This is what is wrong with journalists today. In one of NPR’s top five articles on their website, they discuss whether or not Israel will attack Iran. The number one reason why Israel may bomb Iran is as follows:
1. Jewish history. Given the legacy of the Holocaust, no Israeli leader wants to be remembered as the one who let Iran build a bomb and did nothing to stop it. Netanyahu has said repeatedly that he will not let Iran become a nuclear-armed state on his watch. Some Israelis say it would be better to carry out an attack, even if it’s not successful, than to not take action against a state that has called for Israel’s destruction.
Note how the writer turned the most important decision a political leader can ever make–whether to attack anothe country–into an issue of personal pride for Bibi. It isn’t the fact that hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Israelis will die in a nuclear attack by Iran. It isn’t the fact that the Jewish people will have a significant portion of their number wiped out–again–in less than a century. It’s the fact that Netanyahu is thinking of his legacy. Right. Because when he reads the analysis from the Mossad and discusses an Iranian attack with his ministers, the first thing on Netanyahu’s mind is, “How will I look as the leader of Israel if I do this?”
I think the writer is confusing Netanyahu’s leadership with Obama’s.
Snark aside, this is an utterly despicable statement. The primary focus of the leader of Israel is on the survival of the State of Israel. Iran threatens that survival. It has nothing to do with how Bibi wants to be remembered. Backing it up with “Netanyahu has said repeatedly that he will not let Iran become a nuclear-armed state on his watch” gives it the imprimatur of being fact-based. That is such an important statement because it is an existential statement, not because you can use it to back up your contention that Bibi is thinking of his legacy.
This is what I’ve been writing about for nearly a decade: The subtle ways Israel is delegitimized by the media. Even their fear of a nuclear holocaust is put down to personalities, instead of a realistic approach to an enemy that threatens their destruction.
Your objective media, at work.
Look at the other “reasons” as well. It appears that the only reason NPR has for doing something (or not) is because of the political effect it may or may not have. They totally ignore the fact that Iran would attempt to destroy the world if they got the bomb.
Not an important reason to attack Iran: to keep a bunch of psychopathic savages from murdering millions of Jews. No biggie. Been there, done that.