Pollak: Ukraine Invasion Means Israel Likelier to Launch Preemptive Strike on Iran

The Russian invasion of Ukraine will have far-reaching effects beyond Europe, and could push Israel to launch a pre-emptive strike against Iran, rather than wait for the regime to develop nuclear weapons that it could use to wipe out the Jewish state.

Israel, like Ukraine, is a Western ally, but is not a member of NATO. Though it has historically enjoyed far more direct and extensive military support from the U.S. than Ukraine has, it knows that it could be essentially alone in a defensive war.

With the Biden administration doing all it can to resurrect an Iran nuclear deal that already allowed Iran to resume nuclear research by the mid-2020s, Israel will likely realize the only way to stop a nuclear Iran is to take matters into its own hands.

Ukraine waited to see if Putin’s threats were real, and now it fighting for its survival, alone. Israel can’t afford to wait to see if Iran’s threats are bluster, or to allow the US to “exhaust all diplomatic options.” The alternative to preemption is extinction.

— Eugene Kontorovich (@EVKontorovich) February 24, 2022

The Israeli Air Force (IAF) has already let it be known that it is training for a possible future attack on Iran, and might enjoy the benefit of airspace over Saudi Arabia, which has already begun allowing safe passage to Israeli commercial flights.

Ironically, the Middle East may already have played a role in the hostilities in Europe, with Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan indicating to Russia that the U.S. administration was neither willing nor competent to respond to an attack on Ukraine.

Israel, with no geographic strategic depth, is unlikely to allow itself to be placed in mortal danger.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

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