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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may seem very different, but they
are united in their apocalyptic religious visions. Their respective
beliefs may be propelling them on a collision course with potentially
horrific consequences.
A pair of more disparate twins hasn't existed since the muscle-bound
Arnold Schwarzenegger and the sharp-tongued, diminutive Danny DeVito
played twins in the Hollywood movie of that name. One, the Israeli, is
tall and thickset and often wears tailored suits. He is a gifted
speaker and a militant anti-Iranian. The other, the Iranian, is short
and slight and is almost always seen wearing an ordinary-looking beige
windbreaker. He tends to be somewhat gauche and is a rabble-rousing
populist and a self-declared enemy of Israel. The two men couldn't be
more different.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, 59, and Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, 52, are twins in spirit, which is not to
imply in any way that they are morally equivalent. Both men are
convinced of the absolute validity of their beliefs, both are obsessed
by what they see as their higher calling, and both are convinced that
theirs is a Messianic mission - a mission to "honor" a religion or
"save" a people.
There is every indication that the coming nuclear negotiations between
Washington and Tehran - if, indeed, they begin in the next few months
with Ahmadinejad still Iranian president - will end in a stalemate by
the end of the year. If that happens, U.S. President Barack Obama will
push for tougher sanctions against Tehran in early 2010, with the
reluctant support of the Russians and Chinese. The leadership in Tehran
will interpret this as an aggressive act and will likely speed up its
uranium enrichment, meaning that Iran will only be a few months away
from having the capability to build a nuclear bomb. At some point next
spring, things could have proceeded so far that the Israelis could
decide, even without Washington's approval, to launch attacks against
Iranian nuclear facilities. The entire Middle East would see thousands
of casualties, and the consequences for the global economy would be
devastating.
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