ABSTRACT
Nuclear weapons are unique because so much destructive power is contained in a small package. A single nuclear weapon the size of a suitcase can obliterate a city and all its inhabitants. Iran's nuclear program is long-standing, but it is only in the past decade or so that it has really taken off. Each of the threats posed by a nuclear Iran to Israel's existence is plausible. The United States got bogged down in Iraq and the threat of American intervention in Iran evaporated, the mullahs quickly reneged on the agreement with the Europeans, restarted their enrichment of uranium, and again restricted the scope of International Atomic Energy Agency inspections. One can envision a situation where Israel and one of Iran's proxies, such as Hizbollah, were engaged in a shooting war that threatened to escalate.
