Iran’s potential acquisition of nuclear arms is favored by majorities in only Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Palestinian territories, a poll released Wednesday showed.
Iran has threatened to destroy Israel numerous times. If it were to use its soon-to-be-acquired nuclear weapons to try to do so there would be numerous Palestinian casualties, in the attack and the ensuing war.
When (I wish I could say ‘if’) Iran gets nuclear weapons, there will be great pressure on other states in the region — Egypt, Saudi Arabia, even Syria and Jordan — to acquire them as well. Such an arms race will divert resources from civilian use, and it’s hard to imagine that this won’t be a great hardship in places like Egypt, where the economy is not all that great to begin with. And if it should happen that these weapons are used…
Can you imagine three or four new nuclear states in the Middle East? What if somebody like Fatah al-Islam got hold of a weapon or nuclear material?
Nuclear proliferation in the region is bad for Jews, but it’s as bad or worse for Arabs.
I suppose that Pakistanis feel far enough away that the general principle of Islamic power overrides the fear that the weapons will be used. Maybe they feel protected by their own nuclear armament, or maybe they think that the only real threat to them comes from India. Whatever.
But the Palestinians are right in the cross-hairs. What are they thinking?
Do we even need to ask? Haven’t we seen time and again that Palestinian thinking is dominated by hate, anger, and bitterness to the point that they consistently choose self-defeating tactics and strategies?
It’s still more important to them to hurt Jews than to help Arabs.
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