On Monday at the AIPAC policy conference, Israeli Brigadier General Eival Gilady appeared with Rep. Eliot Engel of New York on a panel called, “Israel Today—A Safe and Secure Israel: What Will It Take?” Now working for a peace initiative, Gilady headed the Israeli army's strategic planning division under the last government (per Wikipedia).
A man in the audience asked Gilady what Israel would do if Hamas takes over the West Bank and Iran gets nukes.
Gilady answered that it was highly unlikely that Hamas would take over the West Bank, and offered many smart reasons why. As for Iranian nukes, he offered a tough but opaque answer, nearly dismissive of the idea of negotiations. Here is an extended portion of his answer:
"If you ask what would happen if Iranians were to achieve nuclear capability, I wish I could say to you, they will never achieve it. But I must say there are many things we haven’t discussed. I may not be authorized to discuss in public all of what is being done, and I know that many people are expecting the kind of nuclear strike that Israel would repeat, in 1981 the Osirak strike [on Iraq].
"So let me say the following, A, It is not the first priority to do. It is a very costly decision. I won’t exclude it. But there are many things you can do before. I analyzed this in the past. I called it the Iranian challenge to Israel, and presented it to the Israeli cabinet and all of those. I must tell you I was trying to find in all these links that you can cut the chain and hopefully prevent them from achieving nuclear capability.
"I will give you an example or two. I know it’s only the two of us, no one hears us. [laughter] By giving this example I don’t mean to say that we do it or not. I’ll ask you, if for example, tomorrow, two top nuclear scientists, Iranian nuclear scientists, would disappear, the whole problem would disappear for five, six years, would you do that? [wide applause] I would say yes. You know, I cant go in public in all of what can be done. There are many things that can be done, are being done, and I hope will be effective enough…"
Gilady continued by saying he respected the idea of negotiations but doubted their effectiveness.
"What is going to be achieved? What does it mean to settle the nuclear program? Can they renew any time in the future? In what time frame?
It's a lot more complicated than we’ve seen on the surface.
And I think it's going to be very hard to have productive negotiations with them, if you really want what I believe is necessary– to have Ahmadinejad never being able– to exclude the military option… If you want this option, if you want it to be reliable on the table, you have to invest a lot…. refueling, intelligence, satellite, training… And we do. Let’s make it very clear. I hope we don’t get there.
"So if you ask me, can we see a nuclear Iran, and Hamas over the West Bank, and any kind of very bad scenario, What would happen?
I’ll tell you, We’ll fight.
Don’t underestimate the Israeli capability to fight. [big applause] Don’t underestimate. We will do whatever we can to achieve peace, but if we have to fight, we will win.
How much? As long as needed, and we will win, I promise you."
Related posts:
- Israeli general hints that Israel might kidnap Iranian nuclear scientists
- Stop the Bomb (But Allow Iranian Nuclear Enrichment)
- Would Iranian nukes make Israel and U.S. safer?
- Conventional Wisdom Shifts Toward Belief, We Can Live With a Nuclear Iran
- Haaretz: In Iranian-Israeli brinksmanship, Obama is powerless
{ 29 comments }
Everything this guy says assumes continued perpetual financial support of Israel no strings attached by Uncle Sam. Time to bring the spoiled brat bully into reality. Eventually the sheeple wake up.
When he talks about scientists "disappearing" he's talking about assassination.
Gerald Bull was a scientist.
What a terrible terrible tragedy it would be if one of these brave heroes was assassinated! If Israel does this there's no question in my mind they are a thousand, nay a million!, times worse than Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot combined.
Isaac Luria Campaigns Director J Street May 6, 2009 Here's more from Vice President Biden's speech at AIPAC yesterday: "Show me," said Vice President Biden at AIPAC's conference yesterday to the Israeli government, the Palestinians, and the Arab states. He said that "Israel has to work towards a two-state solution" and that Israel should freeze settlement construction, "dismantle outposts and allow Palestinians freedom of movement." To the Palestinians, Biden's call was to "combat terror and incitement against Israel." On Iran, he repeated the Administration's commitment to "direct, principled diplomacy with Iran with the overriding goal of preventing them from acquiring nuclear weapons." The "show me" message could well have been addressed to us – asking us to demonstrate for the President, the media, and our community that we stand with him as he pursues a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and tough, direct diplomacy with Iran. So don't waste any time spreading the word to your friends and family using the message above! [1] "Gingrich: remove Iranian regime," by Ron Kampeas. Jewish Telegraphic Agency, May 3, 2009. [2] "Biden tells AIPAC: Israel must support two-state solution," by Natasha Mozgovoya and Barak Ravid. Haaretz, May 5, 2009.
