Suggested Answers to the First Short Quiz

[johnkarls]

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Suggested Answers to the First Short Quiz – Quo Vadis, Israel ???


Question 1

Is “Quo Vadis” the title of MGM’s famous 1951 epic movie set in Ancient Rome during the reign of Nero (who famously played his violin while Rome burned)?

Answer 1

Yes.

[It was nominated for 8 Oscars but won none. However, Peter Ustinov won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor (Golden Globes usually predict Oscars, but not in this case).]

Question 2

Did “Quo Vadis” star, inter alia, Robert Taylor, Deborah Kerr, Leo Genn and Peter Ustinov?

Answer 2

Yes.

Question 3

Is “Quo Vadis” Latin for “where are you going”?

Answer 3

Yes.

Question 4

Is, therefore, “Quo Vadis, Israel” a legitimate question to ponder upon encountering “Target Tehran: How Israel Is Using Sabotage, Cyberwarfare, Assassination – and Secret Diplomacy – to Stop a Nuclear Iran and Create a New Middle East”?

Answer 4

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 5

After all, didn’t we just focus two months ago for our Dec 13 meeting on “The Samson Option: Israel’s Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy” by Pulitzer Prize Winner Seymour Hersh?

Answer 5

Yes.

Question 6

And didn’t we marvel in December re how secretive Israel has been about its nuclear-weapons program both before and since the 1973 Yom Kippur War in which those nuclear weapons enabled Israel to avoid becoming the answer to a trivia question – What WAS Israel?

Answer 6

Yes.

The Israeli Government calls it “strategic ambiguity.”

Question 7

So is “Target Tehran” a quasi-official “coming out of the closet” for Israel???

Answer 7

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 8

After all, doesn’t the description of “Target Tehran” on its dust jacket claim it reveals “documents stolen from Tehran in a daring SECRET MOSSAD RAID”? And that it draws “on interviews with top confidential Israeli and U.S. sources, including from THE MOSSAD and the CIA”?

Answer 8

Yes.

Question 9

And doesn’t the back cover of the “Target Tehran” dust jack contain laudatory quotes from –

• Danny Yatom – former chief of Mossad and Member of Knesset (Labor)?
• Moshe Ya’Alon – former Israeli Defense Minister and Military Chief?
• Danny Ayalon – former Israeli Ambassador to the United States?

Answer 9

Yes.

Question 10

In the wake of all the secrecy both before and since “The Samson Option,” would it be possible for “Target Tehran” to be more official considering the sources of its contents and the identity of the three laudatory commentators than if “Target Tehran” had instead been emblazoned with the title - “Official Record of the Israeli Government – How We Are Using Sabotage…”?

Answer 10

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 11

Could part of the explanation be that “The Samson Option” was an unauthorized account about, inter alia, ISRAEL’S NUCLEAR CAPABILITIES at the time of the 1973 Yom Kippur War – while “Target Tehran” is an apparently-authorized current account ABOUT IRAN’S NUCLEAR PROGRAM?

Answer 11

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 12

Was “Target Tehran” published 9/26/2023 – a mere 11 days before Hamas’ Oct 7 attack on Israel?

Answer 12

Yes.

Question 13

If “Target Tehran” was in fact approved by the Israeli Government in addition to being published before the Hamas attack, would it be reasonable to infer that the Israeli Government is TELLING THE WORLD that Israel “has reached the end of its rope”???

Answer 13

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 14

In other words, like the famous tale of Peter, a Dutch boy who kept his finger in a hole in a dyke all night thereby saving his town from a devastating flood – Israel can’t prevent much longer a nuclear holocaust?

Answer 14

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 15

After all, doesn’t Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei love to lead crowds in chants of “Death to Israel” and “Death to America”?

Answer 15

Absolutely!!!

Question 16

And doesn’t Ayatollah Ali Khamenei love to refer to Israel as a “one bomb state” meaning that once Iran develops atomic weapons – which the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal (aka, JCPOA) guarantees Iran by 2030 – only one atomic bomb would be required to destroy Israel entirely?

Answer 16

Absolutely!!!

Question 17

Has Iran already developed ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons since missile development was NOT addressed by the JCPOA?

Answer 17

Yes.

Question 18

Indeed, weren’t Iran’s tests of ballistic missiles notorious because many of the missiles were photographed bearing such slogans as “Death to the Little Satan” (i.e., Israel) and “Death to the Big Satan” (i.e., the U.S.)?

Answer 18

Absolutely!!!

Question 19

Is there any reason to believe that Iran does NOT ALREADY have beaucoup nuclear weapons since the JCPOA failed to require “anytime, anywhere” inspections?

