Peta Credlin: Why Trump should help Israel do the world’s work
Iran must be stopped, and that’s why Israel is doing the world’s work and why Trump should not chicken out of doing what only the United States can, writes Peta Credlin.
Opinion
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For years the world has debated how to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. It’s tried to negotiate with them and stupidly paid them billions to stop (which they didn’t). And then it’s threatened them, which for a country run by Islamic fundamentalists who cheer death, that hasn’t worked either.
So now we are at the point where, faced with a regime that literally wants to blow them off the face of the map, it is Israel that has taken them on and done more in one week that the UN and western nations combined. And yet, because it’s Israel, there’s been as much criticism as gratitude.
On Friday, US President Donald Trump said he would give Iran two weeks to agree to a nuclear disarmament deal, or he would act (tellingly, his deadline falls on the 4th of July which for a man who loves patriotic symbols that’s no accident). If they don’t, the US will hit Iran’s main nuclear bunker at Fardow that (experts say) the Israelis lack the “bunker-busting” weaponry to penetrate.
The big question now is what will Trump do? Will he be seduced by the prospect of an 11th-hour deal that Iran will just ignore, as so many of his predecessors have done? Or will he finally finish off what Israel has bravely (and with great precision) started, that is not just about protecting them, but the wider world?
Perhaps the two week “cooling-off” period Trump has declared is to give the US Navy time to position itself, and time to persuade the isolationist MAGA wing of his supporter base that he’s done everything to avoid a further military entanglement in the Middle East; and not a former New York property developer thinking that everything is negotiable.
The idea that oil-rich Iran somehow needs nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is laughable, especially as nuclear power does not require the highly enriched uranium that Iran admits it’s seeking and which the International Atomic Energy Agency’s inspectors on the ground testify it’s been creating. There’s only one reason for the Iranian nuclear program: to intimidate all its neighbours while spreading the world Islamic revolution.
This is why Iran must be stopped, and that’s why Israel is doing the world’s work – thank God – and why Trump should not chicken out of doing what only the United States can. Besides, the Israeli campaign, as well as destroying much – but not all – of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure has also severely degraded Iran’s air defences so that any US bombing mission would be much less risky now than at any other time.
What’s more, most of the rest of the Middle East – Saudi Arabia, Egypt, The Gulf States (less Qatar) and Jordan – while they might ritually protest, would be massively relieved were the Iranian nuclear threat to be eliminated. Because, given its different branch of (Shia) Islam, Iran is as much committed to destroying them over time as all other non-Muslim infidels.
Indeed, as well as heralding a new holocaust for Israel, Iran going nuclear would be the end of non-proliferation, as the Saudis and the Turks race for a bomb of their own.
By contrast, decisive action would not just make the Middle East vastly safer but would be a “Don’t mess with America” warning to Moscow and Beijing against further adventurism.
Just how strong Trump really is, and whether his presidency should be judged well or not, will become apparent in the course of the next fortnight.
But there’s a further resonance here for Australia. If the US is hesitating, what does that say about its reliability as the ultimate guarantor of Australia’s security?
The real reason for Anthony Albanese’s decision to skip NATO would not have been uncertainty about getting a meeting with the President but the PM’s unwillingness to fraternise with other national leaders all committed to raising their military spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP and beyond.
At 2 per cent, Australia is an embarrassing lightweight and Albanese’s refusal to spend more to protect this country is now almost criminally culpable. With the US demand that western nations stop freeloading off the US, every serious country now knows that it will have to do more for its own protection and have boosted spending as a result.
The one country that’s wilfully refused to read the memo from Washington is us.
THUMBS UP
■ The US Supreme Court that has moved to stop the practice of allowing children to change their gender. So why is Australia now lagging behind the UK, US and the rest of the world?
THUMBS DOWN
■Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ speech last week that warns new taxes are on the way because Labor can’t manage money.
Watch Peta on Credlin on Sky News, weeknights at 6pm
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