LOL everyone can play that game. Where does it end? Country A kidnaps or kills a scientist from country B. Can country A protect all of its scientists AND their families from retaliatory assassination? What about extended family? What about the myriad support staff necessary to run any scientific or engineering operation? Scientists and engineers comprise a small portion of the personnel of any scientific or engineering enterprise. And what about students? How hard would it be for Country B to track down students from Country B studying relevant graduate degrees and kill them to disrupt the 'input' of trained personnel into Country A's own weapons design, manufacture, and maintenance system. I expect that Israel already has some protection for its very top intellectual assets, certainly passive via some degree of professional anonymity (no public websites extolling their personnel), but they can't protect from a determined opponent wanting revenge for their own dead, everybody necessary to keep an operation functioning AND all the extended family that those people won't be willing to sacrifice for their jobs. This is another desperate and stupid Israeli plan of violence to stave off inevitable negotiations they will undertake with those whose land and freedom they have stolen. The whole idea is mad.
I used to think the violence of apartheid South Africa was worst under De Klerk's predecessor P.W. Botha. I just read a book about the history of apartheid, and it turns out the worst violence was under De Klerk himself. This kind of regime gets most desperate and violent as its end approaches.
That statement on nuclear scientists is news indeed. Or maybe. Does Gilady mean that the mossad weren't already killing or abducting Iranian scientists(http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/821634.html) or that they just hadn't killed the top two yet? . The arithmetic of moral outrage says that you can defuse reactions by releasing the news in slices. You start with possibilities and unreliable sources.
Nuclear sabotage could be another option. Here's an account of the US and UK contemplating the use of Boron-10, a highly neutron absorptive material and 'fission poison', to sabotage USSR efforts. Contaminating HEU (mainly U-235) with B-10 in sufficient (but very low) quantities would lead to a fizzling bomb. Plenty of room to play Joshua 007…
Like most rogue states, Israel has not hesitated to kidnap and assassinate and terrorize and confiscate land. Their very first President Ben Gurion, set these actions out as Israel's relationship to the Palestinians and anyone who supported them. And they have kept that promise. Like Nazis, they kill 100 or 200 or even 300 Arabs for every Israeli Jew who dies. They use collective punishment. They have turned the Gaza and the West Bank into the world's biggest concentration camps. All they need to add are the ovens. If Israel wants to be a nuclear power in the Middle East, we cannot simply tell all the other nations they may not do the same. If Israel wants to be a nuclear power, let them negotiate that directly with the other countries in the region. It's time for the US to stop sublimating our national interests in favor of Israel's national interests. They are NOT the same. And it's time we quit sending more money to Israel than the whole of Africa. And let them make their own cluster bombs and white phosophorus shells. And when they use them, let Israel face the consequences of its own actions. It's way past time for some tough love here or Israel will never grow up.
"…I’ll ask you, if for example, tomorrow, two top nuclear scientists, Iranian nuclear scientists, would disappear, the whole problem would disappear for five, six years, would you do that? [wide applause] I would say yes. You know, I cant go in public in all…" Okay, tell me everyone in that room wasn't right up there on cloud 9? Whacked, loaded, flying! High on ziocaine, grandious stage. Alternating, as always, with whining paranoia. And it was such a good thing nobody in Iran can hear them discuss these top secret….. wait a minute, in order for this kidnap plan to work, there has to be a Jewish James Bond from Israel. This deserves some serious thought, to start with, remember Bond's (in the Ian Fleming books) loving listings of the meals he ate and the other luxury goods he surronded himself with. And what about the sex part? I mean, would a Jewish James Bond have a , well, a high-tech foreskin toupee sort of thing, to keep enemy seductresses from piercing his cover? There is boffo yoks in this, I'm convinced.
The name is Bondstein, Joshua Bondstein against the evil Offhismedsinejad and his Persian kitten… I can see a J'wood production ahead!
