Israeli Military Preparing Options For Iran Strike

The IDF is drawing up options for a strike on Iranian nuclear facilities that do not include coordination with the United States, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

While its preference is to coordinate with the US, defense officials have said Israel is preparing a wide range of options for such an operation.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[2PartyDictatorship]

Hoooray get ready to fight another war for the Z i o n i s t s. I'm moving overseas.

[MagisterLudi]

"In October 2000, Ir-an-ian Parliament passed a bill to raise the legal age of marriage for women from 9 to 15. However, in November 2000, the Council of Guardians rejected the bill as contrary to Isl-amic law."

[chaos4700]

Link? And do try to get it right, this time.

[chaos4700]

Holy propaganda! Take a look at some of the other stories at Jerusalem Post. Like this column for example: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1226404823710&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

"Bush's initial reactions to the Sept. 11 attacks were a rare display of political and intellectual courage."

"Until Bush came around, Europeans had delighted in showing off their false multicultural and humanitarian credentials built on buying off terrorists, attacking Israel and giving the Palestinians billions of euros in foreign aid. Bush's freedom agenda exposed their deceit and their cowardice."

Good heavens. The columnist is trying to pass Bush off as a /hero/. And this article is only a week old. This stuff puts even Fox News to shame in its spin control.

You know what really depresses me? Not that it's scientific by any means, but the current results of the Quick Vote on that first article seem to suggest that it's /working/. No wonder Israel bombs, shoots and imprisons with impunity from its own citizens. This is the sort of stuff George Orwell had nightmares about.

[Wozzeck]

How dare you criticize the cocoon from whence emerged Wolf Blitzer!

[chaos4700]

LOL! This does all sometimes feel like we're living a bad movie -- "Revenge of the Pod People?"

[Durango]

If there is any truth to this story, and we have been hearing these rumors for months if not years, it should be the number one job of the Obama Administration to quash this immediately.

Hillary Clinton is in an excellent position because of her unwavering support of Israel as a Senator to put the screws to Israel. What we need is a lessoning of tensions in the Middle East not another senseless war.

Obama needs to make an approach to Iran. He needs to reduce the threat. Then, perhaps, the elections this summer will bring in a reform government that will be open to working with the West.

An attack by Israel at this point will mean the Conservative Mullahs and their candidates will remain in power for another generation.

And, of course, Obama must work for a Peace Plan between Israel and the Palestinians.
But that is a long term project. .

His immediate goal should be to reduce tensions, and get everyone on the same page to fight the nut job terrorists.

Who, incidentally, are more the enemy of Iran that they are the USA or the west.

[Babysnake]

Israel must know that the tide is turning against their behavior. Unfortunately, as humans do, they first dig in their heels. We have so many Israel hawks in our government, I worry it is a done deal that we will be dragged into war with them.

[harriettubman]

Let Israel strike and when WWIII begins, they're on their own. The U.S. better not intercede at all. You break it, you fix it.

[chaos4700]

That depends when Israel does their first strike (and /if/, I suppose, to be optimistic). If they wait too much longer there won't be much of an American juggernaut to back them up. And I'm saying that as an American living amidst this -- our country is literally falling to pieces right now. Republicans have overtaxed the American economy as well as her people... perhaps not with actual literal taxes, but in spirit, in confidence of their safety and security, and a quality of life that drops precipitously by the day. Not to be Chicken Little here, but I think Obama really is our last chance to keep from imploding. In which case, Israel will be virtually on its own.

[Chapmanp2]

We (our military) has options in place for every imaginable scenario...
To think Israel would have options in place for bombing Iran is simply acknowledging reality.
Always hope, & work toward the best possible outcome, but always be prepared for the worst...

[cdnnewsjunky]

Working out options for a response to Iranian aggression and working out options for a pre-emptive Bush style act of aggression are two very different sets of options. There is no best possible outcome for the latter!

[chaos4700]

To say nothing of the fact that there is no reason to believe there is any real danger of Iranian aggression toward Israel. Frankly? This looks a lot to me like the Red Scare, revised -- only instead of conceptualizing the enemy onto the monolithic Soviet Union, which regrettably for the neocon war hawks fell in a single great crash virtually overnight, they can crawl along from one Muslim target to another -- subtly tweaking the definition of "Islamofascism" with even greater ease than they swapped through supposed reasons for going to war in Iraq in the first place.

[Wozzeck]

Could these war drum thumpings be coordinated with massive plays on the oil futures markets by Israeli speculators with connections to their media and defense establishment? Let's get gasoline up to $4/gallon again to help these guys out.

