Speak Softly and Move Like a Tiger

I've had nursing homes on the brain lately. But none of us will have to worry about our retirements if Iran is allowed to enrich enough uranium to build a nuclear weapon. So today, briefly, a switch from local news, to international ...

I was in Israel on business a few years ago, and a friend from the Foreign Ministry was taking me to lunch in Jerusalem. As we left the gates of the ministry, he saw a friend of his and they spoke for a minute in Hebrew.

Robin, on the Mount of Olives with the Dome of the Rock and the old city of Jerusalem in the background below.

As they parted, I turned and saw a man put his foot up on the railing of the fence that surrounds the Israeli Foreign Ministry building. My friend, a retired General in the Israeli Defense Force, began to move slowly, like a cat stalking a bird.

As the stranger tied his shoelace, my friend turned his body in what seemed like slow motion and moved in a large arc, from one side of the stranger to the other. All sound around me stopped and the only things I could see were the surroundings as, if they were standing still, and my Israeli friend, with every muscle on alert, his eyes moving back and forth, as he seemed to clear an invisible path around the man tying his shoe.

And then the stranger stood up, straighted his trouser cuffs and walked away.

Time and the movement around us restarted, and my Israeli friend took my arm, finished the sentenced he had begun with me a nanosecond-but-what-seemed-like-an-eternity-before, and off we went to lunch.

Israel is the kind of country in which a man tying his shoe in front of the Foreign Ministry may just be a man tying his shoe or may be something much worse. I started breathing again about an hour later and I cannot tell you to this day what we had for lunch. I have often wondered, in the years since, what it must be like to live in a country that required one to be constantly on the alert like that.

But that was before our own experience on September 11, 2001.

All this came to mind this morning when I read Richard Cohen, of the Washington Post, in today's paper. He has a terrific column about the latest news on the nuclear enrichment facility in Iran and how it might be a defining moment for President Barak Obama. Cohen is a liberal columnist and thus his comments have especial import--insiders in the White House read what he says and do take note.

Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen.



Cohen's point: that either the U.S. can do something to ensure that Iran doesn't get a nuclear weapon, or Israel will have to. And if Israel has to, seriously bad things in the Middle East may ensue.

Barak Obama looks good and sounds good and his election seems to have been good for America's image abroad. Now it is well past time to show he is more than an image--or an empty suit. This is a very bad business and it calls for a great leader.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is tying his shoelace on the fence that surrounds the safety of the world. It is time for Barak Obama to watch him as he does so, and move like a tiger cat.

Read Richard Cohen's Memo to Obama

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News Nose is Itching: My Prediction for the Week

Thursday, September 12, Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, made an unannounced visit to Moscow for a meeting on a unknown subject with unknown officials in the former Soviet Union. It didn't turn out to be a secret trip, since it has been in all the papers, but it wasn't on his schedule, he was gone for twelve hours and no one is commenting on exactly what he did. But before Israel takes any military steps to eliminate a nuclear threat in Iran it would need assurances from Russia (one of Iran's chief suppliers) that it would take no retaliatory steps. If Netanyahu didn't take a suitcase full of money with him to Russia, I would be really surprised. What do you think he was doing there?

Netanyahu's Secret Russian Visit

Friday, September 11, the United States and its European allies agreed to begin talks with Iran about its nuclear program. There is no agenda for these talks, nor any start date. But, agreement to talks like this provides the West with cover. No one will be able to say we didn't at least make an attempt to talk with Iran about its nuclear weapons program before we--or our allies in Israel--take extraordinary steps to eliminate the threat.

U.S. Agrees to Talks with Iran and North Korea

Thursday, September 17, the United States announces plans to scrap a missile shield in Eastern Europe and concentrate instead on protecting the Middle East from the short-range missiles that might come from Iran. This news item holds two clues to the future: the first is that it throws a bone to the Russians, since they haven't wanted the missile shield technology deployed in their backyard. And secondly it allows the U.S. to make clear it is deploying its anti-missile devices elsewhere, where they might be more useful, i.e. to protect Israel.

U.S. to Shelve Nuclear Missile Shield in Poland

Friday, September 18, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad tells NBC News reporter Ann Curry that Iran would not explicitly rule out development of nuclear weapons and that he would "never halt Tehran’s work on peaceful nuclear programs to mollify Western skeptics."

Iran's President Won't Rule out Nukes

You can add up all the unknowns in this equation for yourself. Ahmadinejad is reading the same tea leaves I am, but I believe he underestimates America and its allies' resolve, which always comes to the fore when dangerous bullies begin to make megalomaniacal threats. It is my belief that all these signs we're seeing point to an action very soon that will be forthcoming out of Israel and that will not be protested by either the U.S. or Russia. I suspect the action will make Iran's president sorry he was ever born. If he has time to have a thought like that before he is gone.

I have no inside knowledge. My news nose is just itching, and it appears to me something very serious is imminent. We won't know until it happens. I don't have the data the intelligence authorities have so I don't even know what should be done. I'm just telling you what I think will be done. I pray that whatever happens it will be quick and clean and will not cause damage anywhere except where such damage will do the most good. And that when it is over, I hope the world will be a safer place. At least until the next bully comes along.

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