Posted on 08/22/2015 10:12:14 AM PDT by Signalman
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's political leaders pushed to attack Iran at least three times in the past few years but had to back down on the advice of the military and due to concerns about its ally the United States, former defense minister Ehud Barak said.
In interviews to his biographers aired late on Friday by Israel's Channel Two, Barak said he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had wanted military operations against Iranian nuclear facilities in 2010, 2011 and 2012.
Israel has regularly hinted it could attack Iran to stop it getting nuclear weapons, something Teheran denies it is seeking.
In 2010, the Israeli leadership wanted an attack but the military said it did not have "operational capability," said Barak, defense minister between 2007 and 2013, and prime minister in 1999-2001.
In 2011, two ministers in a top security forum convened to discuss an attack changed their mind and decided against it, Barak said.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
A heavy price will be paid by all for Israel holding back.
They would have to burn a hole through Iranian air defenses to get the aircraft in there to deliver the ordnance. But first they would have to fight their way through American assets defending Iran against the airstrikes (as ordered by Obama). They figured that fighting America was too big a hurdle for now.
They should have attacked, and I said so at the time, when Bush had both a Republican house and senate. That two year window was their best chance.
The US has apparently obliquely threatened to interpose the US Navy between the IAF and Iran i.e. shoot down IAF planes.
The reason they were held back was because the Israel left were convinced the US and Europe would continue sanctions and dismantle the Iranian nuclear weapons program. Everyone now knows that was a false hope.
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