Judas Trees

It's already been decided at the highest levels. Everyone has been promised safe passage - except Israel. Israel will be the first and only target of Iran's nuclear ambition. The world at large, including the U.S., is content to let it happen. Iran has won by attrition. The problems in the Middle East have become needlessly tiresome. It could all be solved if Israel were just to go away.

This is the view of Europe, the Russians, the Chinese and, since the election of Barack Hussein Obama, the United States. Israel will be attacked and the world will bite its lower lip, but do nothing. The only uncertainty remaining is Israel's response.

My view is that Israel will not respond. Its leadership knows that it cannot survive as the world's sole pariah. Responding in kind can only serve to prolong the agony.

The reason it hasn't happened already is that Iran is not yet ready. In the meantime a massive propaganda campaign is underway to demonize Israel. All the familiar radical left-wing groups and figures are busy casting aspersions. They are even hard at work within Israel itself. Conditions are being created similar to those that brought Obama to power. The excuses and blame-shifting after the fact are already in place.

Initially, no one will show much emotion. Only stunned silence will be prevail. Eventually, though, those with some remaining semblance of conscience will find themselves having difficulty sleeping. Remember, it took barely a year for 44% of us to pine for the return of one who was the target of the greatest smear campaign in modern history. Israel too will be sorely missed, especially by her own who plotted against her from within. Like Obama, they won’t find a home among the enemy. Don’t be surprised to see the streets littered with the broken branches of rosebud trees.