The Enemy is Iran
by Jeff Jacoby
Jul 21, '06 / 25 Tammuz 5766


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Opening a security conference in Tehran on July 8, Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad exhorted the Islamic world to mobilize against
Israel and "remove the Zionist regime." The nations of the region are
growing furious, he said. "It will not be long before this intense fury
will lead to a huge explosion."

Four days later, Hizbullah terrorists staged a raid across Israel's
northern border, kidnapping two Israeli soldiers and killing eight
more. Over the next day, more than 120 rockets rained down across
northern Israel. Among the communities struck was Haifa, Israel's
third-largest city and home to its busiest port and a large oil
refinery. It was the first time rockets fired from Lebanon had
penetrated so far into Israel; Haifa had been thought to be out of
Hizbullah's range.

Israel replied to Hizbullah's artillery barrages and hostage-taking
with a military invasion, much as it did in Gaza last month in response
to incessant rocket fire and the Hamas kidnapping of Gilad Shalit. In
short order, Israel's warplanes struck Beirut's international airport,
Hizbullah's offices and two Lebanese army bases; the Israeli navy put
Lebanon under a blockade.

And so, by week's end Israel was at war again, this time on two fronts
against two of the most lethal terrorist forces in the world. Except
that the real enemy confronting it is not Hamas and Hizbullah.
Terrorist organizations cannot function without state sponsorship, and
no state anywhere sponsors more Islamist terrorism than Iran.

Was it just a coincidence that Ahmadinejad's prediction of "a huge
explosion" came only days before Hizbullah's assault across the border
and its unprecedented attack on Haifa? Or did the rabid president of
the evil regime that bankrolls Hizbullah with an estimated $200 million
a year know what was coming? It was Iran that supplied Hizbullah with
its immense arsenal of artillery rockets. When Hizbullah launches them
at Israel, it is doing the bidding of its patron.

The same is true of Hamas, which is likewise financed by Iran. The top
Hamas mastermind held a press conference in a Damascus ballroom last
week, where he extolled the Syrian regime that shelters him. Syria is
in turn protected by Iran, with which it signed a military cooperation
pact in June. So, it came as no surprise when Ahmadinejad warned Israel
not to extend its military offensive to Syria, and threatened "a
crushing response" if it did.

Israel has to repair its deterrent threat, which was weakened by the
unilateral retreats from Gaza and southern Lebanon, and by too many
listless responses to terrorist provocations. A sustained assault into
southern Lebanon, one that leaves Hizbullah in shards and Israel's
northern border at peace, would be welcome evidence that the old Israel
is back. And it would represent a significant victory in the worldwide
war against Islamist terrorism.

Gaza, Hizbullah, Iraq, Al-Qaeda - it is all the same fight. "No one
should have any lingering doubts about what's going on in the Middle
East," writes Michael Ledeen, an expert on terrorism and Iran. "It's
war, and it now runs from Gaza into Israel, through Lebanon and thence
to Iraq via Syria. There are different instruments, ranging from Hamas
in Gaza to Hizbullah in Syria and Lebanon and on to the multifaceted
'insurgency' in Iraq. But there is a common prime mover, and that is
the Iranian mullahcracy, the revolutionary Islamic fascist state that
declared war on us 27 years ago and has yet to be held accountable."

Twenty-seven years ago was 1979, the year that Islamist radicals loyal
to the Ayatollah Khomeini invaded the US embassy in Tehran and held
dozens of American diplomats hostage for the next 444 days.
Washington's response was weak and feckless, as it would be time and
again in the years that followed. Only after 9/11 did the United States
finally acknowledge that it was in a war with militant Islam and begin
fighting back in earnest. But not against Iran, which continues,
unscathed and unrepentant, to stoke the terrorist fires. Its goals,
unchanged since Khomeini's day, are to become the dominant power in the
Middle East, to create Islamist regimes worldwide, to annihilate
Israel, and to kill Americans.

We will never win this war, Ledeen and others argue, until the Iranian
theocracy is brought down. That does not have to mean military action.
Our aim instead should be to empower Iran's restive population, which
is largely pro-Western and moderate. Give them as much support as
possible, much as the Reagan administration did for Lech Walesa and
Solidarity in Poland - and let them find the means to reclaim their
government for themselves.

Israel may be able to inflict a punishing defeat on Hizbullah, but
regime change in Tehran will require American resolve. Will we muster
that resolve before - or only after - the mullahs get the bomb?

This article originally appeared in the Boston Globe on Sunday, July
16, 2006.