A September 2008 article in Standpoint, a new conservative news commentary magazine published in Britain, sheds light on the situation in Iran under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: "Iran has tested Western resolve in other blunter ways. It has breached its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and made a mockery of inspections. It supplied weapons to Shia militias in Iraq and the Taliban in Afghanistan . . . It routinely announces that Israel should be 'wiped off the map.'"

Michael Ledeen, Freedom Scholar at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a National Review Online contributing editor, says: "If the Iranians do have a weapon, it is impossible to imagine that, at a moment of crisis, they will not use it. The point is we have an implacable enemy which has no intention of negotiating a settlement with us. They want us dead or dominated . . . There is no painless way out, and the longer we wait the greater the pain is going to be" (Imprimis, October 2008).

The Sunday Times stated that "in the baking heat of the Negev desert [in southern Israel], the Israeli air force's top guns are training for a secret mission . . . In a further indication that this squadron is preparing for conflict, 80 US technicians based at the nearby Nevatim air base in the Negev have installed the world's most advanced X-brand radar system with a range of 1,250 miles, that it will hugely enhance Israel's tactical capacity in the air." One of the pilots said, "We feel the future of Israel isn't safe and we want to do what we can to defend it" (Nov. 23, 2008).