An Israeli Attack Against Iran "Would Destroy Chance of Peace for Generations"

Source: Global Research
Richard Silverstein

In an interview in The Nation, David Grossman, Israel’s leading novelist and moral conscience, expresses the conviction that Bibi Netanyahu and Ehud Barak want a war against Iran:

…He said he had “a very bad feeling” that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak were going to order an attack, even against America’s wishes. “There is a dynamic to all these warlike declarations,” he said.

I’ve written often in the past about David Grossman as an admirable, but attenuated figure.  As a liberal Zionist who is a moral bellwether for Israeli centrist and leftists, but one who is constrained by many of the limitations inherent in those defending major elements of the Israeli status quo.  With Grossman, the glass is always both half empty and half-full.  He is someone always willing to sound the alarm about the worst depredations of the rightist governments who have afflicted Israel for the past decade or more.  But he is also someone who never wants to be too far ahead of his countrymen.  He is one of them, and feels their moral confusion and remains constrained, as they are, about Israel’s predicament and how to get out of it.

The good news is that Grossman has launched an assault on Bibi and Barak’s plan to assault Iran.  He’s gone so far as to accept that an Iran with a nuclear weapon would be far less bad than an Israeli attack on Iran in order to prevent this outcome.

In both Larry Derfner’s Nation interview and Grossman’s own Haaretz op-ed (Hebrew), he’s offered cogent analysis of the thinking of the Israeli leadership.  He’s especially good at placing their mindset in the context of Jewish history:

He [Netanyahu] has this idea that we are the people of eternity, am ha’netzach from the Bible, and our negotiations, as he sees it, are with eternity, with the primal currents of history and mankind, while the United States, with all due respect, is just another superpower like Rome or Athens or Babylon, and we’ve survived them all,” said Grossman. “I’m afraid that this way of thinking might encourage Netanyahu to take the step” of attacking Iran.

Netanyahu gifts Obama Esther Scroll

Source: PressTV

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has given US President Barack Obama a Hebrew tome containing details of a plot to annihilate the Jews in ancient Iran.

"Then too, they wanted to wipe us out," Netanyahu reportedly told Obama when presenting him with The Scroll of Esther during their meeting on Monday.

The Scroll of Esther tells the 2,500-year old story of a plot by Haman, the minister of Persian king Xerxes, to annihilate the Jewish people living in Persia. But his scheme is foiled by Esther, the king’s wife.

Jewish people read the scroll, known to them as the Megillah, on the eve of the Jewish costume holiday of Purim on March 7.

One of the verses of the scroll says, "And the Jews smote all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, and with slaughter and destruction, and did what they would unto them that hated them."

This is while Iranians have always lived in peace alongside the followers of the Jewish faith. Today, Iranian Jews live freely in Iran and even enjoy political advantages which include having a representative in Majlis.

US and Israel Plan Attacks on Iran

Source: Bloomberg

Obama administration officials are escalating warnings that the U.S. could join Israel in attacking Iran if the Islamic republic doesn’t dispel concerns that its nuclear-research program is aimed at producing weapons. 

Four days before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to arrive in Washington, Air Force Chief of Staff General Norton Schwartz told reporters the Joint Chiefs of Staff have prepared military options to strike Iranian nuclear sites in the event of a conflict. 

“What we can do, you wouldn’t want to be in the area,” Schwartz told reporters in Washington yesterday. 

Pentagon officials said military options being prepared start with providing aerial refueling for Israeli planes and include attacking the pillars of the clerical regime, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its elite Qods Force, regular Iranian military bases and the Ministry of Intelligence and Security. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because Pentagon plans are classified. 

“There’s no group in America more determined to prevent Iran from achieving a nuclear weapon than the Joint Chiefs of Staff,” Joint Chiefs Chairman Army General Martin Dempsey told the House Budget Committee yesterday. “I can assure you of that.” 

Separately, unnamed U.S. officials told the Washington Post that U.S. military planners are increasingly confident that sustained attacks with the Air Force’s 30,000-pound (13,608 kilograms) “bunker-buster” bombs could put Iran’s deeply buried uranium-enrichment plant at Fordo out of commission.

Israel to Attack Iran without US permission: Report

Source: PressTV

Israeli official say they will not alert the US if they decide to launch a military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities amid growing war threats against Tehran.

