WhatsappThe stakes today are higher, but so are the consequences of inaction.
(June 4, 2025 / JNS)
Two disturbing pieces of news. First, reports have emerged that the United States is now prepared to allow Iran to enrich low levels of uranium on its soil. U.S. President Donald Trump is unable to set a clear red line and stick to it. While he denied the story and insisted that the United States will not permit enrichment, his administration’s signals have been maddeningly inconsistent from the start of talks. Meanwhile, Iran has made it clear that sovereign enrichment is its bottom line.
The second story, which should come as no surprise, is that Iran is continuing its nuclear weapons program. While American intelligence agencies continue to publish assessments minimizing the threat, Austrian intelligence reported: “To assert and enforce its regional political power ambitions, the Islamic Republic of Iran is striving for comprehensive rearmament, with nuclear weapons to make the regime immune to attack and to expand and consolidate its dominance in the Middle East and beyond.”
It added, “The Iranian nuclear weapons development program is well advanced, and Iran possesses a growing arsenal of ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear warheads over long distances.”
Even with its limited knowledge of Iranian behavior, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed that Iran’s stockpile of uranium enriched to 60% has surged nearly 50% in three months—more than enough for 10 nuclear bombs if further enriched.
And yet, Trump continues to make less and less credible threats of military action. Some claim he’s wisely giving diplomacy a final chance. Others see why he’s earned the nickname TACO: Trump Always Chickens Out.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has responded with his usual fury, calling on the world to “act now.” The problem is that Netanyahu has been screaming like Chicken Little for more than a decade. And while he is right to sound the alarm, he has been unwilling to act, making him worthy of the moniker NACO: Netanyahu Always Chickens Out.
Indeed, successive U.S. presidents—from Barack Obama to Joe Biden to Trump—have cautioned Israel against striking Iran. But U.S. resistance didn’t stop former Israeli prime ministers Menachem Begin from destroying Iraq’s Osirak reactor in 1981 or Ehud Olmert from leveling Syria’s Al-Kibar facility in 2007. The stakes today are higher, but so are the consequences of inaction. Netanyahu’s hesitations have extended beyond Iran—remember, he preferred to “mow the lawn” to launching serious operations against Hamas until after Oct. 7. It was on his watch that Iran armed Hamas and that Qatar delivered them briefcases of cash. He permitted Hamas to build its underground “metro” system and turned down repeated proposals to eliminate its leadership.
Now, he again lectures the international community about the danger of Iran, which poses an existential threat only to Israel, while having done little to prevent its growth. His speeches to the United Nations and Congress—and everywhere else—with crude photos of bombs and hyperbolic rhetoric have neither deterred the Iranians nor stirred the world to action.
What is Netanyahu waiting for? A green light that may never come from Trump? Is he counting on Trump to carry out his threats? Has he learned nothing from Trump’s abandonment of Ukraine, ceasefire with the Houthis and failure to deliver the promised hellfire against Hamas?
Each day Trump allows Tehran to delay with faux negotiations, Iran edges closer to the nuclear threshold. And if Trump does cut a deal that falls short of eliminating the Islamic Republic’s capacity to build a bomb, Israel will be no safer. Will Netanyahu then risk angering the president by attacking Iran?
Unsurprisingly, Iran is not backing down. They learned from the failure of the West to stop North Korea’s nuclear program. From the mullah’s perspective, Iran is as entitled to a bomb as the other members of the nuclear club. They aspire to return Iran to the glory days of the Persian Empire and expand Shi’ism worldwide. The fastest route is through nuclearization. Also, from their viewpoint, the most effective deterrent to their enemies is a nuclear arsenal that the world believes they may be crazy enough to use. A bomb puts Israel in check and forces its Arab neighbors to accept its fiats.
Israel has warned that the window is closing for an attack. In a rare show of defiance, Israel took out key Iranian air-defense systems. But those can and will be rebuilt. What cannot be undone is the delivery of a warhead to Tel Aviv.
This is the moment of truth. No more bluster. No more empty threats. TACO and NACO must do the one thing neither have had the will to do so far: break their instinct for passivity, end the farce of diplomacy and launch a joint operation to eliminate the Iranian nuclear threat before it becomes irreversible.
