Analyses
Evil is Not Neutral
By Ha’aretz 23/3/08
Mar 24, 2008 - 11:46:58 AM

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. Senator John McCain, the Republican presidential frontrunner, agree that the Islamic Republic in Tehran is a genuine threat to the security of Israel, the Middle East and even beyond.

  Through its attempts to procure nuclear weapons and its declared ambition to destroy Israel, its active support of Hezbollah and Hamas and its incitement of American forces in Iraq, Iran has proved to be a power that is actively undermining worldwide stability. The international community is obligated to work to stop Iran before it causes a major conflagration.

  Even those who warn against Iran agree that the use of military force against it should be a last resort. The five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, plus Germany, have made it clear to Tehran that it will not succeed in driving a wedge between them - despite Chinese and Russian reservations about a military operation. They have also signaled to Iran that a diplomatic failure will only serve to strengthen those calling for an offensive.    

Merkel, perhaps the most prominent European leader today, is initiating an international conference to discuss the issue. McCain, who will be running in November against the Democratic Party candidate, has dropped signals that should cause Iran's leaders to lose sleep at night: Although President George W. Bush is about to retire, it is quite possible that the next administration will maintain a policy of continuity on the issue of Iran.

In recent months the Bush administration scored two own goals in the complex game against Iran: the National Intelligence Estimate, which determined that Iran had ceased its nuclear planning in 2003, and the public rift with Admiral William Fallon, the commander of Centcom, who objected to Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney's "saber rattling." Of no avail were all the belated excuses of the intelligence report's authors, who claimed it was not their intention to make light of the Iranian danger, but only to point out that external pressure influences decisions in Iran, and that in the two most important channels - the production of nuclear material for warheads and the development of ground-to-ground missiles meant to carry them - Iran is growing stronger.

Fallon, who was forced to resign, depicted Bush and Cheney as warmongers and weakened their standing, although his main intention was internal: a warning that the U.S. Army is stretched to the limit because of involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The new situation created in the wake of the intelligence report and Fallon's statements prepared the ground for negative developments, such as Switzerland's wooing of Iran ahead of a gas deal. Switzerland's behavior is disgraceful. This country, which boasts of its neutrality, stood on the sidelines when the continent on which it is located was torn apart in a world war between Adolf Hitler's forces of darkness and Winston Churchill's forces of light. Now it is exercising its neutrality in the struggle between Iran - which openly favors the destruction of Jews in their own country - and Israel and the free world, which are trying to foil the plot.

Sixty years after the establishment of the State of Israel, Switzerland is closing its eyes to what is so clear to Merkel and McCain. The Swiss have to be aware: Evil is not neutral, and there can be no neutrality exercised toward it. Anyone who is not against it is perforce in favor of it.