Posted on 09/01/2012 3:31:41 PM PDT by xzins
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak have “almost finally” decided on an Israeli strike at Iran’s nuclear facilities this fall, and a final decision will be taken “soon,” Israel’s main TV news broadcast reported on Friday evening.
Channel 2 News, the country’s leading news program, devoted much of its Friday night broadcast to the issue, detailing the pros and cons that, it said, have taken Netanyahu and Barak to the brink of approving an Israeli military attack despite opposition from the Obama administration and from many Israeli security chiefs.
Critically, the station’s diplomatic correspondent Udi Segal said, Israel does not believe that the US will take military action as Iran closes in on the bomb.
The US, the TV report said, has not provided Israel with details of an attack plan. President Obama has not promised to attack Iran if all else fails. Conditions cited by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta for an American attack do not calm Israeli concerns. And Obama has a record of seeking UN and Arab League approval before action. All these factors, in Jerusalem’s mind, underline the growing conviction of Netanyahu and Barak that Israel will have to tackle Iran alone, the TV report said.
Israel’s leaders have also noted that president George W. Bush vowed repeatedly that North Korea would not be allowed to attain a nuclear weapons capability — a vow that proved empty.
Obama does not want to intervene militarily before the presidential elections in November, and it is doubtful that he would act afterwards, runs the Israeli assessment, the TV report said. Obama may believe that the US can live with a nuclear Iran, but Israel cannot, the report quoted those in “Netanyahu’s circle” as saying.
As for presidential challenger Mitt Romney, he takes a more forceful position, but would probably not have the domestic support necessary to act in the first year of his presidency, if elected, and after that it would be too late.
The US can live with Iran as a “breakout state” — on the edge of attaining a bomb, the report said the prime minister’s circle believes. But “for Israel, a breakout state is a nuclear state.”
Netanyahu, for his part, “is convinced that thwarting Iran amounts to thwarting a plan to destroy the Jewish people,” Channel 2′s Segal said. The prime minister considers Iran’s spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to be acting rationally in order to achieve “fanatical” goals.
Segal said that, when considering the imperative to attack, Netanyahu and Barak reason that “we may have reached the moment of truth” after which it would be too late to stop Iran, and that “the price of an attack is far lower than the price of inaction.” It will be “a matter of a few months” before it is too late, Segal said — before, that is, Iran would be immune from damage by an Israeli strike.
The TV report cited intelligence information suggesting that Iran “is much further ahead” than previously thought in its uranium enrichment and in other aspects of its nuclear weapons program.
Segal said Israel’s capacity to impact the Iranian program was dwindling, and the “window of opportunity” was closing. “Four years ago,” he said, an Israeli strike could have set back the Iranian program “by two to four years.” A year from now, an Israeli strike “would have a negligible impact.”
Netanyahu was reported to have said in private conversations that “if no one attacks, Iran will get the bomb” — underlining that he does not believe sanctions will thwart Tehran.
The extensive TV report detailed what it said was the Israeli leadership duo’s thinking on the military, diplomatic and economic consequences of an Israeli strike, and the consequences of Iran getting the bomb.
Militarily, an Israeli strike would prompt missile attacks on Israel, attacks by Hamas and Hezbollah from the south and the north, and upheaval on the Arab street, in the leadership’s assessment. The assessment is that Syria’s President Bashar Assad would not get involved, since this would finish him off, the report said. But if Iran got the bomb, the missile threat would be escalated, Hamas and Hezbollah further empowered, and there would be a danger of any crisis escalating into a nuclear crisis.
Diplomatically, an Israeli strike would prompt a confrontation with the US, global protests, international isolation for Israel, delegitimization, and a situation in which Israel was seen as the aggressor. But if Iran got the bomb, Israel would be defeated and humiliated diplomatically, and would become a liability to the US, the TV report said Israel’s two key leaders believe.
Economically, an Israeli strike would deepen the economic slowdown and lead to a suspension of foreign investment. An Iranian bomb would end foreign investment in Israel, however, and prompt an exodus of Israel’s best brains.
Netanyahu and Barak were said to believe that an Israeli military strike, though opposed by Washington, would not shatter ties with the US. Survey figures that have impacted their thinking suggest significant US support for an American and for an Israeli strike on Iran, the TV report said.
Israel would not be planning to draw the US into a war with Iran by striking at Iran’s nuclear facilities, the report said. And Israel does not believer an attack would prompt regional war.
The TV report made much of a recent speech by Netanyahu, at the scene of Sunday’s terror attack thwarted by Israel at the Gaza-Egypt-Israel border. Visiting the area on Monday, Netanyahu said Israel “must and can” only rely on itself to safeguard its security.
“It becomes clear time after time that when it comes to the safety of Israeli citizens, Israel must and can rely only on itself. No one can fulfill this role except the IDF and different Israel security forces of Israel, and we will continue to conduct ourselves in this way,” Netanyahu said.
He gets blamed no matter what.