An unnamed US intelligence official said Israelis argue that if they keep Washington in the dark, it is unlikely that the US would be held responsible for failing to stop Israel's potential assault.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Military Affairs Ehud Barak have delivered the message to senior US officials who have visited Israel, the Associated Press reported.

In a similar report published by The Telegraph on Tuesday, Israeli sources said US President Barack Obama was rebuffed last month when he demanded private guarantees that no strike would go ahead without White House notification, suggesting Israel no longer plans to "seek Washington's permission."

Over the past few months, several US officials including Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey, White House National Security Adviser Tom Donilon, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and top lawmakers have visited Israel to reportedly dissuade Tel Aviv from attacking Iran.

Israeli officials are also scheduled to hold talks with senior US officials including Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta about Iran’s nuclear energy program.

Israeli officials have recently ramped up their war rhetoric, threatening Iran with military strikes in case the US-engineered sanctions against the country fail to force Tehran into abandoning its nuclear energy program. 

Israel inks $1.6 Billion Arms Deal with Azerbaijan

Source: AP
Amy Teibel

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israeli defense officials on Sunday confirmed $1.6 billion in deals to sell drones as well as anti-aircraft and missile defense systems to Azerbaijan, bringing sophisticated Israeli technology to the doorstep of archenemy Iran.

The sales by state-run Israel Aerospace Industries come at a delicate time. Israel has been laboring hard to form diplomatic alliances in a region that seems to be growing increasingly hostile to the Jewish state.

Its most pressing concern is Iran's nuclear program, and Israeli leaders have hinted broadly that they would be prepared to attack Iranian nuclear facilities if they see no other way to keep Tehran from building bombs.

Iran denies Israeli and Western claims it seeks to develop atomic weapons, and says its disputed nuclear program is designed to produce energy and medical isotopes.

In Jerusalem, Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said Iran's nuclear program will take center stage in his upcoming talks with U.S. and Canadian leaders. Netanyahu is to meet with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Ottawa on Friday and with President Barack Obama in Washington on Monday.

...

It was not clear whether the arms deal with Azerbaijan was connected to any potential Israeli planes to strike Iran. The Israeli defense officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not at liberty to discuss defense deals.

Read Full Article..

U.S. Intelligence Agencies Agree: No Evidence of Iranian Nuclear Weapons Program

Source: End The Lie
Madison Ruppert

Despite the repeated statements made by United States Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta which have clearly indicated that Iran is not developing nuclear weapons and the analysis of the American intelligence community, the heated anti-Iranian rhetoric never seems to let up.

Indeed, it has even been reported by none other than the New York Times that intelligence analysts in America have yet to find any hard evidence indicating that Iran has even decided to construct a nuclear bomb.

American intelligence assessments have continued to be congruent with the 2007 intelligence report which clearly concluded that Iran had in fact completely abandoned their nuclear program years before (scroll to the bottom of the article to read the embedded report).

According to anonymous U.S. officials, this assessment was reinforced by the 2010 National Intelligence Estimate and “it remains the consensus view of America’s 16 intelligence agencies.”

So, how can the governments of the United States and Israel continue to ignore their own intelligence agencies and nonsensically push forward with the effort to go to war with Iran?

If nothing else, it has become painfully clear that our so-called leaders are ignoring any and all contrary evidence which might weaken their war effort and making the relentless push towards war.

Breaking News: Israel Backing Down from Iran Threats

Source: Global Research
Michael Carmichael

Israel is backing down from her threats to bomb Iran. 

In a scathing loss of face for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, diplomatic sources in Israel have revealed that President Shimon Peres will meet privately with President Obama at the White House before - repeat before Netanyahu. 

High level sources in Israel have just leaked a sanitized version of the President's plan to the Israeli press. But, there is much more to the story. In his meeting at the White House, Peres will inform Obama that Netanyahu has performed poorly in his handling of the Iran nuclear crisis and that bellicose statements from the Prime Minister's cabinet have been both self-intimidating and self-destructive.

Then after meeting with Peres, Obama will address AIPAC and finally meet with Netanyahu to counsel him on the sad fact of the self-inflicted damage to the diplomatic credibility of his right-wing government. More on the diplomatic kabuki in due course.

