Promoted by Steven D
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TEL AVIV, Israel (SMH) – Prepare for war. I met the Boogie Man, the former head of the Israeli Defence Forces, General Moshe “Boogie” Ya’alon, who is preparing the political groundwork for a military attack on Iran’s key nuclear facilities. “We have to confront the Iranian revolution immediately,” he told me. “There is no way to stabilise the Middle East today without defeating the Iranian regime. The Iranian nuclear program must be stopped.”
Defeating the theocratic regime in Tehran could be economic or political or, as a last resort, military, he said. “All tools, all options, should be considered.” He was speaking in the tranquillity of the Shalem Centre in Jerusalem, where he was, until last Thursday, one of Israel’s plethora of warrior-scholars, though more influential than most.
Decapitating Iranian Leadership
Could “all options” include decapitating the Iranian leadership by military strikes, including on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has called for Israel’s destruction? “We have to consider killing him,” Ya’alon replied. “All options must be considered.”
Israel prepares F15 Eagle jets for long-range
attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities
I guess I called this first two weeks ago …
Deal: No New Settlements for Iran Air Strike?
Read below the fold »
(Jerusalem Post) – A deal taking shape between Israel and Western leaders will facilitate international support for an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities in exchange for concessions in peace negotiations with the Palestinians and Arab neighbors, The Times reported.
According to one British official quoted by the paper, such an understanding could allow an Israeli attack “within the year.”
The report in the UK paper quoted unnamed diplomats as saying Israel was prepared to offer concessions on the formation of a Palestinian state as well as on its settlement policy and “issues” with Arab neighbors, in exchange for international backing for an Israeli operation in Iran.
“Israel has chosen to place the Iranian threat over its settlements,” one senior European diplomat said.
According to the Times report, the passage of two Sa’ar 5-class Israeli Navy ships through the Suez Canal was a message to Iran and part of preparations being made by Israel for the possibility of a strike.
(Haaretz) – The United States has told Israel it must halt an East Jerusalem construction project in accordance with the Obama administration’s demands for a complete freeze on settlement building.
The State Department summoned Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren over the weekend to advise him that the project developed by American millionaire Irving Moskowitz should not go ahead, according to both Israel Radio and Army Radio.
Moskowitz, an influential supporter of Israeli settlement in East Jerusalem, purchased the Shepherd Hotel in 1985 and plans to tear it down and build housing units in its place. The hotel is located near a government compound that includes several government ministries and the national police headquarters.
there’s was very interesting take on the “mind games in the Gulf” by richard bennet, an analyst at afi at asia times last week, it also offers some anecdotal evidence of a keystone kops like fuck up by the cia that resulted in an entire network being rolled up by the iranians:
the israelis are playing a very dangerous game with these kinds of bellicose threats, and you may rest assured that no good will come of it.
recommended reading.
Netanyahu has already pushed Obama aside regarding settlement construction in the West Bank and humanitarian aid to Gaza, while Hillary received an equally hard nudge about house demolitions in East Jerusalem. Netanyahu’s view: don’t tell us what to do.
You have to wonder whether that attitude is also being applied in the matter of attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities. If it happens, Israel will have hell to pay.
It’s hard to think of anything that could do more damage to the cause of the Reformers than articles like the one you cite at the top.
Do you really think Israel can be reformed at this stage? They have poisoned themselves too far. Maybe we have too.
Yes. I definitely believe that Israel can be led towards a sustainable and moral future. The biggest obstacle to peace in the middle east isn’t ideology but the psychological scars on both sides that harden their hearts and destroys trust. It takes time for those scars to fade. The key is to get a sustainable cease-fire that allows for that healing.
I don’t think I’m opening any new doors by saying nobody will remember the Reformers if Israel does this, because we’ll have much larger problems.
They are called ‘warrior-scholars’? How upscale of them.
So the deal with the west is ‘we let you kill and destroy as many as you can (in a day? a week?) and then after you kill all the people angry over your attack, we will force them to take a crappy deal from you.’
Sounds like the good old days of colonialism.
nalbar
Foolish in the extreme, if they do.
Saddam Hussein was conducting his nuclear program pretty much in unhardened facilities when Israel hit them.
Iran will have seriously hardened its nuclear facilities, especially any that might be engaged in weaponizing the uranium (if such even exist).
It is highly likely that any Israeli attack on Iran will turn out to be no more than symbolic. And the backlash could be more dangerous than Iran with nuclear weapons.
How do you say “bullshit” in Hebrew?
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Iran Needs Six Months for Nuclear-Weapon Test, Diplomats Say
Some war noices here, here and here (Eilat training exercises).
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."