The United Nations is proving once again how irrelevant it is in preventing wars and resolving conflicts. Three rounds of impotent United Nations Security Council sanctions have not acted as a deterrent in stopping Iran from its path of uranium enrichment.

In fact, it would appear that any further sanctions in the next several months will prove equally futile as well. As a result, many international experts now believe that Iran is only six months away from enriching uranium and the procurement of its own nuclear weapons.

The reality of a nuclear Iran presents serious ramifications for the global community to consider. First, the entire Middle East will be transformed into a nuclear arms race so other countries can maintain military equality with Iran.

In addition, terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah will gain direct access to new Iranian weapons of mass destruction. Iraq would become increasingly destabilized and the existence of the state of Israel will be directly threatened.

Consider that, for many years, Iran has made no secret of its dubious long-term intentions. Israel's destruction has long been its fundamental objective. Iran's Supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, said in a sermon on Iranian television on December 15, 2000, "Iran's position, which was first expressed by the Imam Khomeini and stated several times by those responsible, is that the cancerous tumor called Israel must be uprooted from the region."

Iranian threats have only increased during the last several years. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly called for action to "wipe Israel off the map". Then, his government sponsored a conference titled "A World Without Zionism" in October, 2005. His most recent outrage was calling Israel "a stinking corpse" on the occasion of its 60th birthday.

Indeed, Ahmadinejad's intentions were unequivocal when he told a crowd of thousands gathered at a rally in support of the Palestinians in Tehran: "This regime, thanks to God, has lost the reason for its existence. Efforts to stabilize this fake (Israeli) regime, by the grace of God, have completely failed. You should believe that this regime is disappearing".

Ahmadinejad also called Israeli leaders a "group of terrorists" and has threatened any country that supports the Jewish state. "You imposed a group of terrorists ... on the region," Ahmadinejad said, addressing the U.S. and its allies. "It is in your own interest to distance yourself from these criminals... This is an ultimatum. Don't complain tomorrow."

So, in less than a year, a nuclear Iran under the leadership of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will appear on the world stage. It will be a country that successfully defied the sanctions of the United Nations and its nuclear capability will destabilize the entire Middle East and the world community. Based on history, it is also a prospect that would threaten Israel directly.

So, consider that the most important election in the world this fall may well be held in Israel. The Kadima Party primary election will be held in September, 2008. The election features Israeli Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni, competing against hardliner and former Army Chief of Staff, Shaul Mofaz. Recent public opinion polls show that the race between the two candidates is very close. A Mofaz victory could well lead to the bombing by Israel of various nuclear power facilities in Iran.

It is also possible that the next Kadima leader would not be able to form a coalition government. In that event, new elections would be called, and held early in 2009. Currently, the overwhelming favorite to win any new election in Israel would be former Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Netanyahu certainly fears the threat of a nuclear Iran. He left few doubts about his position on the problem of a nuclear Iran in December 2005, when he said the solution was “a pre-emptive strike similar to the 1981 attack ordered by then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin that destroyed an unfinished Iraqi nuclear reactor."

" I will continue the tradition established by Menachem Begin, who did not allow Iraq to develop such a nuclear threat against Israel, and by a daring and courageous act gave us two decades of tranquility," Netanyahu told the Maariv Daily. "I believe that this is what Israel has to do."

His statements in November of 2006 also point to his increasing fear of Iranian nuclear capability: "It's 1938 and Iran is Germany. And Iran is racing to arm itself with atomic bombs,” Netanyahu told delegates to the annual United Jewish Communities General Assembly. In his address, he repeated a phrase several times, like a chorus, "Believe him and stop him," Netanyahu said of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. "This is what we must do. Everything else pales before this. "While the Iranian president "denies the Holocaust," he is preparing another Holocaust for the Jewish state."

The multi-year international crisis with Iran is nearing its conclusion. Several months from now, Iran will have successfully achieved the capability to produce a nuclear weapon. Sadly, international diplomacy and an ineffective United Nations will not deter Iran from its nuclear ambition.

The result is that the world is well on the path to another international military confrontation. Indeed, the ongoing threats from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appear to leave Israel very little choice. In the next six months, Israel will act to prevent a nuclear Iran.