According to a report in Haaretz, by Yossi Verter (February 22, 2012), entitled Peres to tell Obama Israel should not strike Iran soon,

US General: "Iran a Rational Actor", but is US one?

Source: TheRealNews

Max Blumenthal: There is nothing "rational" about sanctions and GOP leaders call for war is certainly not.

Netanyahu Claims that Iran is 'Undermining' World Stability

Source: RT

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused Iran of destabilizing the world alleging Tehran is behind the recent bombings in India and Thailand. But experts say Israel is just trying to manipulate public opinion.

"Iran's terror operations are now exposed for all to see," Netanyahu said on Wednesday. "Iran is undermining the world's stability and harming innocent diplomats. Countries must condemn Iran's terror acts and draw a red line." 

On Monday, a car bomb in an Israeli diplomat’s car in New Delhi injured four people. On the same day Georgian Special Forces defused a bomb targeting the Israeli embassy in Tbilisi. 

On Tuesday a number of blasts shook Bangkok injuring four people.

Israel was quick to blame Iran of the attacks, but Tehran denies any involvement.

Ali Rizk, an expert on Middle East affairs, thinks Israel is “taking advantage of these events whoever might be behind them.”

“What they [Israel’s authorities] are trying to do is to prepare public opinion or gain public support for an air strike,” he explained, adding that “it is very clear that Iran cannot be behind such an attack.”

Israel Threatens Gaza After Panetta Signals Green Light for Attack on Iran; More Imperialist Moves Against Syria; Wall Street Faction Seeks Closure of Hormuz to Stave Off Dollar Collapse

Source: PressTV
Dr. Webster Tarpley

In this edition of News Analysis we will examine the possibility of another war on the Gaza strip by Israel and whether this latest threat underlies deeper worries by Israel due to changes in the regional landscape from the Arab Spring in which parliamentary results from different Arab countries show a break from the past with Israel.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards Prepare For War

Source: The Telegraph
Con Coughlin

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have been put on a war footing amid increasing signs that the West is taking direct action to cripple Iran’s nuclear programme.

An order from Gen Mohammed Ali Jaafari, the commander of the guards, raised the operational readiness status of the country’s forces, initiating preparations for potential external strikes and covert attacks.

Western intelligence officials said the Islamic Republic had initiated plans to disperse long-range missiles, high explosives, artillery and guards units to key defensive positions.

The order was given in response to the mounting international pressure over Iran’s nuclear programme. Preparation for a confrontation has gathered pace following last month’s report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna that produced evidence that Iran was actively working to produce nuclear weapons.

The Iranian leadership fears the country is being subjected to a carefully co-ordinated attack by Western intelligence and security agencies to destroy key elements of its nuclear infrastructure.

Recent explosions have added to the growing sense of paranoia within Iran, with the regime fearing it will be the target of a surprise military strike by Israel or the US.

Calling for an Attack on Iran: US, Israel Politicians are "Detached From Reality"

Source: Global Research 
Devon DB

In the wake of the recent IAEA report on Iran’s nuclear program, Israel and its Western allies are once again pushing for a military confrontation with Iran. While they argue that confrontation with Iran is a rational action, in actuality the US and Israeli governments are showing just how much they are detached from reality.

Recently, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is “trying to rally support in his cabinet for an attack on Iran” [1] with only a narrow majority of the Cabinet opposing the move. Netanyahu has also stated that in regards to Iran that “all options are on the table.” This truly shows how detached from reality he is as an attack on Iran would potentially spell disaster for Israel as while there is currently no proof that Iran is attempting to gain nuclear weapons, attacking Iran would ensure that the regime would then make it a goal to have nuclear weapons to use as a deterrent from future attacks.

In addition to this, an attack on Iran could potentially anger the entire region against Israel as it “would produce a nightmare far more extensive than Chernobyl” and "The immediate and long-term human toll from the nuclear fallout and radiation from so many reactors and plants [would be] inconceivable;" it would potentially "strengthen extremist forces and impeded democratic reform in Iran, and it would ignite hatred against religious minorities throughout the Middle East." [2]

Thus, an attack on Iran would not be in Israel’s interest in the slightest from a purely logical standpoint when one looks at the potential repercussions.

