The Camel in Yasmin Alibhai-Brown's Room

Now that a secret nuclear facility near the Iranian city of Qom was exposed, Bibi's stock is rising in Israel and around the world.

Except with columnist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown. The Independent columnist would rather equate Iranian nukes with Israel's nuclear program than admit that, perhaps Israel was right about Ahmadinejad's intentions.

On Thursday the US, China, Britain, France, Russia and Germany meet in Geneva and, by that time, Iran will be expected to submit to international scrutiny. As a supporter of the now crushed and broken reformers in Iran, I back the ultimatum to the fanatic and bellicose Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. But what about that camel in the room? The one we all see but can't point out? What about the only power in the Middle East, also fanatic and aggressive, which has a vast stockpile of weapons enough to obliterate the region? Listen people, we need to talk about Israel. And soon. Like now.

What the heck alarms Alibhai-Brown?

Israel has no issues with the people of Iran.
Israel doesn't deny the existence of Iran or the country's legitimacy.
Israel isn't threatening to "wipe out" Iran.

I suspect her urgency stems from a different fear. It's a fear that the West will stiffen its stance on Iran without exacting a price from Israel, i.e., trading settlements for Iran, and/or forcing Israel to open its own nuclear program to international scrutiny.

Think about it. Whether we're talking about settlements for Iran or Israel signing the Non-Proliferation Treaty, Israel would rolled back without any real Palestinian or Arab concessions -- after all, Iran's paying the price.

But with Ahmadinejad's bald-faced lies exposed to the world, Alibhai-Brown has to face the real camel in her room: an opportunity to knock Israel down a peg is based on a bad Iranian check that even the West isn't going to cash.

Posted at 03:26 PM