West on a Collision Course with Iran

It seems to me the chorus of public policy bards, Zakaria and colleagues, supporters of the Obama presidency, think of non-proliferation itself as the First World’s arrogant attempt to lock in the status quo. Why is the West entitled to nuclear monopoly against the rest? If France can have the bomb, without anybody losing any sleep over it, why can’t Iran? As far as they can see, the culprit is Israeli intransigence. The United States commits itself to a bellicose stance, not in its own interest, but to reassure and calm down Israel. Without such assurance, Israel might worry enough about the Ayatollah’s nukes to make an attempt to take them out on its own — and then the world would be in a mess. Not because Iran is building nukes, you understand, but because Israel cannot tolerate them.