Is Israel really prepared to go it alone?

Reuters reports:

Israel’s perspective on Iran’s nuclear program differs from that of the United States, and the two may part ways on what action to take, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Friday.

Washington’s clout over its Middle East ally is under scrutiny after Israel’s veiled threats to attack Iran preemptively if international diplomacy fails to rein in Tehran’s uranium enrichment, a process with bomb-making potential.

The United States this week said it did not want to hurt the Iranian people with “crippling” sanctions against Iran’s energy sector, measures Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described as the only viable diplomatic solution.

“There is of course a certain difference in perspective and a difference in judgment and a difference in the internal clock, a difference in capabilities,” Barak told the Washington Institute for Near East Policy think-tank, when asked about Israeli-U.S. discussions about Iran.

“I don’t think that there is a need to coordinate in this regard. There should be understanding on the exchange of views, but we do not need to coordinate everything,” said Barak, who was in Washington for strategic talks.

Yet again, we are supposed to believe that Israel is prepared to go it alone and take on Iran.

Israel can destroy a nuclear reactor in Iraq; it can destroy one under construction in Syria; it wipe out a weapons convoy in Sudan; it can kill a Hezbollah commander with a bomb in Damascus; it can smother a Hamas commander with a pillow in Dubai; and it can flatten Southern Lebanon and Gaza.

Therefore, Israel’s ready to go to war with Iran… or, it loves to show off its power when it perceives the risk of doing so is minimal. If that was the case with Iran, we wouldn’t be weighing the chances of an Israeli attack — we’d be looking at the results of such an action.

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{ 6 comments }

wags101 March 1, 2010 at 4:42 am: They better be prepared to go it alone, the US will not be drug into another war at the request of Israel. American’s are waking up and seeing what a rock around our neck Israel is. We have neither the patience or the will to do it again. So a radioactive parking lot it might be.
delia ruhe March 1, 2010 at 11:38 am: By moving its uranium out into the open, Iran has made it as easy as humanly possible for Israeli bombers. So, in this good-cop/bad-cop game that Israel and the US are playing, why doesn’t Israel attack already? Or have I just answered my own question?
DE Teodoru March 1, 2010 at 12:59 pm: Netanyahu’s cabinet is full of psychotics, opportunists and plain low-life criminals. That’s what’s available to make a coalition in Israeli politics these days as the population metabolically shuts down in characteristic Ashkenazi majority despair&depression as in their European past. But Netanyahu has that Sabra spunk that will make it look like he’s playing along with Cabinet psychos but is in fact sneaking hope to the Palestinians towards a two-states, one-economy solution. Israeli politics taught him that stupid lies and idiotic actions are as necessary brilliant moves in order to advance things ahead– same with the Palestinians who are, after all, familial relations. But there is in him that Sabra accountability that today makes him see that if he fails to move to a rational integration, Israel is doomed and that will be forever on his tombstone. He’s too good a crook to give in to the crazies so I still have hope.
rockyc March 1, 2010 at 2:11 pm: I cannot see Israel EVER attacking anyone without the full support of the US.

The US dearly wants to go to war with Iran, but a third or fourth front might look…unseemly.

So why not get Israel to take a turn. They will happily do so. And then Israel and the US can split the spoils: Oil, of course.
eatbees March 1, 2010 at 3:52 pm: Marwan Bishara is right, it’s time for Obama to meet with Ahmadinejad, as he promised during his campaign.

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/imperium/2010/02/27/it-time-obama-meet-ahmadinejad

If only we had a president worthy of his Nobel Peace Prize….
COLINDALE March 7, 2010 at 5:14 pm: There is little doubt that JFK must be turning in his grave at the collusion of Washington in such an error of judgement, over all of the near half a century since his death.
March 6, 2010

We have no idea what the actual consequences would be, if/ when the state of Israel decides to attack Iran. Nevertheless, the apparent lack of concern in world capitals, is worrying.

An attack on Iran, by Israel, would certainly provoke a counter attack upon Israel’s major cities and the probability of new Iranian long-range missiles getting through defences and killing hundreds, or even thousands, in Tel Aviv, would be a distinct likelihood.

That event would inevitably mean that Israel would have no option but to use her secret nuclear arsenal against Iran – and that could be the spark that ignites the first nuclear war.

Whilst the above is a hypothetical scenario, there is no one, not Mr Obama, nor Mr Netanyahu, nor anyone, else who could deny its possible validity.

That is the reason that Israel must NEVER be allowed to attack Iran. Because that could well escalate the Middle East-Israeli dispute into a global conflict in which millions could die.

In order to ensure that Israel does never cause such a global catastrophe, the US, the EU and the UN must all now insist that Israel submits her secret nuclear arsenal to IAEA inspection. The tragic-joke of ‘nuclear ambiguity’ has had its day, and failed to increase security to Israel or the Middle East. On the contrary, it is Israel’s massive, secret arsenal of warheads that could well involve us all in a nuclear conflagration, the like of which has never before been seen. Time is now of the essence and the discredited policy of allowing the build-up of the only secret nuclear arsenal in the world, must end.

There is little doubt that JFK must be turning in his grave at the collusion of Washington in such an error of judgement, over all of the near half a century since his death.