An Incentive to Pray Fervently for Israel

Naftali Bennett, chief of staff to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from 2006 to 2008, said Israelis are “more concerned now than ever about Iran’s race to acquire a nuclear bomb.” To plead with Israel’s closest ally, America, to let Israel defend itself, he has created a video that he asked to be distributed.

In the video, he says America and Europe are telling Israel, “‘Do not bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities.’ This is understandable. They don’t want a regional war that may occur as a result of an Israeli attack; and they don’t need oil prices to skyrocket, certainly not during an election year. Those who oppose an Israeli preemptive attack provide a few arguments.”

Following is a transcription of Mr. Bennett’s message to America:

First, they say that, while Iran wants a bomb, it doesn’t actually want to use it. Their [the Iranians’] only goal is to gain regional power, but they don’t really intend to bomb Israel.

That’s an interesting theory, but let’s listen to what Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad actually says in his own words.

• On October 26, 2005, he said, “Israel must be wiped off the map.”
• On August 2, 2006, he asked, “Are they human beings? They’re a group of bloodthirsty savages.” He was referring to us, Israelis.
• On May 8, 2008, he declared that Israel has reached the end, like a dead rat.
• On October 10, 2009, he screamed, “The shout of the Iranian nation is forever! Death to Israel!”
• On March 11, 2010, he concluded, “Israel will be annihilated.”

I think we can all agree that he’s pretty clear about his goals. If there’s one lesson from the Holocaust, it is this: When someone says he’s going to annihilate you, believe him.

So, yes, we believe Ahmadinejad. But then goes the argument, perhaps Iran does want to bomb Israel; but it won’t do it because Israel would retaliate. In other words, mutually assured destruction would work as a deterrent, just as it did with the Soviet Union.

Well, again, let’s listen to what Iran has to say. Iran’s former president, Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, said he wasn’t concerned about fallout from an attack on Israel because, in his words, “The application of an atomic bomb would not leave anything in Israel. But if Israel bombed Iran, it would produce only limited damage.” And he goes on explaining, Israel is much smaller than Iran in landmass and, therefore, far more vulnerable to nuclear attack.

You see, since Iran has 70 million people and Israel only has 7 million, Rafsanjani believes Iran could survive an exchange of nuclear bombs, while Israel would be annihilated. But it actually goes a bit further. According to Iran’s radical religion, at the end of time there’s going to be general and total destruction, a sort of Armageddon. People with this fanatic mindset actually want to die as martyrs, so you can’t really threaten them with death. But then goes the argument, as The New York Times said, even if Israel did bomb Iran, they would only set its nuclear program back for a few years. So what’s the point?

Well, come on! When somebody’s pointing a gun at you and he’s about to press the trigger, then stopping him for just a few years is a pretty good deal. And during those few years, we’d have many new opportunities to solve this problem altogether. But if, on the other hand, they do get a nuclear bomb, that’s it. There’s no way back.

The final argument against an attack is that, if worst comes to worst, we Israelis can be assured that the West, and especially America, would be there to protect us. Well, somehow, that’s a bit hard for us to believe. Let’s take a look at Israel’s short history.

In 1948, during Israel’s War of Independence, we were invaded by five Arab armies. And we were very low on weapons and ammunition. The UN imposed an embargo; and the entire world, including America, refused to sell any weapons to Israel. We were on our own.

In May of 1967, when Egypt, Syria, and Jordan teamed up on Israel and blockaded us, what did the United Nations do? They pulled out their forces from Sinai, the very forces that were there to protect Israel in the first place. Egypt asked them to leave, so they got up and left. Again, we were left on our own.

On the morning of October 6 of 1973, Israel discovered that, within a few hours, it would be attacked by Egypt and Syria. The logical thing for us would have been to preempt and attack first. But the U.S. sent us a clear message: Do not preempt. So we waited, and we were attacked by them first. This cost us thousands of our soldiers’ lives in the Yom Kippur War.

The entire world, except America, refused to help us, while in many cases aiding the Arabs.

So it’s pretty clear that when push comes to shove, we’re on our own. Yes, America is Israel’s greatest friend. But when it comes to our very survival, we can only trust ourselves to defend our lives.

So what we ask our best friend, America, is to help us and the entire world to stop this global threat. Please do everything you can to stop Iran from getting the bomb. But if you’re not going to do it, please, please don’t stand in our way.