The drum beat of a predestined war

Israel’s foreign minister is in Washington. There’s a lot to talk about.

Politicians and diplomats can be surprisingly coy about asking direct questions, even in private. So, “are you going to plunge us into a war in an election year?” may remain unspoken.

The drumbeat of war has grown louder in the past few days.

The Washington Post reported that US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta believes Israel could attack Iran as early as this spring.

Mr Panetta did not deny the story.

This was reinforced by a fascinating and incredibly detailed articleby the Israeli journalist Ronen Bergman.

“After speaking with many senior Israeli leaders and chiefs of the military and the intelligence, I have come to believe that Israel will indeed strike Iran in 2012,” Mr Bergman concludes.

This is the argument: there is less than a year to stop Iran moving into “the immunity zone”.more from bbc    thank you battleskin88

Target Iran – Air Strikes

The German magazine Der Spiegel reported in October 2004 that Israel had completed plans for a pre-emptive strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities. Der Spiegel reported that a special unit of the Mossad had received order in July 2004 to prepare a detailed plan, which had been delivered to the Israeli Air Force. The source for the report, an IAF pilot, said the plan to take out Iran’s nuclear sites was “complex, yet manageable.” Israel’s plan assumes that Iran has six nuclear sites, all of which would be attacked simultaneously.

It would be difficult for Israel to strike at Iran without American knowledge, since the mission would have to be flown through American [formerly Iraqi] air space. Even if the United States did not actively participate with operations inside Iranian air space, the US would be a passive participant by virtue of allowing Israeli aircraft unhindered passage. In the eyes of the world, it would generally appear to be a joint US-Israeli enterprise, any denials notwithstanding. Indeed, it is quite probable that Iran would not be able to readily determine the ultimate origins of the strike, given Iran’s relatively modest air defense capabilities. Thus, even if the strike were entirely of American origin, Israel would be implicated. When asked in August 2004 about Israeli threats to attack Iran, Bush’s national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, declined to say whether the United States would support such action by Israel.From globalsecurity.org

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