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To the Editor:

The conflict between Israel and Iran is a complex, high-stakes game involving profound ideological differences, nuclear weapons programs, and the desires for regional dominance and control in the Middle East.

Since the 1979 Iranian Revolution, tensions between the two countries have been exacerbated by allegations that Iran would like to see Israel destroyed. Iran does not view Israel as legitimate since what is now considered Israel was once Palestine prior to 1948.

Under the Obama Administration in 2015, Iran embraced the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which placed limitations on its nuclear program and encouraged Iran to use its program peacefully, such as for limited enrichment of uranium to a maximum of 3.67 percent purity, sufficient for the use of nuclear power in a civilian capacity, as opposed to around 90 percent, considered weapons-grade.

According to the New York Times’ “Trump Abandons Iran Nuclear Deal He Long Scorned,” President Trump, in May 2018, said that withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal sends a message that “the United States no longer makes empty threats.”

Iran, Britain, Germany, and France decided to remain in the deal. Further, Israel continues to believe that Iran wants nuclear weapons to use against the Jewish state in the future. Contrariwise, Iran insists it has a right to nuclear power and limited uranium enrichment. If it is okay for the United States, Russia, Israel, India, Pakistan, and various European nations to have nukes, then Iran should have access. The presence of nuclear weapons internationally serves as a deterrent for leaders who may otherwise seek to play Pac-Man with neighboring or weak countries.

The fact that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is playing with fire notwithstanding, he really should be behind a prison cell given the numerous high-level crimes he reportedly has committed in Israel. Besides, since Trump is President of the United States, despite having been convicted of thirty-four felonies, I am not shocked that Netanyahu is still Prime Minister. By the way, the best way to deal with a bully like Netanyahu is to punch him in the nose.

If I were President of the United States, I would invite Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian to a state dinner full of pomp and circumstance and focus–in the Jimmy Carter tradition–on how to build a lasting peace in the Middle East. Similarly, I would tell Netanyahu that if he sabotages such peaceful efforts, I would withhold military assistance from his country and seek punitive sanctions.

On a bitterly cold Inauguration day on January 20, 1961, President Kennedy (JFK) vociferously uttered, “So let us begin anew–remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof. Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.”

Additionally, in terms of the Israel-Iran conflict, Kennedy, in that same speech, made a fundamental proposition: “Let both sides, for the first time, formulate serious and precise proposals for the inspection and control of arms–and bring the absolute power to destroy other nations under the absolute control of all nations.”

Israeli/US bombing of Iran will undermine world peace for decades.

Keith W. Cooper

Greenville, NC