Israel Matzav

Report: Israel won't attack before November

A report in Time Magazine claims that Prime Minister Netanyahu has agreed not to attack Iran before November.

After a summer of stoking media speculation that Israel would bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities before Americans go to the polls in November, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak appear to be dialing things down. Netanyahu on Monday repeated his new message that war can be avoided, at least for now, if the U.S. is willing to publicly declare a clear “red line” that, if crossed by Iran, would trigger a U.S. military response. Since President Barack Obama last spring clearly stated that he would order military action if Iran moved to build a nuclear weapon, there would be nothing new in reiterating such a position — except, perhaps, that it could be spun, together with a series of largely symbolic gestures reportedly being weighed by the Obama Administration to placate the Israelis, as a enough of a concession to allow Netanyahu and Barak to clamber down from the limb on which their war talk has left them.

The rest of the report is largely speculation, and seems to assume that all retired IDF officers who are not in favor of war must deem Netanyahu incompetent. In fact, many if not most of the current IDF officers are rumored to favor attacking Iran.

Netanyahu has caved in at the last minute before. On the other hand, reporter Tony Karon seems way too overzealous on this one.

What could go wrong?

Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, Iranian nuclear threat, Israeli attack on Iran

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:35 AM