Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu was officially sworn in as Israel's new Prime Minister yesterday. And while some of his Cabinet members are already making waves for telling unpleasant truths--but truths nonetheless--Netanyahu has made no serious waves thus far. I'm personally highly optimistic about Bibi's ascension to PM for a number of reasons--not least of which is his longstanding grasp of the dire seriousness of the Iranian threat. Here's a sample, from the Jersusalem Post:
"Iran is a composite leadership, but in that composite leadership there are elements of wide-eyed fanaticism that do not exist right now in any other would-be nuclear power in the world. That's what makes them so dangerous," he said. "Since the dawn of the nuclear age, we have not had a fanatic regime that might put its zealotry above its self-interest. People say that they'll behave like any other nuclear power. Can you take the risk? Can you assume that?"
Netanyahu cited Teheran's tactics during its protracted war with Iraq in the 1980s as evidence of irrational behavior on the part of Iran. "[They] wasted over a million lives without batting an eyelash," he said. "It didn't sear a terrible wound into the Iranian consciousness. It wasn't Britain after World War I, lapsing into pacifism because of the great tragedy of a loss of a generation. You see nothing of the kind."
Read the entire piece. In the meantime, here is more on those million lives Iran horrifically wasted during its war with Iraq on orders from the Ayatollah Khomeini--including thousands of children.