Latest news with #ReuelMarcGerecht
Wall Street Journal
3 days ago
- General
- Wall Street Journal
Israel Can't Nix Iran's Nukes
Declaring that it is 'now or never' for Israel to take out Iran's nuclear program, Reuel Marc Gerecht and Ray Takeyh ignore a lesson of the Gaza war: You can't eliminate what you can't find ('Iran Takes Trump's Negotiators for a Ride,' op-ed, May 28). Consider, after months of fighting in the Palestinian enclave, that the massive Israeli effort has yet to uncover all the tunnels and other redoubts secluding Hamas fighters and Israeli hostages. Against the Middle East's geographic Jupiter, could the Israeli air force do a better job in finding and eliminating the totality of Iran's nuclear enterprise? Can it prevent rebuilding, mindful that Tehran reconstituted key elements despite Israel's repeated sabotage? Absent a proficient expeditionary ground force to find, search and destroy all suspect nuclear sites or the use of its nuclear arsenal, 'now or never' Israel doesn't have the capability. Bennett Ramberg
Wall Street Journal
09-03-2025
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
How Trump Channels Reagan in the Mideast
In his March 6 op-ed 'Israel Can't Substitute for the U.S. in the Middle East,' Reuel Marc Gerecht implies that President Trump's intention to stabilize the Middle East by relying more on allies won't work. Only the direct application of American military power, he argues, can check the 'revisionist entente' of China, Russia and Iran. Mr. Gerecht forgets that America won the Cold War in the Middle East precisely in the manner that Mr. Trump proposes. The U.S. became the dominant power in the region during the 1956 Suez Crisis, when President Eisenhower halted the attack by Britain, France and Israel on Egypt, which had aligned with Moscow. The era of massive American military deployments began only in 1990, in response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.
Wall Street Journal
27-01-2025
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
Bombs Alone Won't Stop Iran's Nuclear Plans
Reuel Marc Gerecht and Mark Dubowitz's proposal that Washington grant Israel the bunker-buster bombs to eliminate Iran's nuclear program ignores the lessons of history ('How Trump Can Counter Iran's Nuclear Ambitions,' op-ed, Jan. 23). Military elimination of a nuclear enterprise requires military defeat and, optimally, occupation of the nuclear aspiring nation. Israel doesn't have the capacity, and Washington won't submit itself to another Mideast quagmire. The only air strike that succeeded in nuclear elimination was Israel's 2007 attack on Syria's Al Kibar weapons reactor. Damascus didn't have the resources to rebuild the North Korean engineered plant or to seek an alternative. By contrast Iraq responded to the 1981 Israeli bombing of its Osirak reactor by constructing a secret nuclear enrichment plant. But for the serendipity of the 1991 Persian Gulf War and insertion of international inspectors to ferret out and eliminate elements, Baghdad could have had weapons material within a year. Likewise, the final stake into Nazi Germany's sputtering nuclear enterprise was the Allied victory and occupation followed by program dismantlement and incarceration of scientists.
