Will Israel's Threat to 'Strike' Iran Become Reality?

believes the threat will be realized, while Hanson argues that the US government has very little leverage within Israeli politics and would have limited ability to stop an attack from happening.

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Does Iran possess the ability to produce nuclear weapons? Both Bob Baer and Victor Hanson agree that it does. On the questions that flow from this assertion, agreement is more difficult to find. What does Iran hope to accomplish by developing the bomb? Can the United States live with a nuclear Iran? Can Israel? Israeli Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh in an October interview asserted "If no crippling sanctions are in place by Christmas, Israel will strike...if we are left alone, we will act alone." Does Israel possess the ability to destroy the Iranian nuclear program?

With each month bringing another deception and diversion from Iran, what can the United States do to prevent a conflagration in the Middle East? - Hoover Institution

Robert Baer was a CIA case officer in the Directorate of Operations from 1976 to 1997, where he served in Middle Eastern countries, including Iraq and Lebanon. His latest book is The Devil We Know: Dealing with the New Iranian Superpower.

Victor Davis Hanson is a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, a professor emeritus at California University, Fresno, and a nationally syndicated columnist for Tribune Media Services. He was a full-time farmer before joining CSU Fresno, in 1984 to initiate a classics program.

Peter M. Robinson is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, where he writes about business and politics, edits Hoover's quarterly journal, the Hoover Digest, and hosts Hoover's television program, Uncommon Knowledge.show less...