Unfortunately, this detachment from reality also extends to the US leadership as well. There are many in the Republican Party who are “reviving many of the arguments that neoconservative proponents of armed intervention against Tehran lost in the latter years of George W. Bush's presidency.” [3]

Republican Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney stated that if Obama was re-elected Iran would attain a nuclear weapon. He also openly stated that he would attempt to destabilize the Iranian regime, saying that “the U.S. should be ‘working with the insurgents in the country to encourage regime change’” but “if ‘there's nothing else we can do besides take military action, then of course you take military action.’” [4]

Netanyahu Makes Unprecedented Statement to Israeli Parliament

Source: DEBKAfile

A short statement was read out to the Knesset (Israel’s parliament by cabinet member Michael Eitan Wednesday afternoon, Nov. 16. It read: “Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu informed the full Knesset plenum that all options are on the table when it comes to Iran’s nuclear program. The prime minister and the authorized bodies are acting to stop the nuclear armament of Iran. The efforts are ongoing and we will do everything possible to enlist states in the international community, “he continued “because the Iranian threat is adanger not only to the State of Israel but to world peace.”

The Knesset was due to devote a special session to the question of an attack on Iran.

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that this is the first statement of this nature the prime minister has ever delivered to Israel’s parliament. It was phrased notably in the present tense. “The authorized bodies” are thought to refer to the Israeli Defense Forces and its intelligence community.

Also worth noting is that Netanyahu sent a minister to read out his message. He himself absent from this key debate and so was the defense minister. For the first time too, there was no reference to sanctions which have figured hitherto in all Israeli official statements on the Iranian nuclear controversy.

The implication is that an operation against a nuclear Iran may be in the works. If so, a response from Tehran is to be expected shortly.

Earlier Wednesday, the supreme commander of Iran's armed forces Gen. Hassan Firouz-Abadi said Israel's cries of alarm about Iran's nuclear development bespeak shock and fear. But nothing will save the Zionist regime from its bitter fate – a hint at Iran's nuclear capability.

Firouz-Abadi said the massive explosion which killed Iran's missile chief Saturday "had nothing to do with Israel or America." It took place during "research on weapons that could strike Israel," adding that the blast had delayed by only two weeks the development of an undisclosed military "product."

The two statements together aroused lively speculation in the tense climate left by the latest nuclear watchdog agency's evidence of Iran's work on a nuclear weapon. Linking them might suggest that the Israeli prime minister had decided to refute the Iranian general's claim. By stating that "efforts are ongoing" to stop Iran's nuclear armament, he may have been implying that  the explosion at the Guards base Saturday was indeed a covert Israeli operation in line with those efforts.

U.S. Politicians Are The Biggest Threat To World Peace In Human History

Source: The Excavator

The world is on the verge of World War III. There is no question about that.

Russian geopolitical analyst Konstantin Sivkov, Vice President of the Academy for Geopolitical Issues, says WWIII "has already begun" and that it "will take lives of hundreds of millions people worldwide."

U.S. politicians want to start World War III more than anyone else. They want to appear tough and they think attacking countries like Iraq and Iran without any reason is tough.

These are sick and sociopathic politicians who have a dangerous love affair with Israel and War.

Israel and War are for U.S. politicians what milk and cookies are for Santa Claus.

If Bibi and Israel says jump, U.S. politicians say "how high?" That is the nature of the special relationship between the U.S. Congress and Israel.

Some politicians are victims of Israeli and media brainwashing, and brainwashing by the CIA and Pentagon. Some are afraid to criticize Israel because they'll be called anti-Semitic and won't get re-elected.

So ignorance and cowardice are two big reasons why U.S. politicians say what they say.

Another reason is they are flat out criminals who are complicit in war crimes. They know the truth about 9/11 and want a world war because it serves their paymasters' agenda for global government.

Guys like Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor are 100 percent traitors and criminals who deserve the death penalty.

When Israeli war criminal Bibi Netanyahu spoke at the U.S. Congress back in May, U.S. congressmen treated him like a god from Mars. They sat there and allowed a foreign tyrant publicly disrespect a sitting American president.

Obama is a liar and a traitor, but still, the Office of the President is sacred and allowing a foreign war criminal like Bibi to disrespect it on the floor of the Congress amounts to treason.

