Letters: Don't heed Israel's tough talk
Newsday speaks wisely, though excessively softly, in criticizing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's blatant incursion into our presidential race and his eagerness to get America involved in attacking Iran ["Israel amps up Mideast tension," Editorial, Sept. 18]. Obviously, Netanyahu is willing to fight to the last drop of American blood to defend Israel.
I know that President Barack Obama must be cautious when addressing issues in the Middle East, but my gut reaction, and I suspect the reaction of millions of Americans, is, if the Israelis want war with Iran, let them fight it. If Israel thinks it can attack with impunity a nation of nearly 80 million people and not suffer serious consequences, then let it learn the hard way.
Joseph D. Policano, East Hampton
In deriding President Barack Obama's supposedly feckless approach to Iran, columnist Charles Krauthammer ignores the "Wag the Dog" scenario at play ["Obama is too feckless about Iran," Opinion, Sept. 16].
Though the Jewish state is indeed an oasis of freedom, democracy and dissent amid a desert of despotic regimes, Tel Aviv's national interest is not necessarily identical to Washington's. Yet Israel manages to sway U.S. foreign policy in ways inimical to long-term peace and stability in the Middle East.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains a master practitioner of the patron-wagging arts. An articulate, media savvy politico, he employs apple-pie oratory to woo the Fourth Estate, Congress and even the American public. Hence Bibi's shrill scolding of the United States for not drawing a "red line" on Iran's nuclear program.
Netanyahu refuses to acknowledge that Iran has neither the capacity nor the will to attack the Jewish state. The reality is that Tehran remains a creaky third-world theocracy with insufficient technological prowess to pose a nuclear threat to anyone in the Middle East. Equating such a state with pre-World War II Germany is more than a little specious.
In truth, the existential danger to Israel lies in its obstinate refusal to allow a viable, contiguous and sovereign Palestinian state.
Rosario A. Iaconis, Mineola
