One motive behind the attacks in New Delhi and Tbilisi was Iran’s desire to deter the West from a strike on its nuclear facilities.
By JPOST EDITORIALExploded car at Israeli New Delhi embassy in India 390R(photo credit: REUTERS/Parivartan Sharma)
Thankfully, the terrorist attacks staged in New Delhi and Tbilisi and orchestrated by Iran’s mullah regime with the help of its proxy Hezbollah were not fatal. Tal Yehoshua-Koren, the wife of an Israeli diplomat, was hurled out of her car from the impact of the bomb attached to the vehicle. Her condition was described as serious but improving.Family members in Israel said that under the circumstances, it was “miraculous” that she and her driver, Manoj Sharma, had not been killed.Meanwhile, in Georgia, a bomb targeting a non- Israeli employee of the Israeli Embassy there was discovered before it went off.Israel’s good fortune held out on Tuesday after an apparent “work accident” resulted in the premature explosion of a bomb that Iranian agents were preparing in Bangkok. Saeib Morabi, who attempted to escape after the explosion, threw a grenade at police in hot pursuit. The grenade bounced off a tree, landed near Morabi and blew off the man’s legs.But Israel cannot continue to rely on flukes and miracles.The Islamic Republic and Hezbollah have proven in the past that they are capable of carrying out murderous terror attacks – not just against Israel. Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh was responsible for the 1983 US Marine barracks bombing in Beirut that killed 241 American servicemen and 58 French paratroopers, and the 1983 US Embassy attack that killed 60 people in the same city.Four years ago Sunday, Mughniyeh was taken out of service, decapitated when the headrest of his car seat exploded while he was driving in Damascus. Indeed, the recent spate of attacks was timed to coincide with the anniversary of his death.But Hezbollah is just a proxy for Iran, the world’s biggest state sponsor of terrorism. Iran’s mullahs were behind the bombing of Buenos Aires’s AMIA Jewish community center and the Israeli Embassy there in the 1990s.Revolutionary Guard operatives and their Shi’ite collaborators have been a destabilizing force in Iraq, murdering US troops and Sunni Iraqis there. Iran also supports anti-Western forces in Afghanistan and smuggles arms and missiles to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.Tehran has joined forces with Syrian President Bashar Assad to brutally put down that country’s popular uprising. Iran is apparently also behind the failed attempt to murder the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States.
Condemnation of the attacks in New Delhi and Tbilisi came from across the board. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on Indian and Georgian authorities to “investigate these incidents and bring the perpetrators to justice.”US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton indicated the US was ready to assist with the investigation of “these cowardly acts.” Clinton also said that America’s “thoughts and prayers” were with Yehoshua-Koren and Sharma and their families.UK Foreign Secretary William Hague also called to investigate the “deliberate attacks” and added that British citizens’ “thoughts” were with the wounded and their families.HOWEVER, INVESTIGATIONS, prayers and thoughts are not enough. It has become abundantly clear that Iran is a menace to the West. The violent rhetoric of the Islamic Republic’s official leaders and their active support for terrorist attacks both in the region and around the world cannot be dismissed merely with empty condemnations. Covert attacks and the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists have so far been restricted to delaying Iran’s progress toward developing nuclear weapons. But after the recent spate of attacks, a new, more aggressive response should be coordinated among Western nations.Military sources told The Jerusalem Post’s Yaakov Katz Monday that one of the motives behind the attacks in New Delhi and Tbilisi was Iran’s desire to deter the West from a military attack on its nuclear facilities by showing that its proxy – Hezbollah – could spread its terrorist tentacles anywhere it wanted, even as far away as Georgia and India.A fierce Western response to these attacks, in contrast, would send a counter-message to the mullahs in Tehran: Just as tentacles can spread out, they can also be amputated.