Republican presidential candidates are the worst. They are calling for Hitlerian aggression against Iran without presenting any evidence that Iran represents a threat to America.

Israel Refuses to Tell US its Iran Intentions

Source: The Telegraph
Adrian Blomfield
  

Israel has refused to reassure President Barack Obama that it would warn him in advance of any pre-emptive strike on Iran's nuclear capabilities, raising fears that it may be planning a go-it-alone attack as early as next summer. 

The US leader was rebuffed last month when he demanded private guarantees that no strike would go ahead without White House notification, suggesting Israel no longer plans to "seek Washington's permission", sources said. The disclosure, made by insiders briefed on a top-secret meeting between America's most senior defence chief and Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's hawkish prime minister, comes amid concerns that Iran's continuing progress towards nuclear weapons capability means the Jewish state has all but lost hope for a diplomatic solution.

On Tuesday, UN weapons inspectors released their most damning report to date into Iran's nuclear activities, saying for the first time that the Islamic republic appeared to be building a nuclear weapon. It was with that grave possiblity in mind that Leon Panetta, the US defence secretary, flew into Israel last month on what was ostensibly a routine trip.

Officially, his brief was restricted to the Middle East peace process, but the most important part of his mission was a private meeting with Mr Netanyahu and the defence minister, Ehud Barak. Once all but a handful of trusted staff had left the room, Mr Panetta conveyed an urgent message from Barack Obama. The president, Mr Panetta said, wanted an unshakable guarantee that Israel would not carry out a unilateral military strike against Iran's nuclear installations without first seeking Washington's clearance.

The two Israelis were notably evasive in their response, according to sources both in Israel and the United States.

"They did not suggest that military action was being planned or was imminent, but neither did they give any assurances that Israel would first seek Washington's permission, or even inform the White House in advance that a mission was underway," one said. 

Alarmed by Mr Netanyahu's noncommittal response, Mr Obama reportedly ordered the US intelligence services to step up monitoring of Israel to glean clues of its intentions. 

Towards Economic Collapse: Europe’s Debt Crisis has Spiraled out of Control

Source: The International Forecaster
Bob Chapman

As Chancellor Merkel and PM Sarkozy search for a solution that doesn’t exist they continue to lose credibility. Nothing of substance has been agreed upon that is legal and can be implemented. At the IMF Christina LeGarde is frantically waving her arms like a cheerleader telling anyone that will listen that if the six sovereigns in financial trouble are not aided the euro will fail and peace in Europe will disappear. The elitists are frantic because they cannot find a solution. LeGarde says without help there will be ten years of depression. She obviously hasn’t done her homework. Try 30 or more years. Sarkozy, Merkel and Jans Weidmann council member of the ECB has said the ECB cannot bail out governments by printing money. He is also head of the Bundesbank and said a key lesson of what is being proposed is the hyperinflation in Weimer Republic, which followed WWI. Over in Italy PM Berlusconi, who looks and acts like Benito Mussolini has been unseated and as a result the Italian bond market is on the edge of collapse. There is big pressure downward in stock and bond markets as a result and the US Treasury again attacks gold and silver hoping they can keep gold from breaking about $1,800. The PPT’s ability to achieve this is more than questionable.

At Cannes PM Sarkozy and President Obama discuss what a liar Israel’s PM Netanyahu is. Their candor was accidentally picked up by a supposedly muted speaker. What is now realized is that euro zone government bonds contain unexpected credit risks. All the European politicians and bureaucrats want to save the euro, but their promises and solutions are not worth the paper they are written on. They are so believable that China won’t lend them money. These characters have been kicking the can down the road since last spring with little or no long-term solutions, and no solutions to affect a recovery and create jobs. Austerity has replaced growth and that is expediting a failing economy, even in Germany. If economies don’t grow tax receipts fall and the ability to service debt is impaired. Big euro zone banks are broke just as their counterparts in NYC are. As this proceeds we ask how long can the ECB buy Italian and Spanish bonds?

In Greece a coalition has been made and Mr. Samaras has shown his true colors by backing Trilateral-Bilderberg Lucas Papademos, as interim PM. We hope Greek citizens realize that Papademos will sell them out. It is only a matter of when. The debt deal will probably be ratified, but at what price? Will it bring revolution or a coup? Who knows, but under the circumstances anything goes. 60% to 65% of Greeks oppose the bailout, but 71% want to stay in the euro, which is impossible.