[Apov]

If you think the Iraq war was a very stu pid decision, a decision by the Israelis to attack Iran would be even stu pider.

There is never a winner in war.
Think of all of the wealth that has been wasted in wars.
This wealth could have been spent in so many more beneficial ways for the advancement of mankind.

The U$ should stop ANY AND ALL aid to Israel if Israel attacks.

[cdnnewsjunky]

Stupider? Maybe even the stupidest!

[betz55]

Israel pre-emptively invades their neighbors, Iran does not. Demonizing and warmongering for Iran to protect Israel is wrong. Israel needs to be dealt with before Tehran. Unlike Iran, Israel simply has too much to hide and wants to keep it that way. When is Israel going to sign the NNPT and allow IAEA inspections ? Israel wants Iranian nuclear transparency? Then Israel better be just as transparent.

America's silence about Israelis nuclear weapons with the latter's lack of membership to the NPT while maintaining such harsh rhetoric with regard to Iran's nuclear program, which is legally allowed to enrich uranium as a NPT member is an example of the kind of outright double standard that the United States has been following in its foreign policy. Pure BS.

Israel has its own nuclear arsenals and they are the biggest recipient of our aid in the world -- U.S. vetoes just about every UN Security Council resolution that is passed against Israel. Double standard ? Hypocrisy ? Absolutely.

Why on earth is Israel, a rogue nuclear state allowed to lay waste to every international law and convention without criticism and their "enemies" - read Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Hezbollah, Hamas - anyone who opposes Israel's failed, belligerent, apartheid aggressive policies - are not entitled to raise a hand in their own defense ? Cut the billions of dollars we give them each year, we need the money here at home, not financing another war for the 'security' of our biggest welfare client.

[arvay]

Excellent points!

[tiradintim]

If a society is really civilized, truth will always win eventually

[who38]

Hear, hear.

[Huffyfan]

wow . Bravo . Excellent Post . finally someone dared say what has not been said .

[cornagainstsorcery]

Yeah!!

[brutus948]

great post! I'm very surprised Huff post let it thru. Usually any bad comment about Israel never make it to the huff post.

[chaos4700]

I have to confess, while I do find HuffPo to be mostly on the level, I'd have to agree with you. I mean, I recognize that my posts do require moderation -- every now and then, I do cross a line or two that aren't conducive to intelligent conversation, admittedly -- a /lot/ of my posts that discuss Israel at any length get blocked. And I am by no means anti-Semitic -- the Jewish people, by and large, in their majority, are fantastic people with a strong cultural ethic toward liberalism, academics and earnest work. But tread out a even a bit into that territory where the angels of mainstream US media fear to tread, and you have maybe a 50/50 chance of being blocked.

Like I said, it's strange. I haven't observed any peculiar biases in comment moderation beyond that.

[arvay]

There is no way that the US can disassociate itself from such an insane attack. It's well within our power to stop it.

The effects would be catastrophic, including almost certainly the cutoff of much of the world's oil supply and consequent stratospheric energy prices on top of the growing global economic crisis. The Russians might be happy at the rising oil prices, but China, which owns our debt, will be furious.

Possibly millions will die in the ensuing war, which has the potential to go nuclear, given he fact that the Iranians have enough fissile material to make sure that Hizbollah can deliver some via rockets to Israel.

There is nothing the US can do to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons if it wants them, short of Hillary's "obliteration" idea. And where would the fallout go, madame war marshall? Oh dear! Afghanistan and Pakistan! Think they might be irked? Think Pakistan's fragile government might fall to Muslim fundamentalists, who would then have nuclear weapons?

I could easily run over the word maximum detailing all the catastrophic effects this would cause.

The only real solution is a regional disarmament conference, including Israel, with the issue of its provocative nuclear arsenal on the table.

[who38]

Do you think that right-wing Israelis care about any of your concerns? Of course, they don't.

[arvay]

Of course not, and I suppose they believe their god will make it all come out well for them.

I almost wish they'd do it, just to bring the whole world down on their heads and destroy their state once and for all, except for all the innocent people, including anti-war Israelis, (who don't seem, mysteriously, to get much coverage over here) who would be killed and maimed.

Not to mention the disastrous economic consequences -- rabid energy-driven inflation on top of joblessness and possibly a real depression.

[Durango]

I hear the peace faction is making a resurgence in Israel.

In Iran as well.

Of course this could be a play by Right Wingers (in both places) to keep a grip on power.

