# Iran vs Isreal **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 25, 2005, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iran-vs-isreal/323329 "2005-09-25T12:42:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jeffro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7993a0/32.png) [@Jeffro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeffro)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2005, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iran-vs-isreal/323329/1 "2005-09-25T12:42:48Z")
What would happen if Iran nuked Isreal? Specifically,Tel Aviv. What would anybody do or say? ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2005, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iran-vs-isreal/323329/2 "2005-09-25T12:52:09Z")
> [@Jeffro](#): > > What would happen if Iran nuked Isreal? Specifically,Tel Aviv. What would anybody do or say? I personally would say nothing, be cause I’d be dead (I live 500 yards away from the IDF General Staff HQ - there’s no way’d I’d survive even the smallest nuclear attack). But Israel would probably respond by launching its entire nuclear arsenal on every Iranian population center it could find, because by that point, what would we have to lose? As for the response of the rest of the world… beats me. ---
**Author:** ![unophobia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/41988e/32.png) [@unophobia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/unophobia)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2005, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iran-vs-isreal/323329/3 "2005-09-25T14:50:40Z")
Why would Iran want to do that, especially when their initiated intrigue worked wonders in embarassing Israel and the US when exposed during he last few decades? ---
**Author:** ![ainigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4491bb/32.png) [@ainigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ainigma)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2005, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iran-vs-isreal/323329/4 "2005-09-25T15:17:32Z")
Its the same question as : What would the USA do, if the former USSR had attacked with nukes. Its not a very likely scenario for Iran would be signing the own death warrant. ---
**Author:** ![Jeffro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7993a0/32.png) [@Jeffro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeffro)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2005, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iran-vs-isreal/323329/5 "2005-09-25T15:50:57Z")
> [@ainigma](#): > > Its the same question as : What would the USA do, if the former USSR had attacked with nukes. > Its not a very likely scenario for Iran would be signing the own death warrant. I asked if they did it not if they would do it. The reason I ask is because with China & India becoming almost as big a petrolum users as the USA, the world cant afford to nuke Iran and its oil reserves and they know it! So what the hell would we do? ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2005, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iran-vs-isreal/323329/6 "2005-09-25T15:53:54Z")
Iran doesn’t have that much oil, and even if they did, it’s not like the it would be unrecoverable after being nuked. The oil’s way underground. And even if that were an issue, it’s not one that the Israeli high command would care about. ---
**Author:** ![Jeffro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7993a0/32.png) [@Jeffro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeffro)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2005, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iran-vs-isreal/323329/7 "2005-09-25T16:14:02Z")
> [@Gorsnak](#): > > Iran doesn’t have that much oil, and even if they did, it’s not like the it would be unrecoverable after being nuked. The oil’s way underground. And even if that were an issue, it’s not one that the Israeli high command would care about. Alright, Lets say Iran used enough nukes to wipe out Israelis conventional & nuclear weapons and that any response is going to have to come from the global community not Israel. Theres no way anyone would try to use conventional weapons on a country that has nukes and just used them. And I cant see any country using nukes to respond to anything but a direct attack on themselves which this would not be. I guess that leaves the UN, maybe they could issue a strongly worded statement. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2005, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iran-vs-isreal/323329/8 "2005-09-25T16:18:17Z")
> [@Jeffro](#): > > Alright, Lets say Iran used enough nukes to wipe out Israelis conventional & nuclear weapons and that any response is going to have to come from the global community not Israel. Theres no way anyone would try to use conventional weapons on a country that has nukes and just used them. And I cant see any country using nukes to respond to anything but a direct attack on themselves which this would not be. I guess that leaves the UN, maybe they could issue a strongly worded statement. Which is why Israel also has nuclear-armed submarines. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2005, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iran-vs-isreal/323329/9 "2005-09-25T16:42:59Z")
The rest of the world would react by sending in troops to quell the anarchy and relief workers to help keep the survivors alive. After a nuclear exchange, there wouldn’t be much else left to do. ---
**Author:** ![emacknight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ec8ea/32.png) [@emacknight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emacknight)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2005, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iran-vs-isreal/323329/10 "2005-09-26T04:38:14Z")
I’m actually really curious to hear a real response to this. Thinking beyond the cliched Muslim country vs Israel, what would the world response be to a country using a nuclear weapon? In keeping with the OP, consider the very simplistic situation when a country use a single bomb without a retalitory strike. What would the rest of the world do? Would there be sanctions? A scolding by the UN? Or is a military strike the only option? ---
**Author:** ![Jojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecd19e/32.png) [@Jojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jojo)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2005, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iran-vs-isreal/323329/11 "2005-09-26T05:44:13Z")
> [@](#): > > Iran doesn’t have that much oil, According to the [wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran#Economy) article on Iran: > [@](#): > > Iran is OPEC’s second largest oil producer and holds 10% of the world’s proven oil reserves. It also has the world’s second largest natural gas reserves (after Russia). It would be interesting to jump in a time machine and fast-forward 20 years to when Iran actually has a functional nuclear arsenal to see what happens. Once they’ve got nuclear weapons, do they really intend to embark on a policy of crudely threatening Israel with nuclear war? Just seems a bit of a clumsy long term foreign policy: Get nuclear weapons - threaten people with them. And then the other thing that would be interesting to see (if you used a time machine to jump forward 20-30 years) would be - did they actually use these weapons in a suicidal attack thus destroying Tehran etc in the inevitable counter-attack? Was that their plan all along? It seems pretty certain that they are after nukes. Their protestations about being “entitled” to pursue a peaceful nuclear power program ring a bit hollow when they are sitting on a sea of oil and natural gas. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2005, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iran-vs-isreal/323329/12 "2005-09-26T05:58:17Z")
Honestly, I can see Israel being the first to use Nuclear Weapons in any nuclear exchange it finds itself involved in. Iran is on it’s way to being a superpower thanks to Bush. When things get settled in Iraq, the Shiites will dominate Iran, Iraq and Syria. They are developing greater ties with Russia, China and India already. If there was a nuclear exchange between the two, I think either every country in the world would refrain from taking sides, or it would be Armageddon, and I think both sides know that. Suffice it to say, if there is a nuclear exchange I hope both sides are completely wiped out, so that there is no one left to ally with in that particular conflagration. I believe that what we are seeing in Iraq and Afghanistan is the end to that method of warfare. It’s the rise of the syndicates now, and war will be a sort of high tech mob warfare style. The Bush administration has been employing Mercenaries, who could easily be employed by Halliburton or Coca Cola if the correct price were paid. Ex-Mossad agents are available on the open market to bidders that can afford it and have the right connections. Erek