It’s far more likely that Isreali intelligence would give them plenty of time to bomb the stuffing out of an Iranian nuke facility than Iran actually getting a nuke and using it on Isreal. Isreal would start World War 3 before allowing Iran to get a nuke, and I’m not sure you can blame them for that mindset.
But for you I’ll make it 150! 
Uh, missiles?
Correct me if I’m wrong here…but Israel has never claimed to have nuclear weapons that could tip such a missile nor is there any proof that they do. It all amounts to speculation afaik anyway. The article you linked to however says definitely that Israel not only has nuclear weapons (without ever doing a test) but has yield/weight classes of weapons.
I use Wiki myself all the time…but this article seems VERY speculative to me.
-XT
Well, obviously the Israelis aren’t blabbing about their nuclear program, but it is a very open secret that they have a nuclear option. FAS has a run down of the evidence available through open source information, including a 1999 DIA estimate of 60-80 warheads.
Maybe. It COULD just be another WMD thingy a la Saddam post GWI though. One of those rumors that Israel has sort of winked and nodded at…even when they actually have no such capabilities (it would be in their best interest to have their neighbors THINK they had these things, right?).
AFAIK Israel has never tested a nuclear weapon…and that alone puts in in the skeptical camp, ‘open secret’ or no. Most other nations who have gone beyond the theoretical stage to actually building one of these things has tested them at one point or another. And to get them small enough to fit on a rocket either Israel would have to get them from the US or do some testing (or get the very specific test data from the US I suppose).
Regardless I doubt Israel would launch nukes to try and hit unexpended Iranian nuclear tipped missiles after a strike such as described in the OP…mainly because I think IF Iran had nuclear tipped missiles and IF they launched a first strike on Israel they would toss everything they had in an attempt to put Israel out of the game right off the bat. To which I think the world would pretty much call for the immediate and unconditional surrender of Iran…or wipe them out conventionally. The world would have no choice…
-XT
I suppose it would be preferable if the nuclear warhead detonated and impaired Israel’s ability to retaliate causing a major upheaval in the middle east. :eek: :rolleyes:
Israel would launch the nukes that are already targetting Qom and Tehran. The US carrier fleet would be scrambled immediately, and take out all Iranian military infrastructure.
This is while the missile is still over Iraq.
Nevermind that it’s harder to make a missile that could hit Israel from Iran than it is to make a functioning nuclear warhead. The warhead is easy, it’s the nuclear material that’s hard.
I think that if the scenario in the OP were to happen, I predict that night light sales in Iran would go in the shitter, as the whole damn country would be glowing in the dark.
Let’s hope we never find out who is correct.
Most in this thread seem to think that Iran attacking Israel would be utterly irrational, and so it would not happen in real world terms, but look at it in overall strategic terms. Israel is fairly tiny as nations go. How hard would it be to cripple the densely populated population centers?
Forget about an initial nuclear attack for a moment. With the technology available to them could the Iranians hypothetically mount a *conventional * surprise unilateral missile attack that effectively cripples Israel militarily?
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Israel is likely to go scorched Earth on pretty much everyone if Israel were to be destroyed.
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I doubt Iran has the capability to remove Israel’s second strike capability
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As I said, Israel would retaliate while the missiles were in transit
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The United States would destroy Iran utterly within the next day or two.
Something I think people don’t give enough thought to on this is the religious dimension. If the existence of Israel is threatened, like in a real and absolute way, it is likely that a religiocide against Muslims would be carried out. This of course fits perfectly within Christian eschatonian principles. It would only be the righteous thing to do to avenge the death of the Jews. A strike against Tel Aviv would only remove the Persians as a serious and distinct ethnicity on the planet. The destruction of Israel would probably remove Islam as a significant world actor.
I have never heard of any leaders of any predominantly Christian or Jewish country calling for “religiocide” against Muslims. However, there are numerous examples of Muslim leaders calling for a religiocide against Jews, among others. I refer here to eminent Muslims like that grinning Iranian loon who thinks that a little man is about to pop out of a well in Tehran any day now and bring destruction and peace to the world; the thugs who control the bifurcated Palestinian territories; Syria; parts of Lebanon and Arabia.
Perhaps you should study some of the eschatonian principles contained in Muslim holy writings before worrying about Christian eschatology.
It would have been a wonderful thing if the people of this planet had concentrated on immamentizing the eschaton. Alas, the people of the twenty first century have, instead, somehow ended up heading into the kind of socio-religious nightmare never imagined by even the zaniest science fiction writer of the previous century.
Did you even read my post? There was a particular point that was essential. That was the destruction of Israel. Israel doesn’t call for religiocide, but they talk about defending Israel by any means necessary.
Perhaps you should study Christian eschatology where the destruction of Israel is one of the main signs of the apocalypse and the beginning of Armageddon.
Please, religious conflict is at an all time low.