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Israeli PM Ehud Olmert made a comment today that warrants our attention.

Mr Olmert had said on German television: “We have never threatened any nation with annihilation. Iran, openly, explicitly and publicly threatens to wipe Israel off the map. Can you say this is the same level, when they are aspiring to have nuclear weapons, as America, France, Israel, Russia?”

Immediately upon this hitting the internet, of course, Israel’s government began damage control – saying that the comment was being taken out of context. Israel has always had a policy of neither confirming nor denying nuclear capability…but from this quote it looks like now they might be saying that they have it. Simply enough, it’s entirely plausible that it was a mis-speak by Olmert.

But suppose PM Olmert had taken a page of the book of Reagan, and decided to make a comment to bait the enemy, with the intention of essentially saying, “we’re ready to play hardball whenever you are.” Here’s what I am talking about. Of course you can hear the laughter in the background; and Reagan’s handlers came out immediately and said, “it’s a joke, he didn’t know the microphone was on” and such. But that audio, combined with great statements like, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” and referring to USSR as an evil empire, was enough to scare the Soviets into thinking we might just finally be ready to wipe them out if they tried anything. And that brought them to the negotiating table. And it brought about the eventual end of the Soviet Union.

So I am just thinking about this a little. Perhaps Olmert’s trying the same thing. Talk tough. Let Iran know Israel won’t put up with another holocaust. More power to him.