{"id":6527,"date":"2013-09-20T08:21:09","date_gmt":"2013-09-20T15:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=6527"},"modified":"2013-09-20T08:21:09","modified_gmt":"2013-09-20T15:21:09","slug":"mideast-nuclear-holocaust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/mideast-nuclear-holocaust\/","title":{"rendered":"Mideast Nuclear Holocaust"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Raymond Ibrahim \/\/\u00a0FrontPage Magazine<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

A Review of\u00a0The Last Israelis<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>by Noah Beck<\/p>\n

\"lli\"After constant exposure to critically important news, it begins to lose all meaning and sense of urgency. \u00a0Hearing the same warnings over and over again\u2014especially when the status quo seems static\u2014can cause a certain desensitization, a resigned apathy that ignores the warnings in the wishful hope that they won\u2019t materialize. \u00a0This hope becomes more optimistic (and passive) with each passing day that the warnings do not materialize.<\/p>\n

One of the most evident examples of this phenomenon is the threat of a nuclear Iran. \u00a0For years, the international community has been hearing about Iran\u2019s pursuit of nuclear weapons; for years, the world has been hearing Iran make bold, genocidal threats\u2014most notoriously, that it will wipe the state of Israel off the map. But so far, Iran reportedly still has no nukes, and no large attack has been launched on Israel. \u00a0Thus, many have become desensitized to the situation\u2014including those charged with ensuring that a nuclear Iran never becomes a reality.<\/p>\n

But that reality has never been closer, as we are warned in Noah Beck\u2019s recent novel,\u00a0The Last Israelis<\/em><\/a>. It is our current proximity to apocalyptic war that makes Beck\u2019s doomsday warning about a nuclear Iran so compelling. If the worst comes to pass, this chilling attempt to rouse the West from its torpor could turn out to be that final, horribly prophetic alert that went unheeded.<\/p>\n

Much of the public is conditioned by the mainstream media and government to focus on the short-term\u2014U.S. presidents tend to concentrate only on matters pressing during their tenure\u2014and rarely ever on longer-term issues or threats. Thus, a nuclear holocaust in the Middle East seems unrealistic. \u00a0Add to this the fact that virtually all nations with nukes have never used them, and one can see why a certain apathy prevails when it comes to the idea of a nuclear Iran.<\/p>\n

But Iran is different. \u00a0Its Shiites leaders believe that at the end of times, a 9th-century prophet, the 12th Imam, will reappear to kill all the infidels and raise the flag of Islam in all four corners of the world. Reza Kahlili, a former CIA operative in Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guards,\u00a0reported last year<\/a>\u00a0on the apocalyptic statements from Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who dictates Iran\u2019s nuclear policy. Khamenei\u2019s statements, which were carried by Iranian state media, proclaimed that \u201cThe issue of Imam Mahdi is of utmost importance, and his reappearance has been clearly stated in our holy religion of Islam. We must study and remind ourselves of the end of times and Imam Mahdi\u2019s era\u2026 We must prepare the environment for the coming so that the great leader will come.\u201d\u00a0Kahlili also translated Iranian news reports from last June<\/a>\u00a0suggesting that Iran\u2019s newly elected president, Hassan Rouhani (the so-called \u201cmoderate\u201d), shares Khamenei\u2019s views. The reports quote Rouhani thanking the Islamic messiah for his\u00a0June 15th\u00a0electoral victory.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the Islamic theocracy ruling Iran believes that apocalyptic scenarios are necessary before Islam\u2019s savior, the Mahdi, or \u201cHidden Imam,\u201d returns (including a prophecy that Muslims must slay all Jews before he returns); believes that death in the jihad results in instant paradise for the \u201cmartyr\u201d; believes the oft recited Islamist sentiment that \u201cMuslims love death as Westerners love life\u201d\u2014a sentiment that has manifested itself in reality all too often by young Muslim men and women sacrificing their lives to become suicide bombs that kill Americans, Israelis, and many others.<\/p>\n

In short, Iran has a worldview that is markedly different than the one that guides Western decision-making. \u00a0Unlike nuclear-armed Western secular democracies, a nuclear Islamic supremacist regime in Iran is much more prone to use the devastating weapons. \u00a0Thus, the situation\u00a0is<\/em>\u00a0serious,\u00a0is<\/em>\u00a0urgent, and, as the United Nations refuses to act decisively, could trigger a holocaust that sees millions of innocent people\u2014Israelis and Iranians alike\u2014wiped out overnight.<\/p>\n

What would such a nightmare scenario be like?<\/p>\n

As a powerful, well-researched novel,\u00a0The Last Israelis<\/em><\/a>\u00a0provides a gripping answer, and helps to neutralize the desensitization and\/or apathy to a nuclear Iran by depicting an all too real scenario of what a nuclear Iran could ultimately mean for the region and the world.<\/p>\n

