Earlier this week, news emerged of unidentified aircraft killing 39 arms smugglers in Sudan in January. Israel is suspected of having carried out the attack, as the smugglers were reportedly transferring Iranian-supplied weaponry to Hamas fighters in Gaza, via Egypt. On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Miniser Ehud Olmert issued the sort of non-denial denial characteristic of Israeli leaders when some terrorist’s car blows up in the Middle East. “We operate everywhere where we can hit terror infrastructure — in close places, in places further away, everywhere where we can hit terror infrastructure, we hit them and we hit them in a way that increases deterrence,” he said.

Not everyone is pleased by Israel taking out a bunch of Islamist terrorists in the deserts of Sudan. Robert Dreyfuss, The Nation’s national security correspondent (and former Middle East editor of Lyndon LaRouche’s newspaper), has an interesting take:

But the raid, which reportedly killed between 30 and 40 people and destroyed 17 trucks, is a big deal, even though it occurred months ago, and it could severely destabilize Sudan, inflame relations between Arab countries, Iran, and the United States, and set the stage for a response by Iran. (emphasis added)

Yes, because an air-strike in Sudan might precipitate a genocide, or spark a civil war, or lead to the international criminal indictment of the country’s president, or… I don’t expect much from The Nation these days, but this is akin to arguing that intercourse with a pregnant woman puts her at risk of becoming pregnant.