I mentioned to you in the episode that we dedicated entirely to this issue, that for Israel,

the threat of Iran is absolutely existential.

Iran has officially committed itself to a policy of destroying the

state of Israel. This is not just something that they chant. This is actually state policy.

Therefore, from the Israeli point of view, preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon is an existential problem. It's existential

for a couple reasons. Some people, I think, place too much emphasis on the potential for Iran

to actually bomb Israel with a nuclear weapon. Of course, that's possible, and Israel doesn't want to

ever be subject to that sort of a threat. But quite frankly, that's possible, and Israel doesn't want to ever be subject to that

sort of a threat. But quite frankly, that's not actually the biggest threat that Israel faces in that

regard. The biggest threat that they face is that Iran is funding all sorts of terrorist

proxies in Israel's neighborhood, financing them so that they can attack Israel with all sorts of

missiles and drones and other sorts of weapons that being close to Israel can actually

penetrate Israeli airspace and cause really major damage. Iran is actually funding all of these

activities. So if Israel wants to stop

these activities, it can't just go after these small-scale actors that are always going to be around

its borders. It actually has to do something that Israelis sort of talk about in the press,

which is cutting off the head of the snake. Or sometimes they which is cutting off the head of the snake,

or sometimes they talk about cutting off the head of the octopus, the octopus, because its tentacles

reach in a whole bunch of places surrounding Israel. In other words, Israel needs to be able to

retaliate against Iran in the event that its proxies hit Iran.

But what's going to happen?

If Iran gains access to a nuclear weapon, Israel will never be able to strike back at Iran for financing its proxies.

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