The narrative follows the lives of an Israeli submarine crew. \u00a0After news that Iran has achieved nuclear status vis-\u00e0-vis an impotent or indifferent West, they are yanked from loved ones during an interrupted and all too brief shore leave, and sent on a mission possibly to retaliate with submarine-launched nuclear ballistic missiles, if a nuclear strike is launched against Israel. \u00a0Halfway through their mission, the submariners lose contact with base command and the ambiguity surrounding those circumstances\u2014and what they could imply\u2014creates palpable tension and conflict among the crewmembers.<\/p>\n

What follows among the crew is a very philosophical\u2014though all too human\u2014debate over what they should do, as it is now up to them to decide the fate of millions:<\/p>\n

If the final communication from headquarters states that Israel was \u201cattacked on all fronts,\u201d and that naval command was hit and \u201cin crisis management mode,\u201d what did that mean for the rest of the country that had been \u201cattacked on all fronts?\u201d \u00a0What did it mean for [the submariners\u2019] loved ones?\u2026And what did it mean to decide to do something that would kill millions of human beings in just a few hours? \u00a0Each submariner struggled with these weighty questions, trying to decide for himself what was the most appropriate course of action under the circumstances.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The nuanced debates are particularly interesting because Beck\u2019s crew is as heterogeneous and complex as the Israeli society that they defend, including a Vietnamese-Israeli, an Arab-Israeli Druze, an Ethiopian-Israeli, and a Christian Israeli. \u00a0Based on their individual backgrounds, upbringings, and most importantly, experiences, this motley crew offers dramatically different perspectives\u2014from the hawkish to the dovish\u2014that reflect the diverse views that one finds in a debate-driven democracy like Israel.<\/p>\n

Besides issuing an urgent warning,\u00a0The Last Israelis<\/em>\u00a0is so grounded in history and current events\u2014including real people, places, and events\u2014that it provides an entertaining way to become educated about the Middle East in general, and the conflict between Israel and Iran in particular.<\/p>\n

And in one crucial respect, this book is no fiction: a nuclear armed Iran is very bad news, not just for Israel, as many think, but for the whole region and stability of the world. \u00a0Therefore, the world is obligated to act now to ensure that the horrific scenario recounted in\u00a0The Last Israelis<\/em><\/a>\u00a0never comes to pass.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Raymond Ibrahim \/\/\u00a0FrontPage Magazine\u00a0 A Review of\u00a0The Last Israelis\u00a0by Noah Beck After constant exposure to critically important news, it begins to lose all meaning and sense of urgency. \u00a0Hearing the same warnings over and over again\u2014especially when the status quo seems static\u2014can cause a certain desensitization, a resigned apathy that ignores the warnings in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[87,227],"tags":[1039,1027,1067,30,169,76],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-1Hh","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5383,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/common-sense\/","url_meta":{"origin":6527,"position":0},"title":"Common Sense","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 28, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Who needs \"intelligence\" to know Iran wants nukes? by Raymond Ibrahim Private Papers Much of the current debate surrounding Iran\u2019s nuclear aspirations centers on the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) report which \u201cjudge[s] with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program.\u201d While such reports tend to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Raymond Ibrahim"","block_context":{"text":"Raymond Ibrahim","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/raymond-ibrahim\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3501,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/so-whos-afraid-of-an-iranian-bomb\/","url_meta":{"origin":6527,"position":1},"title":"So Who’s Afraid of an Iranian Bomb?","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 29, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services At first glance, it would seem a straightforward thing to stop a relatively weak but volatile Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb. It would also seem to be something a concerned world community would be actively working to do. After all, the Sunni\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "October 2007"","block_context":{"text":"October 2007","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2007\/october-2007\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5500,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/fair-or-foul-play\/","url_meta":{"origin":6527,"position":2},"title":"Fair or Foul Play?","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 15, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The reasonable concerns of the U.S. in WMD diplomacy by Raymond Ibrahim Private Papers As is common to our age, reality has taken a second-seat to rhetoric. 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The simple answer is that Washington\u2019s nonproliferation policy,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Strategika"","block_context":{"text":"Strategika","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/strategika\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5808,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/irans-north-korean-furture\/","url_meta":{"origin":6527,"position":4},"title":"Iran’s North Korean Furture","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 16, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services The idea of a nuclear Iran \u2014 and of preventing a nuclear Iran \u2014 terrifies security analysts. Those who argue for a preemptive strike against Iran cannot explain exactly how American planes and missiles would take out all the subterranean nuclear facilities without\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "North Korea"","block_context":{"text":"North Korea","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/north-korea\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6537,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/president-rouhani-and-peace-studies\/","url_meta":{"origin":6527,"position":5},"title":"President Rouhani and Peace Studies","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 23, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0NRO's The Corner\u00a0 There is a long history of foreign authoritarians channeling left-wing talking points when they appeal to an American audience, apparently on the theory that they score points against the American establishment. 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