I give added credence to this report because of all the reports I have read today that Israel refused to advise the US in advance. The US obviously wants to plead surprise rather than complicity. Ted Belman
DEBKAfile Special Report November 6, 2011, 8:28 AM (
American sources told Fox television early Sunday, Nov. 6 that all the senior Israeli ministers who were formerly against attacking Iran’s nuclear sites are now for it, having been updated on Iran’s clandestine progress toward building a nuclear weapon. This information is due to be borne out when the IAEA publishes its next Iran report Tuesday, Nov. 8. The ministers are said to have changed their minds in the belief that the next round of sanctions will not be tough enough and point to the precedent of Israel’s 1981 attack on Iraq’s nuclear reactor which was never rebuilt.
According to debkafile’s Washington sources, the Obama administration attributes the change of heart by those ministers to a conviction that Iran already has a nuclear weapon.
And so after ten days after feverish, unattributed Israeli news reporting on an imminent attack, the administration has drawn certain lines: Israel should go forward with its plans to strike Iran, while Washington will stress “diplomatic strategy.”
This phrase, new in official US language on the nuclear controversy with Iran, does not rule out the military option. It was first aired last Thursday, Nov. 3 by US Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes, a member of the Barack Obama party attending the G-20 summit in Cannes.
All in all, public US administration responses to the prospect of Israel taking military action on Iran in own its hands have been unusually mild.
Friday, Nov. 4, another American television station CNN quoted a “senior US military official” as commenting that the administration is no longer sure that Israel would give the US warning of an attack.
However, while voicing concern and reporting stepped up “watchfulness” of both Iran and Israel, the official’s tone was not critical of Israel, despite the fact that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had been understood to have assured the US president when they met in the past year that Israel would not attack Iran without prior warning to Washington.
A second US military official stressed that Iran is the largest threat to the United States in the Middle East.
These US officials appeared to be warning Tehran that because of the level reached by its weapons-geared nuclear program, the Obama administration could no longer hold Israel back from exercising its military option.
On the issue of Israeli action against Iran, the tone from US official sources has undergone a marked change.
The former routine putdowns from Washington sources asserting
a) that Israel was not up to a lone military operation and that anyway
b) it would only have the limited effect of putting the Iranian weapons program back four years, are no longer heard – especially since the US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta visited Israel last month.
A high altitude nuclear bomb over Teharan, which will destroy all electronics and make Iran unable to operate. Another nuclear bomb or two or bunker buster bombs over some of the nuclear sites. Followed by air strikes to take out communications, electricity production, and planes. This is the only way. People criticized the US for nuking Japan. Studies show that many more people would have died had we not nuked Japan.
All the comments skirt around one central point…..
President Obama is at it again, and PM Netanyahu is playing right into his hand…..
Israel takes a proactive step.. and suffers heavy casualties…. Meanwhile, President Obama waffles alittle….
He takes a “middle ground” approach to appease what will certainly be a major Palestinian backlash…
The Palestinian’s are immediately going to seize on this opportunity to lambaste Israel in the court of popular opinion….
President Obama will call for calm, while chastising Israel for the raid….
The only adversary Iran has anywhere within a 1,500 miles is Saudi Arabia….. You have Hezbollah, Hamas & the PA….
How many countries in the region are Islamic??? I’m not even talking Muslim…. Most Arab/Palestinian countries will “circle the wagons”
around Iran, because Iran has been providing money & support to Hezbollah, the Muslim Brotherhood.. there is a natural allegiance…
Israel will be left out in the cold….
With all due respect to Israel…. Israel showed surprising weakness & its vulnerability when it had to seek international help in fighting the fire in Carmel. Do people really have such short memories??? Don’t they think Iran has taken Israels weakness into account?
Yes, Israel has done alot of work to correct the mistakes it has made since the fire… but.. Iran has studied the success that Germany employed in its methodical execution of Jews in Nazi Germany… Iran is known to have a well disciplined militia.
The Obama Administration knows all of this… and if Obama really cared about Israel, he would have told PM Netanyahu to let the US & Great Britain take the lead……
Everyone has forgotten one major point….
The United States never took advantage of the most strategic asset it ever had in its conflict with Iran… Sorry to say, but
President Bush is guilty of this also……
Iraq & Iran share a border that is over 1,000 miles long…. We pumped over 1,000,000,000 dollars into the Iraq economy..
Without the US, after Sadham Hussein was overthrown, there would have been civil unrest, riots & a complete breakdown in Iraq, had it not been for the stability that the US provided…. They would have been in no position to deny the Unites States if we put in any kind of military gear along the border to protect Iraq, Israel, or any other country in harms way…..
Now.. after everything we have done for them, their parliament has decided to deny the United States military the right to defend itself on their soil….. and we supported them????
Nur Sidri,
You say that Iran would be “stupid” not to want nuclear weapons. I take that as an affirmation that they are hotly pursuing a weapons program aimed at destroying Israel. Israel, then, would be stupid not to attack Iran.
That said, I’m glad you don’t think Israel will attack. They are indeed a stupid people, and may not attack after all. On the other hand, they may be planning a surprise present for their enemies; and it would be in bad taste to spoil a surprise.
This is a big bluff by Israel to get attention for their “Iran is the problem” mantra. But US polls of the populations,not the rulers, in the ME,show that the biggest threat to world peace are US/Israel.
The US is only giving it attention for AIPAC money. In reality, starting anything with Iran is counter to US strategic objectives and if they could attack IRI, they would already have done so. Moreover, the US knows all the threats against Iran have done nothing but guarantee Iran wanting nukes now(although I don’t agree with nuclear proliferation, strategically Iran would be stupid not to have them). I pity the US president that is in office when that happens. They will try to “out-jew” and blame each other in a theatrical charade for the benefit of AIPAC.
The US knows they are bankrupt; the American public is war-weary and would reject another war. So the big dilemma for the US is how to let Israel take the heat for it( since they’re the ones who want it anyway) while also supporting them with weapons without being dragged into it (good luck with that). I am quite certain that privately, both Israel and US leadership know that Iran would not be stupid enough to try anything against Israel. But they need to portray Iran as “crazy” enough to want national suicide because it is the only way their naked aggression can be justified. It’s a very thin veil that only the weak-minded will accept as truth.
The end game for Israel is to postpone having a nuclear power rival in their neighborhood as long as possible but the operative word is “postpone” since this is all they can do now– even if they succeed in destroying Iran’s current facilities. The US goal is to try to keep the oil flowing to feed the fossil fuel beast that they’ve become and protect the crumbling petro-dollar empire while keeping AIPAC happy and contributing campaign funds. So time is on the side of Iran. To win, all they need to do is survive.
The American cat is letting the Israeli mouse run a little bit before swatting it again. It’s time for the mouse to roar. Go get ’em, Jews! The righteous and just of the world are with you.
My concern is that Israel will still suffer many casualties and much damage even under the best of conditions. It must also be assumed that Iran is well prepared to cause maximum damage elsewhere including blocking the Straits of Harmuz and attacking Jews in the diaspora.
Israel unfortunately failed to warn the nations that their failure to disarm Iran makes them culpable for the Arabs and Muslims that will die in the next war. This leaves the nations with an easy option to blame Israel for ‘aggression’ against Iran.