The G20 and Globalization

Source: Corbett Report and Global Research.ca


TRANSCRIPT & SOURCES: 

Last week’s G20 Summit in Cannes, France is already being written off as a bust by the international financiers who were hoping to bolster the fledgling European Financial Stability Fund with international support and to implement a new global financial services tax which they claim will be the long-term solution to the ongoing global economic meltdown.

Israel Could Be Forced To Go It Alone On Iran Attack

Source: Infowars
Paul Joseph Watson

Developments over the last 24 hours suggest that Israel could be forced to go it alone in launching a military assault on Iran’s nuclear facilities, with the United States and NATO backing away from becoming involved in a conflict that would spark economic and geopolitical turmoil.

During a private conversation with Barack Obama at last week’s G20 meeting, French President Nicolas Sarkozy was overhead by journalists to say, “I cannot bear Netanyahu, he’s a liar.” Obama responded by remarking, “You’re fed up with him, but I have to deal with him every day!”

The comments were caught after a microphone was accidentally left on following the conclusion of the conference.

“A Reuters reporter was among the journalists present and can confirm the veracity of the comments, which were relayed by a French internet outlet on Tuesday,” reports Haaretz.

The exchange highlights a deepening gulf between western powers and Israel over plans to attack Iran, with French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe making it clear today that France does not support a military campaign.

“If the IAEA report, due out this week, indicates Iran is building atomic weapons capabilities, then France would firmly back further UN sanctions, he said, but would do all it can to stop military action,” reports the Jerusalem Post.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration has reportedly backed away from plans to impose new economic sanctions on Iran, fearing, “Severe penalties against Iran’s central bank and its fuel exports would exacerbate the turmoil on international financial markets,” reports DebkaFile.

With Russia and China also expressing their opposition to an attack, it seems likelier that Israel will exploit a contrived pretext to prove that Iran represents an imminent threat to its security, an event that will carry far more shock value than the text of an IAEA report.

Should Israel wish to stage a Gulf of Tonkin-style provocation, it will call on Mossad agents to pose as terrorists and carry out attacks that will be blamed on Iran, similar to how Palestinian militants were offered cash and weapons by Israel to pose as an Al-Qaeda cell and carry out bombings in 2002.

Even if Israel is forced to launch an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities without the support of the United States and other NATO powers, don’t expect them to not get involved at some point.

The inevitable reprisal attacks that Iran will launch through its proxies like Hezbollah will be seized upon by the establishment media (‘how dare they defend themselves’) and cited as a pretext for US involvement to ‘maintain security in the region’ – and America will find itself embroiled in yet another conflict.

Attacking Iran Could Lead to World War

Source: RT
Adrian Salbuchi 

Tensions are once again mounting against Iran ahead of a crucial report by the UN nuclear watchdog, IAEA, due next week. Meanwhile, Israel has tested a new ballistic missile.

­Some reports go even further and suggest the idea of a military strike on the Islamic Republic is being pushed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And British media say that with Iran remaining resilient against international sanctions, the attack could come as soon as next November. Various media cite the UK Ministry of Defense and Whitehall as their sources.

US Sources: Israel Ministers Who Opposed Iran Strike Are Now For It

Source: DEBKA file

American sources told Fox television early Sunday, Nov. 6 that all the senior Israeli ministers who were formerly against attacking Iran's nuclear sites are now for it, having been updated on Iran's clandestine progress toward building a nuclear weapon. This information is due to be borne out when the IAEA publishes its next Iran report Tuesday, Nov. 8. The ministers are said to have changed their minds in the belief that the next round of sanctions will not be tough enough and point to the precedent of Israel's 1981 attack on Iraq's nuclear reactor which was never rebuilt.

According to Debkafile's Washington sources, the Obama administration attributes the change of heart by those ministers to a conviction that Iran already has a nuclear weapon.

And so after ten days after feverish, unattributed Israeli news reporting on an imminent attack, the administration has drawn certain lines: Israel should go forward with its plans to strike Iran, while Washington will stress "diplomatic strategy."