A couple of years ago I would receive Emails from Iran asking to be bombed to get rid of these Mullah vermin, even at the cost of collateral damage. I think it was mentioned in this article which Islamic riddled techies in Google wiped off the site.
http://www.activistchat.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=8053 written in 2004 it addresses what the populace thohgt and would think.
For many Iranians death was and still is a relief from what is being done to them physically and emotionally and psychologically.
However, to try to prevent an attack, the Mullahs, their surrogates and infiltrators who have penetrated our government insist the Iranian population would turn against the USA if attacked and make overthrowing the regime even harder.
Plus there is a layer of exiles who still have family inside Iran and fear for them if an attack takes place. Remember most nuclear sites are built under city neighborhoods with heavy populations.
There would be a protesting outcry that civilian life was lost but what is the trade off? Pamper and save Iranian lives and lose a hundred times as many Israeli lives? What makes an average Iranian more worthy to live than an average Israeli soul?
Death and devastation CANNOT be avoided. It is more a matter of what nationality pays the price. Or the heavier one.
Here, while I would shed tears for my Persian friends and their relatives, it is not the Israelis who are the aggressors here. I
n fact, love them or hate them the Israelis are acting in self-defense and protecting their nation from extinction by a bunch of lunatic clerics, for whom not even the lives of their own people means anything and they kill them brutally and senselessly by the thousands.
If you play to win/survive you play hard and fiercely, specially where you will reduce the dire damage and destruction of aftermath retribution.
Sounds heartless but reality has to kick in and a nuclear armed Iran’s totally uncontrolled insanity is what is at the end of a humane approach to them.
Like trying to pet a wild grizzly bear to be kind to an animal! The Mullahs are worse than animals. Very few animals - leopards, wolves and water buffalo - kill without a reason such as food or survival from danger.
The Persian populace is generally against the Mullahs and do not deserve to die for their politics. At anyone;s hands but tell that to the Mullahs, who insist in killing/executing Persians at the rate of one every EIGHT HOURS!
And are the human resource providers of the killers in Syria. Around 120,000 Qods Special Forces have been killing for the past year, though the Media is only beginning to admit their presence in Syria in the past couple of weeks.
Syria is a dress rehearsal and practice for the Qods for their future activity to suppress and control opposition inside Iran.
The average more educated Persians are pro-West, while villagers may follow religious concepts in a superstitious and impractical fashion. Today, even villagers seem to have had it with the clerics.
Oh, He will!
A few years ago, Shaul Mofaz, then Defense Minister for Israel, hosted a one-time radio talkshow which broadcast into Iran. A shocking number of callers FROM INSIDE Iran THEN were pleading with him to strike Iran even if it meant their own lives. It was one of the most sad and amazing things I have ever heard.
You're right about this FARS ... Israel must protect herself from the crazy Mullahs. I also pray for the Iranian people - so many of them are good people - they're powerless in front of these self appointed Mullahs.
A horrible tragedy, FARS. My heart aches for the Persian people who are under the evil grip of their government.
Thanks for sharing your insights, dear FARS!
They might as well broadcast the entirety of their plans to the world, including code words, if this is what they’re going to be doing.
“almost finally”...”soon”...
Wording seems to mean some kind of hope for a future news story, to justify that agencies existence...
As always, the media will have it ALL wrong, and when and if any attack comesm the decision, in my opinion has already been made...The news media will have to chase this one down and basically react as the rest of us do IF it happens...
Why get yer bowels in an uproar over something that hasn’t, and may not happen???
Seems to me the media wants Iran to be ready for this to happen so the attack will fail...If the media can somehow blow the secrecy of this attack and when it may happen, I wonder how bad they will feel if some of their countrymen get killed because of that “warning”???
The families of those that might be killed, should consider those who leaked the information to be traitors and seek their own recourse...
Just my opinion...
I’m convinced it will be something so unconventional that there is little insight into how to prepare for it.
Everyone is looking for a conventional style attack.
It’s the information warfare campaign. If there is nothing reported, any tiny peep gets an alert response. If the media is continually reporting that now is the day, then the “crying wolf” syndrome takes over, and people begin to pay less and less attention each time. They might eventually just consider reports to be the norm and start blowing them off altogether.
Thanks for the ping to the thread and your posts, FARS. Thanks to all posters. BTTT!
Thanks FARS. I think this is a second ping to this topic.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2925525/posts?page=62#62
If God be for you/us, who can be against us?
God has kept Israel being the winner in former attacks. Trust God, and pass the ammunition ...
Hard to believe Barack on board; save for Election that is; and he sees necessary advantage. Do wonder; just how much and many is he calculating. . .(martial law here? etc?) That said; he cannot be trusted, IMHO; so Bibi had better be careful per planning. A terrible time unfolding here; and either way; of course. Iran and it’s ‘like-minded’ have made the decision unavoidable and at, whatever point. . .
REPORT: Washington tells Tehran it won't back Israeli strike on nuke facilities...
Obama won’t attack his fellow Muslims.
A nicely placed number of “EMP’s” would do a nice job of frying Iran back into the stone age!
that would do it for a while. Wonder if there’s anything a little more permanent?
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