Nuclear scientists in the United States and Israel agree that at most, Iran is now a few weeks away from having enough nuclear fissile material for at least one nuclear bomb. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has expressed frustration with the Iranian behavior regarding the diplomatic process, saying the window for diplomacy is closing “because Iran has been using the time to advance its nuclear program in a variety of ways,” and “I’m not going to put a specific date on it, but with every passing day and Iran’s refusal to engage in good faith, the runway gets shortened.”
Israel is well aware of this, but if diplomacy fails, how serious is the Biden administration about implementing other tools in the toolbox? Will the United States demonstrate a credible threat of military force or even crippling economic sanctions? And at what price? Moreover, for decades now, the Israeli foreign policy establishment has allowed itself to submit to American demands regarding the Palestinian issue because they knew that the larger threat from Iran looming in the East, would necessitate American support.
Now we are reaching crunch time. Has the premise upon which decades of Israeli foreign policy have been predicated proven to be true? And if not, what are Israel’s options? Here to discuss this is Caroline Glick.
About the speaker: Caroline Glick is an American-born Israeli journalist, newspaper editor, and writer. She is the deputy managing editor of The Jerusalem Post and writes for Makor Rishon. She is also the Senior Fellow for Middle East Affairs at Center for Security Policy.
Caroline was born in Chicago and made aliya in 1991. She joined the IDF that summer and served as an officer for more than five years. As an IDF captain from 1994 to 1996, she was coordinator of negotiations with the PLO in the office of the Coordinator of Government Activities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza.
After leaving the IDF, she worked as the assistant to the director-general of the Israel Antiquities Authority. She then returned to geo-politics serving as assistant foreign policy advisor to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu from 1997 to1998.
