Benny Morris is insane

Remember back in class six when you had to spend hours writing précis of boring English passages that should never have been written in the first place? I felt like writing a précis of this op-ed by famous Israeli historian Benny Morris, in the NYT simply because the full impact of the craziness of his argument is best evident in 300 words or less.

1. The primary assumption defining Morris' argument is hidden deep within page 2 of the article. He considers the regime in Iran to be so crazy, so devoid of the collective sense of self-preservation, that compared to it, the Kremlin of the Cold War was "moderate". Thus, the concept of deterrence, which even my cat with a brain the size of a walnut can understand through my judicious threats of using a spray bottle on him, is useless when it comes to Iran.[1]

2. As a result of this premise, Morris states that there is a universal consensus in Israel that a conventional attack on Iran's nuclear facilities is necessary within 4-7 months.

3. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that Israel, which does not possess the weapons or intelligence capability of the US (which, Morris reproachfully states, is being too "ambivalent" about Iran to be counted on to help), will actually be able to successfully wipe out Iran's arsenal.

4. Therefore, the world should just hope that Israel is successful because otherwise, there is almost certainly going to be a nuclear conflict in the Middle East.

Conclusion: Israel is like a really, really bad chess player. You know the kind that gets checkmated while planning a really stupid attack based on the premise that his opponent is mentally retarded or seriously unhinged. But somehow you know it's still going to be ok for the US and Israel, because they, the Pakistan army, and your annoying little cousin, are the only players who get to whine and "take back" all their moves and still win in the end.

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[1] This is a really interesting topic by itself and is related to the belief that modern Islamic societies are just a collective version of a suicide bomber.