According to Mitchell Bard, the author of this indispensable study of Israel's past, present, and future, the answer is yes.

Bard, who is the executive director of the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise and a prolific writer of books on the Holocaust and the Middle East, has analyzed the threats to Israel's survival — which include: radical Islamism, the "demographic bomb," a reference to the growth of the Palestinian population should Israel hold onto the West Bank; the lack of sufficient water resources to meet the needs of the region's growing population; the anti-Israel bias of the world's media; the growing rift between religious and secular Israelis, especially over the future of the West Bank settlements; and the future of relations between Israel and the United States should an "even-handed" American administration take office in the near future.

But of all the threats that confront Israel's future, states Bard, it is Iran and the possibility that it will develop a nuclear weapon that is the greatest. As Bard writes:

"Terrorism creates strains on the nation but does not threaten Israel's existence. The demography of the region alone will not destroy Israel and will become a serious factor only years from now. Similarly, a water shortage is a long-term concern that might provoke war but will not directly harm Israel's security. A conventional war could lead to Israel's demise, but no constellation of forces exists at the moment that is likely to challenge Israel's superior military. Of all the threats to Israel's long-term survival, one danger overshadows all the rest: an enemy with nuclear weapons."

What makes the threat even more pronounced is that Iran is ruled by a Shi'ite theocracy that is driven by religious eschatology. Its leaders believe in an inevitable apocalyptic battle whereby the forces of righteousness (Islam) will defeat the forces of evil (the West). Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, believes the most important task of the Iranian revolution is to prepare the way for the return of the Twelfth Imam, a descendant of Mohammed who disappeared in 874 and who will return to lead the battle against the nonbelievers. This battle, he and his cohorts believe, will bring about a new era in which Islam will become the world's dominant religion.

Shi'ites, states Bard, have waited patiently for 1,000 years for the Twelfth Imam, or Mahdi ( the "divinely guided one"), to return. Thus, when Ahmadinejad calls for the destruction of Israel, this is not to be taken lightly. It may be, Bard notes, that the Iranian president believes he can hasten the Mahdi's return through nuclear war, starting with the Jewish state as his target. Middle East scholar Bernard Lewis has said that this apocalyptic view is what distinguishes Iran from other states with nuclear weapons.

The current efforts by the West to halt Iran from completing work on the bomb has thus far failed. But, Bard argues, the Iranians are afraid of President Bush, whom they see as "a reckless cowboy," and so their strategy is to delay talks with the West so as to prevent the United States from taking preemptive military action. Bard surmises that the Iranians will prolong talks until a new American president is elected who "will be far less likely to use force against them."

As for the possibility of a preemptive attack against Iran, Bard notes that Israel would prefer that the United States carry out such a mission, if this became the only option. But Bard is also aware that the Iranian government has warned that its response to an attack would be overwhelming, that they would "wipe Israel off the face of the earth." Besides, even if Bush were willing to engage in a preemptive strike against Iran, few believe that the United States can afford a war with Iran while it is bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And so, despite the lurking danger of an Iranian bomb with all of its consequences, Bard is optimistic that Israel can overcome the danger described above. Call it wishful thinking, but the author believes that the Iranian president has managed to turn much of the world against his country and that Ahmadinejad is so incompetent in running his government that Iran may not even succeed in producing a nuclear weapon.

According to Bard, it may come to pass that sanctions strictly imposed will force Iran, like South Africa before it, to abandon its weapons program. Finally, he contends, if Iran threatens the use of nuclear weapons or if the imminent launch of a weapon were detected, it would trigger a first strike by the United States, Israel, or another nuclear power (although Bard does not address the issue directly, Saudi Arabia has already announced that it is interested in acquiring a nuclear capability because of Iran's threat to the region).

Bard concludes that although it would prove beneficial to the world if Iran were prevented from getting the bomb, even should it succeed in doing so, "we need to think more about how to live with a nuclear Iran and how to ensure it does not use its weapons."

This is an important and readable book that may be overly optimistic about the ability of Israel to overcome the myriad difficulties it confronts so as to guarantee its survival. Bard's analysis, however, gives us a great deal of hope that Israel's ingenuity along with its strong relationship with the United States will overcome what appears to be intractable problems.