DEBKAfile Exclusive Report January 19, 2012,
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared Thursday night, Jan. 19 that Iran had decided to become a nuclear state. He urged action before it was too late to stop Iran completing the construction of a nuclear weapon. His statement at the end of a visit to Holland gave Gen Martin Dempsey, on his first visit to Israel as Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, the message he will be asked to take back to President Barack Obama. It also contradicted Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s statement that Tehran had not yet decided to go nuclear.
On Dec. 22, 2011, debkafile first revealed Tehran had reached a decision to go ahead and build a nuclear weapon.
Netanyahu has kept the Iranian cards close to his chest. His statement therefore caught wrong-footed the Israeli officials, including Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who in the last 48 hours had asserted that Iran had not yet decided whether to build a nuclear bomb and there was still time for US-led sanctions to work.
debkafile reported earlier Thursday:
Gen. Martin Dempsey begins his first visit to Israel as Chairman of the Joint US Chiefs of Staff amid a major falling-out between the two governments over the handling of Iran’s nuclear weapon potential.
debkafile’s military and Washington sources confirm that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stands by the view that Iran is advancing its plans to build a nuclear bomb full speed ahead, undeterred even by the threat of harsher sanctions. Netanyahu therefore stands by his refusal of President Barack Obama’s demand for a commitment to abstain from a unilateral strike on Iran’s nuclear sites without prior notice to Washington.
The US president repeated this demand when he called the Israeli prime minister Thursday night Jan. 13. Netanyahu replied that, in view of their disagreement on this point, he preferred to cancel the biggest US-Israel war game ever staged due to have taken place in April. The exercise was to have tested the level of coordination between the two armies in missile defense for the contingency of a war with Iran or a regional conflict.
The prime minister was concerned that having large-scale US military forces in the country would restrict his leeway for decision-making on Iran.
In an effort to limit the damage to relations with the US administration, Defense Minister Ehud Barak struck a conciliatory note Wednesday, Jan. 18, saying, “Israel is still very far from a decision on attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities.”
Striking the pose of middleman, he was trying to let Washington know that there was still time for the US and Israel to reach an accommodation on whether and when a strike should take place.
debkafile’s sources doubt that President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu are in any mood to respond to Barak’s effort to cool the dispute. Obama needs to be sure he will not be taken by surprise by an Israel attack in the middle of his campaign for re-election, especially since he has begun taking heat on the Iranian issue.
Republican rivals are accusing him of being soft on Iran. And while the economy is the dominant election issue, a majority of Americans disapprove of his handling of Iran’s nuclear ambitions by a margin of 48 to 33 percent according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll this week.
Wednesday (Thursday morning Israel time), President Obama responded by reiterating that he has been clear since running for the presidency that he will take “every step available to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.”
Echoes of Barak’s arguments were heard in the words of US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Wednesday night: “We are not making any special steps at this point in order to deal with the situation. Why? Because, frankly, we are fully prepared to deal with that situation now.”
Panetta went on to say that Defense Minister Barak contacted him and asked to postpone the joint US-Israeli drill “for technical reasons.”
Before he took off for a short trip to Holland, Netanyahu instructed Barak and IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz not to deviate in their talks with Gen. Dempsey from the position he took with the US president, namely, no commitment for advance notice to Washington about a unilateral strike against Iran.
The Israeli prime minister is convinced that, contrary to the claims by US spokesmen and media, that current sanctions are ineffective insofar as slowing Iran’s advance toward a nuclear weapon and the harsher sanctions on Iran’s central bank and oil exports are too slow and will take hold too late to achieve their purpose.
In any case, say Israeli officials, Washington is again signaling its willingness to go back to direct nuclear negotiations with Tehran, although past experience proved that Iran exploits diplomatic dialogue as grace time for moving forward on its nuclear ambitions.
US spokesmen denied an Iranian report that a recent letter from the US president to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei proposed opening a direct channel for talks.
Still those reports persist. American and European spokesmen were forced to deny a statement by Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi Wednesday on his arrival in Ankara that Iran and the big powers are in contact over the revival of nuclear negotiations.
