear attack on Israel the few hundred miles from Israel to the primary Saudi oil fields in a matter of hours, with the probable result that they would be shut down for years until the radioactivity was abated.

What should we do?

old....in the past any country treading on anything Israeli could expect to be hit almost immediately. They were once upon a time the ultimate protectionist of their own. Over the years they have become more docile/diplomatic/political....which means they talk a lot but do not do much about anything anymore.
The first step is for them to get back to their old way of doing business.
The Almadinanutjobs of the world use the inaction of the so called powerful countries to do anything they please.
Iran like Iraq is most likely all mouth like Iraq was before we went in, but after we allowed Iraq enough time to ship all the bad stuff to their complicit neighbors. And now many feel badly we went in...Monday morning QB!!!!

So now we have another power hungry dumbo, who is rattling just like Iraq....where the world's inactivity about such an imminent threat has allowed them to bury deep and protect what ever they may have. And if Israel/USA/? go in and blitz them...then a year or so later the opposition (who ever they may be) will begin chiding how we/whoever went in and devastated another poor mid east country.

If they want to walk and talk and poke a stick at the world then they should be prepared to live with the end result....phony front or real.

There are enough advanced weapons (without an American flag on them) in Europe and the Middle East to do the job...they should mount the offensive and we can always be the back up.

But isn't it amazing when we needed support to back us up against Iraq there was not much from the top leaders. Now it is in their back yard and it is becoming a different story.

And please, I hope nobody tries to defend that by saying they knew there were no WMD. They knew as much then as they know about Iran now.

The sites purported to be the location of the nuclear capability should be removed from the map by what ever means available by those closest to ground zero and backed by those of us with an invested interest.

The sleeping tigers of the world need to shelve the diplomatic waste of time and do something.

BTK

Sit back and watch the fireworks of words, as neither side is that suicidal.

What we are watching is a replay (albeit, scaled-down) of the USA-USSR cold war of the '60s. Both sides know that if either pulls the trigger, they will all meet in the Great Beyond close to simultaneously.

The Saudis are no fools. They sit like the net in a tennis match - in between both players - and know that if a short round doesn't get them, the fallout will.

When both sides rattle their sabers, they have learned that they can turn Uncle Sam into Uncle Sucker who will throw more "peace" money (whether in public or behind-the-scenes) at the supposed combatants. That game showed itself well as the US "contribution towards lasting peace" as part of the "Camp David Accords" and has been a constant nibble/bite at the USA ever since.

If they want to kill each other, the USA being not of the region and at the other the other side of the planet, should stop trying to be the busybody in a neighborhood spat. As I look at the map, there's a few dozen other countries - including the entire European Union - with a greater vested interest in what happens there between these spitting roosters crowing at each other.

Time to be on the sidelines, watching the goings-on from a distance....