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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Israel preparing strike against Iran - report
2008-12-04
ISRAEL is reportedly drawing up plans to attack Iranian nuclear facilities and is prepared to launch a strike without backing from the US.

"It is always better to coordinate," a top Defence Ministry official told The Jerusalem Post. "But we are also preparing options that do not include coordination."

Israel would prefer to work in consultation with the US because the US Air Force controls the Iraqi airspace its jets would need to cross on a bombing mission. "There are a wide range of risks one takes when embarking on such an operation," a top Israeli official said.

A report, published in September in Britain's Guardian newspaper, claimed that Isreali Prime Minister Ehud Olmert requested a green light to attack Iran in May but was refused by George W. Bush

Iran has already dismissed the possibility of an Israeli strike. "We think that regional and international developments and the complicated situation faced by Israel itself will not allow it to launch military strikes against other countries," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi said, according to the Press TV Web site. "Israel makes threats to promote its psychological and media warfare."
Posted by:Oztralian

#6  These folks completely miss the forest for the trees.

Hell, they wouldn't know a good tree if it fell on them.
Posted by: xbalanke   2008-12-04 16:18  

#5  This is the policy blurb from the Atlantic Council of the United States, the think tank for Obama's new National Security Advisor.

We need to better understand Iranian concerns: they are rightfully worried about national security. Israel and the U.S. continue to espouse bellicose rhetoric with regards to Iran. This is not helpful. Moreover, Iran is a Shiite state in a largely Sunni region and this plays an important part in their desire for autonomy that the West sometimes fails to apprecitate. Not to mention that their population doubled in the last 20 years, and oil reserves won't sustain their demographic forever. Nuclear energy is their right, but it needs to be developed following international norms. A UN process for the provision of enriched uranium is one option. The most obvious benefit of this is that the Iranians would receive fuel at a far cheaper price than they could ever produce it themselves, and, under IAEA inspection, it would be taken away once burned.

These folks completely miss the forest for the trees.
Posted by: ed   2008-12-04 08:08  

#4  Five million Obama zombies in D.C. on Inaugeration Day. Another 50 million watching on TV. A billion angry, US hating muzzies all lathered up and screaming. I'd give the 19th or 20th of January high marks.
Posted by: Besoeker   2008-12-04 08:01  

#3  Was thinking about that last night. They don't want to do it so close to inauguration that it makes Bambi respond. Nor close to Christmas so that it appears to be somehow anti-Christian. New year's eve sounds like a good time. Lots of distractions. Much later gets to be a PR problem.

I'm not so sure airstrikes are the best way, either. If they have been working on this for a long time, and I suspect they have, sleeper bombs may already have been placed in appropriate locations to be set off remotely.

Sure hope somebody does something.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble   2008-12-04 06:03  

#2  Hmmmmmm. Time's a wastin', boyz. I don't think the teen crushes of Brooks, Gerson, and their ilk are gonna count for much when we're talkin' strategic existential threats to national existence, and stuff. I'm still unable to see really satisfying Israeli military options, but the perfect may not be the enemy of the good-enough, in this case.
Posted by: Verlaine   2008-12-04 03:41  

#1  TOPIX > COMMISSION RECOMMENDS US MUST USE "DIRECT FORCE" AGZ IRAN, NORTH KOREA, IFF NEEDED; + BIDEN: US MUST STOP SPREAD OF NUCLEAR, BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2008-12-04 02:08  

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