Iran & Hezbollah: Axis of Terror

http://www.idfblog.com/hezbollah/
The Hezbollah terrorist organization never ceases in its efforts to plan and execute deadly attacks against civilians around the world. It is sponsored, armed and funded by Iran - a state who uses the organization to spread terror in the hearts of the civilians of the West.

Obama-Iran more than a year from nuclear weapon

President Obama has told Israelis that Iran is still more than year away from developing a nuclear weapon and sought to reassure them that military force remains a US option if sanctions and diplomacy fail to thwart its nuclear ambitions.

In an interview with Israeli television broadcast on Thursday, just six days before his visit to the country, Obama appeared to send a message to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of the need for patience with Washington's Iran strategy while also showing US resolve to confront Tehran if necessary.

Dennis Ross: If diplomacy fails, be sure the US will attack Iran Former Obama adviser Dennis Ross says the U.S. president is not bluffing on the Iran nuclear issue • Speaking at a symposium in Jerusalem, Ross says U.S. policy on Iran will remain consistent, despite the coming changing of the guard at the Pentagon.

If diplomacy fails to stop Iran's nuclear program, the U.S. will use military force, Dennis Ross, a former top adviser to U.S. President Barack Obama, said on Wednesday.

Speaking at a symposium at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem, Ross said that people should believe Obama's declarations that he will not allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons.

"When the administration began and [Obama] made it very clear that he was prepared to pursue engagement with the Iranians, it was always a means, it was never an end. It was a means to see if you could affect and change Iran's behavior on the nuclear issue by dealing with them, but it was a means to try to do that. It was also a means recognizing that this was a way to build pressure on Iran," Ross said.

"If we reached out and the Iranians weren't responsive it would be far easier to mobilize the world to put real pressure on the Iranians. But you had to ask the question; what happens if we don't succeed?," he said. "If we do everything we can but it doesn't succeed, are we prepared to live with an Iran that has a capability and then contain it afterwards, or do we believe that the acquisition of that capability is so profoundly threatening to our interests that we really can't live with it and we have to prevent it?"

"If diplomacy fails, and I'm asked to give my advice, it is very important that having stated prevention as an objective that we act on it," he added.

"When President Obama says 'I don't bluff', I think he means what he says. If diplomacy doesn't work, we have to be prepared to use force, and I think we will be."

In the 1990s, Ross was appointed President Bill Clinton's Middle East envoy and was involved in brokering peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. More recently, Ross served as an adviser to Obama on Middle East affairs, before leaving the post in 2011.

At the symposium Wednesday, Ross argued that history had showed that second-term presidents act much as they did in their first terms, suggesting that Obama will not adopt a tougher stance toward Israel over the next four years, contrary to the pessimistic assessments of some Israeli media commentators.

Ross said that U.S.-Israel security cooperation, which was already good under previous presidential administrations, got even better during Obama's first term.

Ross also said the U.S. would remain consistent in its stance that Iran could not be permitted to get nuclear weapons, even with personnel changes at places like the Pentagon, where Chuck Hagel is expected to replace Leon Panetta as defense secretary in the near future.

Ross was set to address a conference of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs on Thursday morning.

CAMERA: A Nuclear-Capable Iran is a Threat to America

Much news media coverage of the past week's General Assembly opening and of Iran’s attempts to achieve nuclear weapons has been framed as a clash between Iran and Israel. This is incomplete. With the exception of an excellent article inUSA Today, little press attention has been paid to the threat Iran poses to the United States and the rest of the world.
 
A nuclear Iran would pose multiple threats to America:

• Security
  • It would spark a nuclear arms race in the Middle East
  • American military bases and thousands of American troops are already in range of Iranian missiles
  • Iran operates in Central and South America in cooperation with organized criminal cartels, terrorists including Hezbollah cells and governments hostile to the United States such as Venezuela
  • Iran is the world’s leading state-sponsor of terror and even if it did not share nuclear weapons technology with its terrorist allies and proxies, would have a shield under which to expand their operations
• Economy
  • A nuclear Iran could more credibly threaten to or actually close the Strait of Hormuz and would hold hostage much of the world’s oil supply
  • As most transportation relies on petroleum products and virtually all goods have to be transported, prices of everything would rise, consumers would retain less disposable income and general economic activity would be depressed
• Interests and Values
  • Iran supresses freedom of speech and assembly
  • It persecutes women, homosexuals, religious and ethnic minorities
  • Citizens are subject to torture, arbitrary detentions, unfair trials and cruel punishments
     

It is vital that the context of the Iranian threat be provided. Media that take the easy route and make this a story about Israeli saber-rattling fail to inform their audiences of the profound implications of an Iran with nuclear weapons capability.