It would certainly work in Iran. Israel, maybe not so much.

[harriettubman]

Nope. If Israel starts it they need to finish it.

[ribe8g]

Hey, all the best to our leaders in tel aviv . They know what's best for
u.s. and they know they'll have the wink and green light from our
new gov't. israel rules. Ain't they something?

[PoorManPoorMan2009]

They are going to get a surprise .......

[Princeton]

Oh great. With all the stuff that is happening in the world, we can sure use another hot war. Washington would have to be totally out of its mind to let this happen.

[vinceoffer]

'Bout da.mn time Israel took care of its own security rather than relying on the US. You go, je.ws!

[dmann32]

Are you nuts? Do you know what would happen in the Middle East if the Israelis did that!? Do you know what would happen to the price of Oil then? And you think the world economy is bad now . . . huh, if Israel does that . . . God help us!! Conflict in these regions of the world NEVER works. Don't you remember Afghanistan w/ the Russians and presently Iraq? Why don't people educate themselves on history and the culture of the Middle East before shooting off like that? And seriously: I know the perception in the media is that Iran is run by a bunch of crazy zealots who are trigger happy. That "Kool-Aid" is poison! Do you really think that it is in Iran's best interest to attack Israel unprovoked!?? Israel by itself, with no help from the US, could, to use Hillary's phrase 'obliterate' Iran to almost non-existence. Why would they commit national suicide? You seem to forget that the ONLY reason that countries like N. Korea and now Iran have nuclear ambitions is because of the lame duck president that we now have with his famous 'Axis of Evil' speech. Be Real: Someone as powerful as the US threatens you while in the midst of an all-out assault on another country grouped with you as 'evil', wouldn't you want the ultimate deterrent? Even though if it ever comes down to it you'd still have no chance but at least you'd make the 'bully' think

[Huffyfan]

Vince I have a feeling you dont know that 30.000 IRANIAN JEWS still live in iran and call it home Yep that s right Jews . they refused the generous offer of 10.000 Pounds by the Agency (story on the guardian ) and said we are offended . Iran is home and not israel .
nuclear technology is not a threat to israel , (that possesses Nuclear weapons )

[texasaggie]

I would rather Israel do it than us, though it's by proxy, so to speak, of either no matter which does it. If Netanyahu wins, look out. My parents live in Haifa, which is one of the few remaining areas of Israel where the people still think rationally and actually want peace (on mutual terms, which is the only real kind of peace you can have) in their region.

For those mentioning the fact that I s r a e l has nukes, I say long live Mordechai Vanunu!

Obama WILL continue his obsequious wimp routine vis a vis the I s r a e l i s and Z i o n i s t international banksters, which means we will have no real positive change - other than the world respecting the American people again for at least voting for the change we won't get. And yet, most of my I s r a e l i friends are nervous as hell about Obama. Let's hope they are right about him and I'm wrong.

[arvay]

Good to hear about sane people in Israel. Much of what we see here are crazy settlers and threats of attacking Iran. That would produce a catastrophe that Israel wouldn't escape, possibly trigger a regional nuclear war, the dire consequences are endless.

The way South Africa avoided what seemed like an inevitable race war tells us that the Israel-Palestinian conflict isn't necessarily hopeless.

I think the most likely to work solution would be one democratic state that includes Jews, Arabs and anyone else who's there. What Muslim state could attack such a nation without drawing the ire of its people and Muslims everywhere?? It would require the Likudists to abandon their neocolonialist delusions of racial superiority, but that route leads to destruction.

[chaos4700]

I have to agree with you about the one-state solution. After 60 years of oppressing, herding and depriving the Palestinians of anything resembling a livelihood, there is no way a patchwork Palestinian state boxed in by Israeli "iron curtains" would be able to build itself up.

To say nothing of the fact that Israel's right wing would still hold enough strings of political and military power within the government to continue to sabotage a Palestinian state. The only way I see to bring moderate balance to Israel -- and heck, to the Palestinians, because to be fair they do have extremist elements to worry about to -- would be to make one coherent, democratic government out of the entirety. This scratch built nation with an "inherent Jewish character" has simply led to extreme levels of racism and depravity of human rights and respect since the days of apartheid South Africa.

[who38]

Please tell your friends that Obama is the president of the US, not Israel. They should be worrying more about Bibi. But I agree about the wimp part.

[tiradintim]

At least Obama didn't pick Bibi for his SOS, though there are plenty among his picks to warm an a.i.p.a.c. lobbyist's heart