Israel Matzav: Hmmm... Security cabinet meets for 10 hours on Iran

Wednesday, September 05, 2012

Hmmm... Security cabinet meets for 10 hours on Iran

Israel's security cabinet met for 10 hours on Tuesday to discuss Iran. The proceedings were secret and no statement was released, although there was lots of speculation.

While Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's inner cabinet, which is made up of Netanyahu and eight other ministers, can give an advisory opinion on whether to attack Iran, the actual decision needs to be made by the security cabinet. This body could also choose to bring such a decision to the full 29-member cabinet.

In addition to Netanyahu, the security cabinet also includes Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman, Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch, Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz, Construction and Housing Minister Arial Attias, Minister Bennie Begin, Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya'alon, Interior Minister Moshe Ya'alon, National Infrastructures Minister Uzi Landau, Intelligence Agencies Minster Dan Meridor, Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar, and Regional Development Minister Silvan Shalom.

All told this body includes eight Likud ministers, three from Israel Beitenu, two from Shas, and one from the Independence party. Another four ministers are observers.

It is likely that among the issues that were discussed were the "red lines" that Israel would like the US to establish as a way of deterring Iran from moving ahead.

While Netanyahu has not publicly declared what he thinks those red lines should be, Uzi Arad, the former head of the national security council, said that they could include a declaration that any uranium enrichment beyond 20 percent would be a direct trigger for military action.

Arad, in an Israel Radio interview, said other possible red lines could be the discovery of additional uranium enrichment plants – like the once secret facilities at Natanz and Fordow – or the interference with the work of IAEA inspectors.

In addition, Arad said that the US has not yet spoken in "categorical terms" making crystal clear its determination to stop the Iranian nuclear march.

Example of this, he said, would be clearer presidential declarations to the effect that the US will not tolerate or allow a nuclear Iran, and will use all means to prevent it.

Other "categorical" expressions of this determination, he said, could be congressional authorization now of the use of force if diplomacy fails to convince the Iranians to halt, and a clear statement that the military objective of any US action would not be to "buy time," but rather to prevent Iran from ever being able to build a nuclear bomb.

I doubt any of those red lines will be declared any time soon. But we can try. I would also bet on the full cabinet approving any strike on Iran, but that the meeting at which it is discussed will not be announced unless and until the planes or missiles are on their way. Or finished.

Labels: Iranian nuclear threat, Israeli attack on Iran, security cabinet