THE conventional wisdom says that we have two choices in confronting and containing Iranian nuclear ambitions – United Na tions sanctions and diplomacy, or a military strike to knock out key nuclear sites.

Ever since Iran’s nuclear issue has been handed to the United Nations Security Council for punitive actions, crisis in the region has been flaring up at periods, each time the case is opened or closed for review.

Several conflicts of various intensities are raging in the Middle East. But a bigger war, involving more states — Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, the Palestinian Authority and perhaps the United States and others — is growing more likely every day, beckoned by the sense that America and Israel are in …