Netanyahu fears that dialogue between Iran and the five powers plus Germany (the P5+1) will resume after bowing to an Iranian stipulation that sanctions be suspended for the duration of the talks. Once again, Tehran will be enabled to steal a march on the US and Israel and bring its nuclear weapon program to conclusion, unhindered by economic constraints.
Probably androgynous
What worked for Clinton should work for the ONE! I got the POWER and the Doll!
Mollie, listen I didn’t vote for this clown “An acorn community organizing pamphlet distributing Anti-Semite pretending to be a Christian for political reasons who embraces Islam and orchestrated by George Soros & company and the liberal left media.”
Hopefully by now when the obama kool-aid wears off leaving them with one nasty hangover. The remedy, vote him out of office.
By the way mollie are you male or female???
Mollie, you left me out! I’m younger than Ron, and out of work.
That said, how much is the pay? I have some ideas of how to do it — like, for instance, the ballot box. Do I plan to have a ballot box fall on Obama? No — I plan to have a bear trap grab his hand when he tries to stuff the box with the votes of dead people. He will then be surrounded by a swarm of pensioners, lying in wait with canes in their hands, who will finish him off when he’s caught. Nobody will know who struck the fatal blow. Sinister, isn’t it?
Rongrand- Are you up for the Job?
I’m impressed. You’ve seen I Claudius. Sometimes it pays to have everyone think you are a fool. It allowed Claudius to survive the reign of his insane psychopath nephew Caligula. What a TV series. Derek Jacobi as Claudius. John Hurt as Caligula. Don’t even get me started on Livia (Augustus’ wife). What a bitch.
We cannot rule out the possibility that Obama is DELIBERATELY trying to maneuver Israel into waiting too long and then having to face a nuclear Iran alone. Everything about Obama suggests that he might harbor a sinister intention to place Israel into a non-survivable position while covering his own tracks. I see Obama as part of a long standing effort by multiple nations to enable Israels enemies to destroy the Jewish People. Recall the actions of Roosevelt and Britain in WWII and the Soviet aid to the Arabs during two wars. To trust Obama and the west could be suicidal. I hope that Netanyahu will find the strength to stand firm.
I would not trust Obama with such information as to when Israel will attack Iran. He may deliberately sabotage the effort by tipping off the Iranians.
Laura I am with you on this. He cannot be trusted and he is a liar.
Israel has to do what is best for Israel and not worry about what Obama thinks or does. He is no friend of Israel.
I am sure Iran fears Israel and wants Obama to persuade Israel to do nothing since sanctions are working. BS
I would not trust Obama with such information as to when Israel will attack Iran. He may deliberately sabotage the effort by tipping off the Iranians.
It’s quite obvious that the Obama administration and Europe have no intention of stopping Iran from getting nuclear weapons. This whole sanctions BS is not to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, since they know that won’t work, but rather to make Israel believe they are actually trying to stop Iran in order to prevent Israel from attacking Iran on her own.
YOU MISS THE POINT OF IT ALL
OBAMA IS BECOMING CORNERED BY THE movement OF THE GREAT AMERICAN PEOPLE
It is the movement. Follow the dialectics.
Iran IS the issue!
4international rejects all forms of anti Americanism.
We oppose Imperialism but not the ordinary American people and the masses are moving on the Iran issue
Obama.
READERS SHOULD KNOW IMMEDIATELY ABOUT THIS IMPORTANT POLL OF OVERALL AMERICAN OPINION:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/behind-the-numbers/2009/10/post-abc_poll_few_partisan_fis.html
The findings are electric. The findings of the poll are of gigantic importance for the whole world. They show that the mighty American working class/American people think along these lines:
Gen. Dempsey reminds me of Sir Derek Jacobi, who played in “I Claudius” and the “Cadfael” series. It’s a compliment — Jacobi is one of my favorite actors. Too bad Dempsey is hooked up with Obama; but then, Claudius had to live with Caligula.
As much as I like those folks, Netanyahu should give them the same reception Obama gave him not too long ago — have them sit and wait in the office, while he has dinner with his wife. If they have anything important to say, they should leave a message on his answering machine.