or western leaders. It might work with Russia too: do you think Putin — with his looted billions, young girlfriend and grotesque venality — wants to die? Not a chance. Not even the criminal Kim Jong-un wishes to perish, marinading, as he does, in the imperial harem with the monstrous privileges he steals from his impoverished people.
Religious fanatics are different. Radically different. They want to die. It’s why it is not just conceivable but probable that an ageing fundamentalist leader would launch a nuclear strike against Israel, and feel closer to Allah as the inevitable response loomed large on the radar screen. Do western commentators still not understand that this is precisely why so many sane Iranians (the majority) are thrilled by the Israeli attack? They know only too well that an Iranian nuclear weapon isn’t only an existential threat to the “Zionists” but, just as surely, to themselves. They would be incinerated in the counterstrike, their lives lost as collateral damage in another person’s sick fantasy.
Wake up, world. Every conversation I had in Israel in February, including with three former PMs, opposition leaders and security experts, circled back to the Iranian threat. Remember, too, that Iran gaining a nuclear weapon would lead instantly to proliferation across the region and the wider world. In other words, it would be the first domino that could, in time, lead to the destruction of humanity. It is why the phrase I keep hearing — that Israel is doing the world a “favour” — is so inadequate. A favour? It is facing reprisals and death for hitting the head of the snake on behalf of us all.
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