Hasbara author David Aaronovitch is pretty much unstoppable. The man who together with the Jewish Chronicle writer Nick Cohen encouraged the war in Iraq, is now warning us about the evolving Iranian bomb. “Wake up”, he urges us in The Times, “this threat is too big to ignore”. As if more than one million Iraqis killed in a war he advocated were not enough, the enthusiastic Hasbara author has a new conflict to propel.

Aaronovitch, who back in 2003 was mobilized by an imaginary threat that was crudely forged by Blair & Co, seems to be shaken again. This time it is the Iranian nuclear threat. “Most experts seem to agree, training the steed is mostly a matter of time.” There is something Aaronovitch is failing to mention. The state that lists him as its ‘Hasbara author’, the state that was recently found complicit in some colossal crimes against humanity, evidently possesses hundreds of nuclear bombs that has kept the entire region in constant red alert for more than four decades. The Jewish state has not signed the non-proliferation treaty and does not let any IAEA inspectors into its nuclear facilities.





Aaronovitch is worried because “there are suggestions from different sources that Iran is indeed researching a weapons capability.” I would ask Aaronovitch, or any other Hasbara operator, to come with an answer to this rather pertinent question: why shouldn’t they?

Iran is threatened by Israel, America and the West on a daily basis. Unlike Israel, a nation spiritually guided by suicidal biblical and historical narratives such as Samson and Masada, Iran’s military nuclear project can only be realised as a defensive one. Iran needs its bombs to deter Israel, America and Britain. Iran is not going to launch a nuclear attack against Israel risking the life of millions of Muslims in the region. It has no reason to do so and it won’t. For Iran and every other state in the region, except Israel, nuclear weapons can only be understood as a means of defence and deterrence.

I would even take it further and suggest that if Iraq had the arsenal of WMD Blair and Bush claimed it possessed, British and American high commanders would have thought twice before sending their soldiers into the Iraqi desert.

Aaronovitch may have learned something though. As yet, he is reluctant to encourage our generals to open a new front. He has a ‘peaceful’ solution to offer. He wants to unite the nations to take care of his interests. “There is still one possibility that could rule out both military action and the spectre of the Guard Bomb”, says the dubious Hasbara man. “That one possibility is united in international action to impose targeted sanctions on the Revolutionary Guard and their political backers, and on the nuclear programme. It would mean agreement by the Russians, the Chinese, the Germans, the French, the Americans and us to occupy a single position.” I once read about a well known Muslim leader who blamed the Jews for “ruling the world by proxy”. He was denounced as an anti Semite and as a conspiracist. As if to prove the Muslim leader right, Aaronovitch clearly expects, once again that the leading powers will restrain the ‘enemy of Israel’.

“Otherwise”, says Aaronovitch, “we could find ourselves facing some great terrible future Chilcot inquiry in which we seek to answer how it was that we failed to stop the last, worst Middle East war.” It is almost amusing to read Aaronovitch attempting to reinvent himself as an ‘anti war’ peace campaigner. But actually, I think that the Chilcot inquiry’s authority should be extended so it can investigate how come an Israeli Hasbara author is allowed to promote foreign interests in our midst.

Whether Iran is aiming towards a nuclear military capability is obviously beyond me. However, after reading Aaronovitch, it should. Iran must produce a bomb as soon as possible. Deterring the Jewish state and its allies is the only key to peace in the Middle East. Sadly it is the only language that is understood.