One doesnt have to listen too carefully these days to hear the distinctive sound of sabers being rattled.
The Iranians are doing it, beating their chests as they threaten to close the Straits of Hormuz and sink any foreign warship that tries to stop them.
The Israelis are doing it, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeating a well-worn mantra which, boiled down to its essence, strongly suggests that if nobody else is going to do something about Irans drive toward nuclear weaponization, then Israel almost certainly will.
The Americans are doing it too, of course, with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta telling 60 Minutes this week that the US expects Iran to be capable of producing weapons grade material within a year, and that the US will not exclude any options if this line is crossed.
The drums of war or at least of armed conflict are sounding ever more clearly on the horizon.
Whether the escalating conflict has yet reached the proverbial point of no return and leaving out for the moment our views about the comparative wisdom or foolishness of a military strike on Iran one thing seems clear in this apparently imminent confrontation: None of us should not considers ourselves immune.
By none, we mean precisely that.
Jewish organizations are already calculating the likelihood that a conflict with Iran will result in terrorist strikes against civilian targets in the US itself, including Jewish targets.
James Clapper, director of US national intelligence, thinks he knows the answer already.
The 2011 plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the US shows that some Iranian officials probably including Supreme Leader Ali Khameini have changed their calculus and are now more willing to conduct an attack in the US in response to real or perceived US actions that threaten the regime, Clapper told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence this week.
American Jewish institutions would be wise to consider this a timely wake-up call.
Since 9/11, the last time that Americans truly felt threatened at home, many Jewish institutions and individuals have grown casual and relaxed about potential threats from terrorists.
Such sanguinity is no longer a viable option as the US and perhaps Israel approach what might become a period of intense conflict.
We pray that such fears are wholly unjustified, but in case they are, we urge our Jewish institutions from federations to agencies to synagogues to follow the Boy Scouts venerable motto: Be prepared.
Copyright © 2012 by the Intermountain Jewish News
