The Atlantic’s James Fallows and Jeffrey Goldberg engage in an email conversation about Iran’s nuclear ambitions, what Israel might do about them and the ramifications of this dynamic for the U.S. (Goldberg recently interviewed President Obama on this subject.) Short version: Goldberg believes the current Israeli government is engaging in some magical thinking that, if followed to its logical conclusion, is unlikely to end well.
Part 3 (although labeled “Round 2”; the end, for now).
My utterly uninformed take: I could be wrong, but I bet the Israelis have Mecca and Medina targeted in the event of what Goldberg calls an “extinction-level threat.” And I would be stunned if the Iranians (and other predominantly Muslim countries not friendly with Israel) don’t know this, or at least strongly suspect it. Which makes what Goldberg describes as the Israeli government’s determination to strike against Iranian facilities very, very scary.