"Why Aug. 22 as a date for its announcement regarding its [Iran's] nuclear program? That is when it's said the Prophet Muhammad made his ascension into heaven from the Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem."

 

 Conflict In The Middle East:( From Investors' Business Daily) As a top cleric warns of a strike on Tel Aviv if the West takes action against Iran's nuclear program, it's clear the real winner was not Israel or Hezbollah. It's Tehran.

Mark your calendar for Aug. 22 and Aug. 31. Aug. 22 is supposed to be the day Iran announces whether it will accept a package of Western incentives in exchange for giving up its nuclear enrichment program. Not likely. The Weekly Standard's Bill Kristol calls this "Bugs Bunny diplomacy" — all carrot.

Iran won't be deterred from a nuclear weapon, certainly not after a war that began with a pledge to destroy Hezbollah ended with what Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice calls the "status quo ante."

We saw, and Iran saw, Israel's failure. We don't know if it was because Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is not a general as his predecessors were, or because the campaign was run by an air force officer, or that Israel was unprepared for a war without massed armies opposing it. The result was the same.

We caved and agreed to Munich II, commonly known as Resolution 1701, kicking the can down the road just to show we "did something" about peace in the Middle East. But the next time Hezbollah attacks, an Iranian nuke may be targeted on Tel Aviv.

Before Hezbollah's unprovoked, scripted attack on Israel sparked the conflict, Aug. 31 was supposed to be the date the powder-blue helmets at the U.N. were to impose sanctions on Iran for pursuing a nuclear weapon. Now it's only the date when the U.N. will consider sanctions.

Iran got what it wanted out of the war. Neither G-8 leaders nor the U.N. Security Council spent much time thinking about the Manhattan Project of Hezbollah's sugar daddy, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Mad Hatter of Iran, who has pledged to wipe Israel off the map.

Hezbollah refuses to disarm, and the U.N. still isn't going to stop resupplies of rockets from Syria and Iran. It will have 15,000 observers who will stand and watch, instead of just 2,000 who've been standing and watching for the last six years.

Which begs the question: If Hezbollah can't be stopped from obtaining Katyushas, how can Iran be stopped from building, and using, a nuclear-armed missile against Israel?

On Aug. 8, in the city of Ardebil, Ahmadinejad said in a televised speech: "Today, we are fully mastering the nuclear fuel cycle for our peaceful atomic activities. . . . No one can take it from us." Of course, his definition of peace is the absence of Israel from the surface of the earth. Under Iran's system of clerical rule, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has the final say on matters of state, and he said earlier Iran will not yield to pressure.

Another top Iranian cleric, Ahmad Khatami, caught up in the excitement of Hezbollah's "victory" over Israel in Lebanon, warned: "If they (the U.S. and Israel) want to carry out aggression against Iran, they should be afraid of the day that our 2,000-kilometer (1,250-mile) range missile will hit the heart of Tel Aviv."

Khatami , a prayer leader (we kid you not) and member of Iran's Assembly of Experts (again, we're not making this up), the body that supervises the work of Supreme Leader Khamenei, noted: "The 70-kilometer (43-mile) range Hezbollah missiles (have already) turned Israeli cities into ghost cities." Blessed are the peacemakers.

Why Aug. 22 as a date for its announcement regarding its nuclear program? That is when it's said the Prophet Muhammad made his ascension into heaven from the Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

Ahmadinejad envisions himself as the one who will hasten the return of the 12th Imam, who Shiites believe will return at the end of time by destroying Israel and initiating global war. Ahmadinejad has told us what he intends to do, just as Hitler did. Is anybody listening this time?