Israel is clearly beating the drum of war in trying to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in the US this week for a meeting with President Barack Obama, begs to differ from his American host by suggesting that Israel may have to go it alone in attacking Iran in the interests of protecting the Jewish state. Coming in the middle of a presidential election year, Netanyahu finds supporters among Republican presidential candidates eyeing the small but crucial Jewish vote.



This effectively leaves President Obama being the lone but all-important voice in Washington in restraining Israel from making the first strike. One would certainly hope that Israel isn’t going to go it alone without the approval, tacit or otherwise, from the United States, the chief guarantor and protector of the Jewish state.



The international community has alread...