Rarely a day goes by without either another scary or even a “reassuring” headline about Iran’s nuclear ambitions. What is the Western world really doing to stop Iran? Not enough, says Dr. Michael Widlanski, whose newest book shows chillingly how the politics of wishful thinking has replaced analysis of hard and cold facts.
To the uninitiated a recent headline in Israel’s Hebrew-language Yedioth Aharonoth newspaper quoting a New York Times report that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has not yet approved construction of a nuclear weapon was meant to bolster the views of those who contend there is still time to deal with the Iranian nuclear threat. But to Dr. Michael Widlanski a veteran commentator about Arab politics Israeli negotiator and author of Battle for Our Minds: Western Elites and the Terror Threat the headline was just the latest in a 40-year comedy of errors by Western officials media and academia to minimize the true nature of radical Islam and the true nature of the countries controlled by Islamist groups.
“Whether Iranian scientists are trying right now to build a nuclear weapon is not an esoteric academic question but just a matter of common sense” Widlanski tells Mishpacha. While taking a break from a round of promotional engagements for the new book he said the current media blitz about whether or not Israel will attack the Islamic Republic merely serves to blur the fundamental principle that should be guiding Israeli and Western policy makers.
“The basic facts of the case here are not in dispute: Iran is a radical Islamic regime that has made clear it wants to destroy the ‘Great Satan’ (the United States) and the ‘Little Satan’ (Israel). That regime is building the technology it needs to carry through on that threat. Those are the only facts needed to decide whether and how to ensure the regime never realizes its goals in this area.”
Unfortunately Western security and intelligence officials are unlikely to take the Iranian threat seriously Widlanski said. His new book is a painful outline of the failure of the international community to take similar threats seriously since at least the 1970s. From Iran to al-Qaeda to Palestinian groups and more he said American and European academics media types and officialdom have willingly closed their eyes to the true nature of radical Islam with devastating results.
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