A False Alarm in Israel Is a Warning for Biden and the JCPOA
Air-raid sirens near Israel’s Dimona reactor should remind world powers in Vienna that Iran poses a greater threat than its nuclear program.
Nuclear talks in Vienna.
Source: EU Delegation in Vienna via Getty Images
It was a scare fit for a Tom Clancy novel: On Wednesday night air-raid sirens went off near the Israeli nuclear reactor in Dimona. Happily, the services of Jack Ryan were not required. Israeli military officials say it was a false alarm.
But U.S. President Joe Biden would do well to take it as a real warning. Even as his administration contemplates sanctions relief for Iran, the klaxons around Dimona are a sobering reminder that the nearby threat from Iran is not limited to its uranium-enrichment program. Its more conventional military activities in Israel’s neighborhood are a pressing threat that should be front and center in any American diplomatic outreach to the Islamic Republic.