World isn't ready for a nuclear Iran

Editor,

"The Assyrian came down, like a wolf on the fold. And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold." (Byron).

Yes, and the Fold was the population of Jerusalem, whom he force-marched to the rivers of Babylon, now Iraq. This psalm indicates their feelings:

"By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down,

We wept, when we remembered Zion.

We hanged our harps on the willows, in the midst, thereof.

For there, they that carried us away captives, required of us a song.

Sing us one of the songs of Zion, they said.

How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?"

Hundreds of years later, 500 B.C., a benevolent King of the Persians, Cyrus, ruled Babylon and he allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem. Jews traveled to all the European countries looking for a better life, and in many of those countries they contributed greatly to the standard of life, while enduring persecution and worse.

There is a saying that if you are so anti-Semitic that were you to deprive yourself of all benefits to humanity, provided by members of the Jewish family, you would be living in the Dark Ages.

There is Jenner, who obliterated small pox from the world; there is Salk who provided us with a vaccination for polio, and Einstein, of course. Who has not danced to a Strauss waltz and how many Jews have been awarded Nobel Prizes for chemistry, physics and science? Many others, too numerous to mention.

Who has not heard of the fighting prowess of the Israelis, who decimated three Middle East armies in six days? Who has not heard of the rescue of their nationals captured in Entebbe?

It is not a stretch of the imagination to assume that the Israelis have many more geniuses in science and physics and technology, and if the time ever comes when they are threatened with harm, then they will protect their homeland with the ferocity of a lioness protecting her cubs, and they will not care about political correctness, Russia, China, Europe or even the U.S.A.

The world is not ready for a nuclear Iran, but there is an apathy among the powers and the U.S. to enforce sanctions. Day by day, we see representatives of Europe, United States and others expressing their objections to the nuclear build-up in Iran, and daily we see them placating and even appeasing.

Meanwhile the radicals are going ahead inserting more rods, and soon it may be too late to do anything about them, as happened with Herr Hitler in the '30s. But do not forget the Israelis. They are first up to be victims, but they will not be an easy target, as her history indicates.

Thomas A. O'Halloran

Polson