The Overhyped Threat of Iran

Even as Iran makes bombastic threats to station warships off the U.S. coast and builds missiles to strike Israel, Daily Beast contributor Bruce Riedel argues that Israel still has the edge in the region. The conventional wisdom today holds that a nuclear Iran would diminish Israel’s power and prove a grave threat to its people. But Riedel, former longtime CIA officer, writes that the country’s nuclear arsenal would still be far superior—so advanced that it could take Iran decades to develop anything approaching its strength. What’s more, Israel’s conventional military exceeds that of any other country, and with the U.S. as an ally, that’s unlikely to change. “Don’t let the hot air from Tehran confuse the reality on the ground,” Riedel writes. “Iran is a dangerous country, but it is not an existential threat to either Israel or America.”