As tension between Iran and the US continues, Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen roundly addresses the issue of a double standard between the Iranian and Israeli nuclear programs:
The invocation of the term “double standard” is often applied where Israel is concerned. Israel is presumed to have a nuclear arsenal. Why should the United States look the other way at Israel’s bomb and go nuts over Iran’s effort to get one? The answer ought to be clear: Because Israel has not threatened to blow Iran off the map; because it is vastly outnumbered in a tough, belligerent neighborhood; and because it is the lone real democracy in a region run mostly by thugs….
No one worries about India or Israel making the technology available to terrorists. Everyone worries about Iran doing that. These are distinctions with great differences. They are, as critics charge, double standards, but to apply a single standard to both friend and enemy, while it might be fair, would be singularly stupid.
Meanwhile, USA Today interviewed Lt. Col. Zeev Rav, one of the pilots from the 1981 strike on Iraq’s Osirak reactor.
