Leaked audio: Israeli leaders drew up plans to attack Iranian military

CNN ^ | August 22, 2015 | By Ben Brumfield and Oren Liebermann

[Brad from Tennessee]

Jerusalem (CNN)Israeli leaders planned to attack military targets in Iran in recent years, but they were held back due to the opinions of other government and military leaders, according to an audio recording leaked to an Israeli television broadcaster.

One planned strike was canned after scheduling conflicts with a joint military exercise with the United States got in the way, according to the audio.

The recording with former Defense Minister Ehud Barak was leaked to Israel's Channel 2. It detailed three strikes Barak had allegedly planned with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in 2010, 2011 and 2012 respectively.

CNN has translated the audio, which is in Hebrew. Barak, who also previously served as prime minister, acknowledged to CNN on Saturday that the recording is authentic, but declined to comment further.

In 2010, an Israeli military assessment put an end to the plans, Barak apparently said in the recording.

"At that crucial moment, essentially, the answer from the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) was that the accumulated capability does not meet the threshold of the IDF chief of staff that he can say this is operational," the recording attributed to Barak said. . .

[Lady Heron]

Good for them.

[Logical me]

Israel is beginning to sound like it will be never, no war.

[Chode]

just glad WE don't do anything that offensive

[dp0622]

I dont see how Israel can let Russia help them build a missile defense.
It would certainly not be the same as the Iraq nuke attack, but I would think they would have to attempt it.
It is about their very survival.
Our president is a traitor.

[redgolum]

Then they have to figure out a way to do it themselves.

And around any airspace the US military controls.

Which I think is pretty easy. Saud does not want nuclear armed Persians.

[redgolum]

Massive campaigns like that will unify the Iranian people. Shutting down power, water, and food would be a poor choice.

Making the nuclear plants have a cooling accident would be better. The local people would know they are not the target.

If you want a low grade theater wide war fought with irregular units on both sides, start attacking civilian infrastructure. That is a very hard genie to put back in the bottle.

[Empire View]

Israel has very strong electronic warfare capabilities. If they didn’t think they could pull off a successful attack to stop Iran’s nuclear program before the new AA missiles in Iran, it won’t make much of a difference anyway. IMO, Iran wants to upgrade its AA capabilities more for countering the Arabian monarchies than Israel or the US.

These new missiles will not save them from the US and will probably not make them invulnerable to a limited Israeli strike either. But they may offset the massive advantage in air power enjoyed by Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Gulf Cooperation Council.