Former Israeli spymaster: Iran should be worried
JERUSALEM (AP) — A former Israeli spymaster on Thursday cautioned Iran not to dismiss Israel's talk about possibly attacking Iranian nuclear facilities.
The next 12 weeks will be "very critical" to Israel's decision on whether to strike, Ephraim Halevy said. That time frame coincides with the run-up to the U.S. presidential election.
"If I were an Iranian, I would be very worried about the Israeli talk about a possible attack, because Israel's threats sound serious and credible to me," Halevy, who left the Mossad a decade ago, told Israel Radio.
Iran contends its nuclear program is peaceful and designed to mostly produce energy. But Israel thinks Tehran's uranium enrichment activities are a cover for bomb-making, and like the U.S. has said it would not tolerate a nuclear Iran.
Israel considers Tehran to be its most fearsome enemy and does not lightly take multiple references by Iranian officials to the Jewish state's destruction. It says nuclear talks with Iran and tough sanctions against it have been ineffective — an apparent swipe at U.S. policy.
American officials oppose a near-term military strike on Iran and have pressed Israel to give diplomacy and sanctions a chance to work. A strike before U.S. elections three months from now would likely drive up oil prices and drag the U.S. into another domestically unpopular Mideast conflict during the election campaign
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier this week that Israel hasn't decided whether to strike Iran. But before meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Wednesday, Netanyahu sounded impatient with U.S. efforts to curb Iran's nuclear program, saying Washington's strategy of diplomacy and sanctions was perilously close to failure.
"Right now the Iranian regime believes that the international community does not have the will to stop its nuclear program," Netanyahu said. "This must change, and it must change quickly because time to resolve this issue peacefully is running out."
The next 12 weeks will be "very critical" to Israel's decision on whether to strike, Ephraim Halevy said. That time frame coincides with the run-up to the U.S. presidential election.
"If I were an Iranian, I would be very worried about the Israeli talk about a possible attack, because Israel's threats sound serious and credible to me," Halevy, who left the Mossad a decade ago, told Israel Radio.
Iran contends its nuclear program is peaceful and designed to mostly produce energy. But Israel thinks Tehran's uranium enrichment activities are a cover for bomb-making, and like the U.S. has said it would not tolerate a nuclear Iran.
Israel considers Tehran to be its most fearsome enemy and does not lightly take multiple references by Iranian officials to the Jewish state's destruction. It says nuclear talks with Iran and tough sanctions against it have been ineffective — an apparent swipe at U.S. policy.
American officials oppose a near-term military strike on Iran and have pressed Israel to give diplomacy and sanctions a chance to work. A strike before U.S. elections three months from now would likely drive up oil prices and drag the U.S. into another domestically unpopular Mideast conflict during the election campaign
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier this week that Israel hasn't decided whether to strike Iran. But before meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Wednesday, Netanyahu sounded impatient with U.S. efforts to curb Iran's nuclear program, saying Washington's strategy of diplomacy and sanctions was perilously close to failure.
"Right now the Iranian regime believes that the international community does not have the will to stop its nuclear program," Netanyahu said. "This must change, and it must change quickly because time to resolve this issue peacefully is running out."
The world needs to understand that Israel is the bad guy. Their ultimate goal is control of the middle-eastern resources, and they will lie or say anything to demonize any opposition to their plan. Ahmadinejad never called for the literal destruction of Israel, that was a misinterpretation that the zionist media was more than happy to use.
Israel has to do what they feel necessary to keep existing. Iran has openly threatened to destroy Israel. Why should they wait to be attacked? And we should support them 100%.
More zionist war propoganda... Only an IDIOT would think that we should get into ANOTHER war that we wont win (I dont know if you noticed but our millitary aint doin so good, they aint won one in 62 years) But another war is in the bag for imperialist America (with isreal pulling the puppet strings).
 @Ol'Ironhead Why would we get into a war because Israel blows up something in Iran? It didn't happen when they attacked Syria. Either time.
@Ol'Ironhead I said if I were Isreal I would do what I needed to do to preserve my nation. IF that means preemptively taking out a threat that has said, has made known to the world that they would wipe isreal of the map, then I would. It would be stupid to not think they are going to sit back and wait for something to happen.
I think they, Isreal will attack if they believe Obama will win, which I think is in real question at this point, due to the fact that Obama isn't really that strong of a supporter of isreal and wouldn't help them out if they did attack. So if they see that Obama will win, they'll attack before the election, I would i I were isreal, Iran doesn't play they mince no words.