Israel Matzav

He's not bluffing

A former senior Israeli intelligence official has told the Jerusalem Post that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not bluffing about striking Iran.

"Bibi's not bluffing. He thinks it's the 1930s. The Iranians are the Germans, and history has a sense of humor with six million Jews now in Israel," the retired official said.

...

The former senior official told the Post that Israeli intelligence assesses Saudi Arabia would not wait "a minute" after Iran acquires a nuclear weapon to build or buy one themselves, risking a nuclear arms race in the world's least stable region.

"The Saudis have the missile technology already," he said. "I'd be surprised if they don't just take warheads from the Pakistanis. They've already paid for them."

Emphasizing the importance of existing sanctions, the official said Iran would try to get the financial pressures lifted with as few concessions as possible.

While generally supportive of the prime minister's policy, he said that the leadership of Israel's intelligence community has repeatedly warned Netanyahu against striking and said that the tone of his speech to the UN last month was "a mistake."

"He's not the commander-in-chief," he added. "But he can achieve consensus. And it can be done without leaks - it can be done."

 A pity he didn't do it in 2010 or 2012. It would have been easier then.

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

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:21 PM