Philip, please don't mistake the Portland trust for a peace organization.
These AIPAC people are truly crazy, and are a cancer to the rest of us. It's is sad that a Zionist could call call another person or nation a terrorist or militarily aggressive and be taken seriously while doing so.
Philip, please don't mistake the Portland trust for a peace organization. They seem to be, from the link, a commercial concern, with a completely absurd mission statement. Do you have some cites for what they're up to?
This Portland Trust? http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2007/06/24/sir... http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2007/06/24/sir... Oh yeah, it is that Portland Trust. And, as Helena Cobban says, not to be mistaken for a peace organization, except insofar as amassing a private fortune promotes personal peace and security for those who amass it.
Hezbollah seems rather adept at kidnapping Israeli soldiers. Could we see more of this in the future if Israel starts plucking Iranian scientists out of the blue?
Joshua Bondstein lowered his massive five feet into an armchair and smoothed his immaculately tailored Saville Row caftan. His Rolex yamulke glinted softly of kosher titanium and he reached to his earpiece to shut off his digital, 3g tefellin which delivered a constant a stream of secret coded instructions, protocols and Haftorah readings to his ear. "You say, Q, the mohel's knife was coated with a secret chemical formula which induces anti-Zionism only a couple of years after the Bar Mitzvah? But only if the unsuspecting lad has sex with a Gentile girl? Oy gevalt, this is evilness, fust cless! When I catch this villian my Waltherstein pistol will put an end to his evil plot " "Steady on, James" said Q "I think the mezzuzah is bugged! But if you're going out could you bring me a pastrami sandwhich and kidnap a couple of Iranian atomic scientists?"
Israeli Brigadier General Eival Gilady appeared with Rep. Eliot Engel of New York on a panel called, “Israel Today—A Safe and Secure Israel: What Will It Take?” QUESTION: Why is a New York, presumably American, representative preoccupied with "A Safe and Secure Israel: What Will It Take?” Shouldn't a NY politician be at a panel, I dunno – A Safe and Secure New York: What Will It Take? Oh I kid I kid – it is obvious that Jews DO NOT care for this country. But you American soldiers, you go do god's duty and bomb Iran and continue dying and losing limbs in Iraq.
it is obvious that Jews DO NOT care for this country. Strong words, no? Well, what does AIPAC and a NY politician attending "A Safe and Secure Israel: What Will It Take?” prove? How do we explain "Clean Break" and then the same people creating PNAC?
Only if you want to see another 4000 dead Hezbollah supporters. Your choice.
How long has Israel been battling it's Arab neighbors? I would say there is some stamina on both sides. Question is–would Israel be able to withstand another embarrassing defeat against a small band of guerrillas?
Exactly, I was going to ask why phil assumes kidnapping; "disappearing" would seem more their modus operandi
Interesting sense of morality. Why not 40.000 ? After all, they brought it on themselves, it's their responsibility. So they would be killing 40.000 of their own by their own free choice. 400.000? Would they be so depraved as to be capable of that you think? Maybe they would, so they can blame it on Israel. They all want their children to die for the big cause of fighting Israel anyway, so they should be happy. Or wait, if they should be happy, is it a good idea then? Well it could be, since Israel is such a benevolent state.
Advances in cosmetic surgery could easily weld on a foreskin; if the job is done right, a bonus would be all those tons of extra erotic nerve endings not missed as ignorance is bliss… Of course, a nose job is old hat. What's the problem? Hairy back? Easy, just regular tape removals.
Grasshopper, the secret coded instructions: "Be honest, first with your own mind. Then, strive to not apply dual standards."
The 51st star has an odd number of points on our new flag–odd, yet even number of special points. A new bill has been introduced into congress to change the lineal star presentation to better reflect configuration of glory and national mission, i.e., the 51st star will be in the central position, and much larger, the others parading along behind it as before, retaining their small dimensions, ideally, a bit smaller in size as they won't have the classical space anymore–alternatively, another bill introduced in Congress would reduce the size of the red and white stripes and allot more blue space for the new star's relatively gigantic size in proportion to the whole.
Countries do these kinds of things all the time. Get a clue.
"The arithmetic of moral outrage"? Lol. Espionage of this type has been going on since the dawn of mankind, and there's nothing particularly surprising about it.
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