"What do you believe? Is Iran pursuing nuclear power as a means of securing peaceful energy or nuclear weapons?"

I'm quite honestly not sure, Teribus. I just don't know. They may be pursuing nuclear weapons or they may not be. I know they are using nuclear power as a means of producing peaceful energy, but I don't know whether or not they are pursuing the development of nuclear weapons. I would not be particularly surprised if they were doing so, but I would also not consider it justification for attacking them and starting another war if they were. And I think it is equally possible that the USA is falsely accusing them of developing nuclear weapons in order to prepare the ground for another pre-emptive war over "weapons of mass destruction" that don't exist.

But in either case, I don't know. And neither do you, I would assume. We are merely offering conjecture.

Sure, I can explain why the Israelis have not taken advantage of opportunities to " to murder and completely destroy their enemies ". They have gone as far at any particular point as they felt was feasible and manageable under the circumstances...and they are not totally and iredeemably insane. They would not do genocide on a scale so massive that it would turn them into pariahs in front of the whole world, including the USA. They are aware they have limits.

Your question, really, was damn silly in this particular case, I must say...

Next question: Who opted for war in '48? The Arabs did, as far as I know.

(Note: I have never claimed the Arabs were completely innocent. I have never claimed that they do not have Israeli blood on their hands. I have never claimed that only Israel is a malefactor in the Middle East wars. I have, to the contrary, claimed that both sides are equally at fault in those wars, and that is what I continue to claim. It is you who wants one side to be "the bad guys" and the other side to be "the good guys" no matter what happens.)

I cannot provide you with proof of the existence of Israeli atomic weapons, Teribus, because I do not have the wherewithal to fly you to Israel, hold all the Israelis at gunpoint, and make them reveal those weapons to my friend and colleague, Mr Teribus. When I say they do have them, I am only stating what has been common knowledge in the world community for a long, long time now, and what was directly alluded to by Robert Gates in front of the US Congress just the other day. Go ask him for proof. ;-)

The reason I ignore a lot of your questions, Teribus, is mainly that I think you're a man suffering from a severe obsessive-compulsive disorder in regards to political discussions and I'm afraid that by constantly responding to your every point, I would catch the same illness and it might become terminal.

God knows, I may already have... ;-)

One day I will probably look back with regret at the countless hours I wasted wrangling with you on this forum, and think, "I could have been bettering myself. I could have been playing my guitar. I could have been walking the dog. I could have been learning conversational French...or...or learning how to cook Chinese food."

It's sad, really.