Every now and then I am really happy that my opinions and decisions are not influential. The pressure on the leaders of nations, heads of the armies and other significant individuals must be overwhelming in many cases. The matters of peace and war seem to be, from my point of view, the hardest ones to analyze. The decision is not a theoretical question in an academic debate but a choice that will end in the survival or death of real people.

                The recent days have shown that the narration for the need for bombing Iran is not the only one in the Israeli society. The photos of Israelis declaring love towards Iranians and promising NEVER to bomb their country went viral in the social media and were responded by mutual feelings and declarations among some Iranians. Peace is good, war is evil. The ones who declare war are unjust; the justice is always for the peace. If only this could be so simple.

When discussing Polish attitudes towards potential Iranian nuclear capabilities, it is important to distinguish between two components: official diplomatic responses and the nature of public opinion. Diplomatically, Poland maintains a strong relationship with Israel and, as a member of the EU, generally advocates a position in concert with other EU members such as Germany and France. Additionally, the Polish government strives to cultivate a close diplomatic relationship with the United States, and has actually been accused in the past of being overly deferential to US interests as opposed to the interests of fellow EU members. In tandem, both of these factors would indicate the Polish government has a strong interest in joining efforts to prevent Iranian nuclear development. 

If Iran were to attack Israel today, the Polish Jewish community would be deeply saddened.  Most of us have family and friends currently living in Israel, and have been fortunate enough to develop a strong appreciation for Israel over the course of our lives. Moreover, for my age group, this would be the first war of our lifetimes in which we felt emotionally involved, adding to the potential impact of this war. 

Jon Schweitzer, a Jewish young professional in Chicago, blogged from the Chicago Young Atlanticist Summit, the premier public diplomacy event that took place alongside the NATO summit.  The Young Atlanticist Summit was organized by the Atlantic Council and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.  In total, over 60 young professionals from 35 nations gathered for three days to hear from NATO officials, Presidents and Ministers of NATO nations and leading foreign policy analysts.

It seems to me that some of the keys to becoming a successful businessman are optimism, perseverance and ingenuity. If life hands you lemons, start a lemonade stand. If your pipes leak, then you’ve got yourself the makings of a drip-system irrigation business. And if all you’ve got is manure, well then, start selling fertilizer. You know how it is, take what you’ve got and make the best of it.

So what do you do when you’ve got a regime in possession of an arsenal of long-range weapons, making no effort to hide their malintent towards you, hard-charging toward nuclear weapons capabilities? This is the current dilemma facing Israel.

Israel's survival depends on its military hegemony in the Middle East to keep it safe. A nuclear Iran changes that calculus, and not necessarily by threatening Israel with nuclear annihilation.  It is the prospect of an Iran that is emboldened, emboldened to use its proxies in Lebanon and Gaza to terrorize Israeli civilians in the North and South and an Iran that is emboldened to threaten America's Arab allies in the Gulf, which will lead them to pursue their own atomic weapons.  The prospect of a power shift in the Middle East and the arms race that might ensue in the Arab world has the international community most frightened.

Iran might be starting a new war. This time a war that could be unpredictable and damaging. As never before. A nuclear war. What would this mean and how would we react?

In the United Kingdom the news from Iran has been relatively present in our media but the importance has been muted by the growing tensions taking place regarding The Falklands. Once again Argentina seems to be in a mood for war. The Brits, harkening back to the victories of Margaret Thatcher in the previous war would definitely push the current Prime Minister, David Cameron, to act decidedly if the situation worsened.

But what about Iran? Is the UK ready to oppose illegal nuclear proliferation and appease to a potential threat?

The Iranian nuclear threat seems to be receiving an obvious response a variety of people and societies all over the world. War seems very probable and the Americans appear willing to entertain the idea of a greater conflict. Meanwhile, Europeans may still hope to be a bit removed but nevertheless realize the precariousness of the situation.

However, those who do truly realize the danger of the Iranian threats are the Israelis. They are most certainly the first probable victims of Iran’s aggression. Being pro-Israeli or not, all Jewish communities and each Jewish person ought to be on the Israeli side here. A danger to Israel signifies a danger for the entire Jewish people, and Iran represents an absolute danger.

[This article was co-written by Ms. Caroline Szyber, member of the Swedish Parliament for the Christian Democratic Party.]

The unacceptable situation of increasing human rights abuses in Iran has become even more serious in recent years. Despite the United Nation's important role in promoting the conservation of both human rights and world peace, after nine years of sanctions and international pressure, the worrying developments in Iran have not diminished in their intensity - quite the contrary. The question that the international community now should ask itself is: what will a regime that has repeatedly proved to be unscrupulous in violently curtailing its own citizens' freedoms and rights, be capable of doing against its sworn enemies, should they have access to nuclear weapons? The United States has recently decided to increase the intensity and scope of its sanctions that will now also target Iran's central bank and financial sector, in order to pressure the Islamic Republic to abandon its plans for a nuclear weapon potential by strangling its oil revenues. More countries should adopt this example and be clear in their determination and resolve towards hard-hitting sanctions to strike against Iran’s appalling human rights record as well as its aggressive military ambitions.

Since my teenage years I’ve been fond of Franz Kafka – it all started when I read his novella “The Metamorphosis” for the very first time. I have always been fascinated ever since by his talent of having such an unexpected and unforgettable impact on his readers. Therefore I’ve come to view Kafka not only as one of the great authors of his time, but actually more as the greatest novelist of the entire 20^thcentury.

When I was a teenage kid growing up in Germany and becoming a worshipper of Kafka’s literary work, something very similar was emerging on the other side of the world; a young generation was growing up inside of Iran with Kafka as well. But those readers, unlike myself, were experiencing Kafka under extremely different circumstances-- they were reading his work secretly.