Israel's Worsening Security Dilemma

Jogging along the Mediterranean coast in Tel Aviv or on Horev Street in Haifa one sees the love Israelis have for their children. Observing a father holding his daughter on his shoulders on the way to school or a mother giggling with her baby girl at a falafel stand reminds me of the fragile nature of these idyllic family scenes. At any moment the peace can be shattered. One has only to visit Israel's border with Lebanon to realize that on the other side are Hezbollah fighters armed with rockets, determined to wipe Israel off the map.
The day I arrived in Israel on a recent trip, the 1000-to-one swap of Hamas terrorists for Gilad Shalit was front page news. While celebrations at Meron, the Shalits' home, took center stage, the security and military leaders of Israel continued to look at a worsening security dilemma for Israel. The country is essentially facing two critical -- and opposing -- timelines. In one the Islamic Republic of Iran acquires the nuclear bomb. In the other, freedom and democracy take root in Iran. Which will it be?
Israel is not alone in its security dilemma. For the Arab states of the Persian Gulf a nuclear Iran could signal the beginning of a policy of blackmail by Tehran and a further weakening of stability in the region. However, the threat to Israel is much more profound. A clerical regime armed with a nuclear bomb poses an existential threat.
The Ayatollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic, made his contempt for Jews clear in all his writings: "From the very beginning, the historical movement of Islam has had to contend with the Jews, for it was they who first established anti-Islamic propaganda... they are wretched people who wish to establish Jewish domination throughout the world." It should therefore come as no surprise that the heirs to Khomeini's legacy call for wiping Israel off the map. They invoke a nuclear-armed Iran as the "beginning of the end of the Zionist state."