Mr. Chairman: The moment of truth is approaching

In November 2006, when I held a ministerial position in Ariel Sharon's government and was responsible, among other things, for strategic dialogue with the US, I stood at the head of the Israeli delegation preparing for a meeting in Washington.

As is customary, prior to our departure to the US, the delegation was called in for a final briefing with Prime Minister Sharon. We presented to him a list of topics that were on our agenda to be discussed in the US.

We described in detail the Israeli positions as consolidated in discussions by our team, composed of senior officials from the Foreign Ministry, the Prime Minister's Office, the Defense Ministry, the IDF and the Mossad.

The prime minister did not have much to add, save on one particular subject: "I instruct you to clarify, politely but firmly, that Israel will never accept an Iran with nuclear capabilities. It is not necessary to detail what this means exactly but it should be crystal clear to them: we will not allow for a nuclear Iran"

Two years have passed since. In Israel, Sharon no longer sits at the wheel. In the US, President Bush has but a year left in his position. Teheran continues to defy the whole world and persists in its efforts to attain nuclear capabilities. The moment of truth is approaching quickly where the Israeli leadership will be left asking if it was left alone. Are there any international forces left who remain steadfast to act without hesitating, including by means of military power, to destroy the Iranian bomb?

Developments in the last few years with regards to the issue of a nuclear Iran tend to not be optimistic. The decline of US power following complications in Iraq; the positions of Russia and China which hinder international diplomatic efforts to stop Iran; the hesitancy of central European governments to strengthen sanctions on Teheran; the skyrocketing price of oil which provides Ahmadinejad and his regime with unlimited financial power; the political weakness of Bush's Republican Party, forced to maneuver a hostile Democratic Congress and a skeptical public; and the cynical steps taken by IAEA director ElBaradei all make things easier for the Iranians and serve to buy time.

Despite the negative path the matter seems to be taking, I must point out two rather positive developments; first, the international community is exposed to the malicious and unstable regime of the Ayatollahs and Iran's President with his reckless tongue-wagging, his Holocaust denial and his promise to wipe Israel off the map.

The second development: in France, Nicolas Sarkozy was elected president and from the very first moment has held a firm and uncompromising stance on Iran's nuclear aspirations, which is a drastic change from the naïve and self-serving position Europe has taken on the issue thus far. There is a fair chance that as soon as early 2009, the White House would witness an administration change.

By the end of 2009, according to estimates by the Israeli intelligence community, Iran is likely to have closed the gap between making efforts to develop nuclear weapons and actually possessing them. Therefore, it is very possible that between early 2009 and its end, Israel would have reached the conclusion that the rest of the world, including the US, is actually coming to terms with the acquisition of a weapon of mass destruction by a fanatical and unrestrained Shi'ite regime.

Accordingly, Israel will have to make very careful and difficult considerations. Very few leaders, those of Israel included, stood facing such a fateful decision: whatever decision one makes in such cases, it will shape, for better or worse, the future of the state and influence its existence.