This news is deeply upsetting.

Iran’s play though their ally Syria and their proxy Hezbollah is to obviously threaten the civilians of Israel with bombardment, should Israel try to thwart Iran’s atomic weapons ambitions.

This was made possible by a confluence of events.

1. Olmert’s refusal to actually go into Lebanon and clean out Hezbollah when he had the full support of an American Administration to do so. Leaving an undefeated enemy on one’s flank is never a good idea. This is not some form of armchair generalship, this is common sense and a fact of history.

2. The continual demonization of Israel in the international media. Few people will care if Jews get murdered by those missiles.

3. The abject hold over the West, by the Islamic world caused by oil dependence. If we did not need oil, No government would long put up with the antics of the various Muslim dictatorships and theocracies of the Middle East.

4. The Iraq war. If we were not fighting that war now - either if we had not quite the first time (again, leaving an undefeated enemy on one’s flank is never a good idea) or if we had just left Saddam be contained, America would have the capacity to end this immediately and Iran would not see so much opportunity to control Iraqi affairs and further its influence on the region.

This is something that I blame not just on Bush, but also on every single Dem who voted for this unnecessary war. What has happened in Iraq was exactly what was predicted by everyone who was not in a blood lust after 9-11.

5. Obama. I do not want to be fair to him because he is playing fast and lose with the lives of Israelis and betraying one of our closest allies by not supporting them more firmly. However, I will be fair to him. Our military is over extended and our economy can not easily afford the drain of opening a third front. He has to worry about Pakistan if he really wants to end the conflict in Afghanistan, and Iran via diplomatic means because that is his best option. That means that many other interests, who could not give a damn if Israel lives or dies, like Russia and China become part of the picture.

6. In the mean time, Iran has never been bashful about their intentions and continues to march towards nuclear capability while the castrated and uncaring UN allows Iran to create a pincer around Israel through these missiles.

These are very dangerous times.