Obama will nuke Iran if Israel nuked, official says

By GottaLaff

This article makes me extremely uncomfortable:

President-elect Barack Obama intends to offer Israel a "nuclear umbrella" in the event of a nuclear strike by Iran, according to a defense source close to the administration quoted by an Israeli newspaper.

Under such an agreement, the United States would promise to use nuclear weapons against Iran should Israel be atomically attacked. Obama's secretary of State, Sen. Hillary Clinton, promised a similar "massive response" should Israel come under attack during the Democratic presidential debates.

"The source, who is close to the new administration, said the US will declare that an attack on Israel by Tehran would result in a devastating U.S. nuclear response against Iran," the paper Ha'aretz said Thursday.

The source quoted also said that the nuclear guarantee would be backed by a new and improved Israeli anti-ballistic missile defense system, which comes in addition to one the Bush administration helped deploy in the Negev.

Both the ballistic defense system and the comments may suggest that the incoming Administration believes that a nuclear Iran is inevitable. [...]

Even so, Israel may no longer be able to expect "blank cheques" from Washington once president-elect Obama's administration takes over in January, according to a former US ambassador to the Jewish state.

"The era of the blank cheque is over," Martin Indyk, director of the Centre for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institute, who is considered close to incoming secretary of state Hillary Clinton, said Sunday.

Where's my old school desk to hide under when I need it?