Answer 19

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 20

And even the fabled Israeli intelligence agencies do NOT know Iran has them??? After all, weren’t the fabled Israeli intelligence agencies CAUGHT BY SURPRISE over the Oct 7 Hamas attack???!!! So why should they be any more effective in trying to monitor Iran’s nuclear program???!!!

Answer 20

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 21

Did our focus two months ago on Dec 13 on “The Samson Option” disclose that at the commencement of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Israel had 7 nuclear missiles that were aimed at Russia’s 7 largest cities, in recognition that it was the Soviet Union at that time that was fomenting Arab hatred against Israel?

Answer 21

Yes.

Question 22

And that Israel had a policy that if it reached the point of fewer than 24 hours to go to complete annihilation, then before “turning out the lights” Israel would fire its 7 nuclear missiles at Russia’s 7 largest cities?

Answer 22

Yes.

Question 23

And that the Israeli cabinet, after agreeing that Israel had fewer than 24 hours to go to complete annihilation, decided that before firing the missiles, it would telex Kissinger (who had been refusing for more than a year to supply Israel with conventional ammunition, the rationing of which was the cause of the pending annihilation of Israel) to inform Kissinger “what would be happening” within a matter of minutes?

Answer 23

Yes.

Question 24

And that Kissinger replied “commence firing as if there is no tomorrow, the re-supply planes will take off at dawn”?

Answer 24

Yes.

Question 25

As a result of which the battle lines stabilized and Israel survived???!!!

Answer 25

Yes.

Question 26

So by virtue of “Target Tehran” isn’t Israel announcing to the world (analogously to the telex to Kissinger) that Israel will soon be forced “to turn out the lights” and, before doing so after “holding its finger in the dyke” as long as possible, there will be a nuclear holocaust which will destroy not only Israel and Iran – but probably much more IF NOT HUMAN CIVILIZATION IN ITS ENTIRETY???

Answer 26

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 27

And isn’t that nuclear holocaust on a “hair trigger”?

Answer 27

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 28

Isn’t it true that Israel is rumored to have well over 100 nuclear weapons, many of which are based in submarines?

Answer 28

“Target Iran” states (p. 6) -- “Estimates of Israel’s nuclear arsenal range from eighty to two hundred weapons that it can reportedly deliver via various land, air, and sea-based systems, including submarine-launched cruise missiles that give it a second-strike capability.”

So if you believe (please see your answers to Q&A-7 through Q&A-10) “Target Tehran” is the quasi-official, if not official, statement of the Israeli Government, you have the “official rumor” of the Israeli Government.

Question 29

But isn’t it reasonable to suppose that if Israel detected even that ONE incoming nuclear missile that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has bragged would be sufficient to annihilate Israel, then Israel would fire its submarine-based nukes as well as its land-based nukes???

Answer 29

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

After all, why hold back on the “second-strike capability” (per Q&A-28) if Israel is already being destroyed???

Question 30

And didn’t we learn during our U.S. Secretary of Defense’s recent hospitalization, that the U.S. would have only 15 minutes to decide following the launch of Russian nuclear missiles aimed at the U.S., whether the threat was real and our own nukes should be launched before they are destroyed???

Answer 30

Unfortunately!!!

Question 31

So if ballistic missiles take 15 minutes to travel from Russia to the U.S., how many SECONDS would they take to travel from Iran to Israel???

Answer 31

Less than 120 seconds!!!

Full transparency re that calculation --

First, it is assumed that Iran would NOT want to base its NUCLEAR missiles outside Iran’s borders in order to maintain complete control – since Iran would be held fully responsible.

[NB: Iran has armed Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon with missiles bearing conventional warheads.]

The closest the Iranian border comes to Israel appears to be on a direct line passing through Baghdad.

The distance “as the crow flies” from Jerusalem* to Baghdad is 545 miles.

The distance “as the crow flies” from Baghdad to the nearest point on the Iranian border is approximately 75 miles.

Accordingly, the Iranian missile would only have to travel approximately 620 miles.

[*Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in constantly bragging that Israel is a “one bomb state,” presumably wants to target his “one bomb” half-way between Israel’s northern and southern borders and since Israel is a slender country, it really doesn’t matter whether the Ayatollah targets Jerusalem or Tel Aviv – though perhaps it might be prudent to target Jerusalem to minimize the risk that his missile splashes into the Mediterranean Sea.]

The distance from Moscow to NYC is 4,667 miles.

[The distance from Moscow to Washington DC is 4,860 miles. It is assumed that the widely reported “15 minutes” nuclear-missile flight time in the media stories about the recent secret (even from the President) hospitalization of the U.S. Secretary of Defense, wasn’t based on Russia attacking thinly-populated Maine with nuclear weapons.]

So 620 miles for the Iranian missile vs. 4,667 miles for the Russian missile = 13.2848% of the distance.

And 13.2848% of the 15 minutes is 119.56 seconds.