There is something that makes me think the strike may be near at hand. The fact that massive amounts of military assets are right now in the area for wargames, training or whatever they are gathered for. They are due to leave before long and I can't imagine Israel would miss the opportunity to strike while so many assets are in the area.
Here is a post by freeper tentmaker... I think it's a brilliant post and it does seem like a very likely time for the strike...and occurs before the arrayed forces leave the area.
Israel will attack Iran next week, probably on Tuesday or Wednesday, while Ahmadinejad is still in NY at the UN, but before Netanyahu is scheduled to arrive. (during Yom Kippur)
Israels hand is being forced by the progress that Iran has made in producing low enriched uranium. They already have over 200 kg of 20% UF6 and that's enough to disperse it to various locations making it much more difficult to destroy, while they finish enriching it to weapons grade.
Israel needs to attack soon, while it can be most effective and they can't count on US support from Obama. They either go now or risk Obama winning re-election or have to wait until next year if Romney wins. The waiting scenarios are not good, either way.
Attacking now offers the element of surprise, with Netanyahu scheduled to be in NY at the UN, Ahmadinejad out of the country and the Jewish holidays. A bonus would be that Ahmadinejad would immediately fly home, putting him in hostile air space at a time when the Israelis can predict where he'll be and make him a target.
Using a nuclear bomb detonated at high altitude over Iran would provide a crippling EMP (ElectroMagnetic Pulse) strike against Irans infrastructure without the negative stigma of the radiation effects of using nukes. Once the electric grid is down, and most of the Iranian defenses, taking out the nuclear development sites becomes much easier.
Israel can cripple the Iranian economy, set back their nuclear program by ten years and destroy most of their military capability and it can be accomplished in 2-3 days.
This is just my personal theory, based on open source knowledge and common sense. It goes without saying that it could be wrong. We'll know in a few days.
p.s. Obama loses more face in foreign policy
It is my opinion that Israel can destroy Iran's ability to build nuclear weapons only if they use unconventional means. This would involve the use of neutron and EMP weapons. EMP to cause mass confusion and loss of communications and neutron weapons to clear the area around nuclear sites so teams can destroy them..
Israel could of course use city-buster weapons but that is very unlikely.
The hope would be that the use of nuclear weapons that did not cause massive fallout would keep the conflict from escalating to WW3....I have no idea how this would play out.
There is one possibility that may help reduce the possibility of escalation to WW3. The Israeli's could mount a very ineffective attack on Iran. The world would immediately point the finger at Israel and laugh at their weakness. Iran and all her proxies would jump in with both feet against Israel and try to take advantage of the moment. They would likely overplay their hand by allowing chemical weapons to be used by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon or by Syrian forces.
Everything would change once weapons of mass destruction were used on Israel. At that point Israel could clean house across the ME using whatever force was needed.
If this ploy of using an ineffective strike to cause an attack by Iran's proxies using chem/bio did not work then nothing is lost as Israel could immediately attack using neutron and EMP weapons, such an attack would be successful and in any case Iran would unchain their proxy forces anyway so why not at least try to make them escalate first.
Someone I respect has told me they think the best time for a strike is immediately before we go to the polls in Nov. This does make a certain sense to me.
I suggest every freeper start saying some prayers....I think its going to be a bumpy ride.
Something we must keep in mind, the Israelis have a
history of preemptive strikes, the few times they have
been late it has been a close run thing.
It would seem to me that it would be the time to
deal with Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, and to secure the
west bank to bring Jerusalem completely under their
control.
In for a penny, in for a pound.
It’s a lot to swallow, but they will be on the receiving
end no matter what they do.
Do you know when all the military assets that are amassed in the region are scheduled to depart?
Interesting post. Thank you.