The shield they will not name, the debt they cannot admit

It is one of the age’s more exquisite and unacknowledged ironies that while Western foreign ministries and their attendant commentariat continue to demand Israeli “restraint,” a different liturgy is recited in the marbled halls and climate-controlled retreats of Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, and beyond. There, where the desert winds are held at bay by walls of reinforced concrete and discretion, a singular, unspoken hope sparks with surprising intensity: that the Jewish state will accomplish what the Sunni Arab order — for all its sovereign wealth funds, advanced fighter jets, and mercenary legions — appears incapable of doing itself: the decisive disruption of Iran’s nuclear designs.

This hope is born of years spent watching the Islamic Republic extend its grip with methodical malevolence. Hezbollah did arm itself on Israel’s border and practically colonised Lebanon. The........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)