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Iran attack decision nears, Israeli elite locks down By Michael Stott Posted 2012/05/17 at 10:43 am EDT JERUSALEM, May 17, 2012 (Reuters) — A private door opens from Israeli Prime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu's office in central Jerusalem directly into a long,modestly furnished, half-paneled room decorated with modernpaintings by Israeli artists and a copy of Israel's 1948declaration of independence. It contains little more than a longwooden table, brown leather chairs and a single old-fashioned whiteprojector screen. This inner sanctum at the end of a corridor between Netanyahu'sprivate room and the office of his top military adviser, is whereone of the decade's most momentous military decisions could soon betaken: to launch an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear program. Time for that decision is fast running out and the mood inJerusalem is hardening. Iran continues to enrich uranium in defiance of internationalpressure, saying it needs the fuel for its civilian nuclearprogram. The West is convinced that Tehran's real objective is tobuild an atomic bomb - something which the Jewish state will neveraccept because its leaders consider a nuclear armed-Iran a threatto its very existence. Adding to the international pressure, U.S. ambassador to IsraelDaniel Shapiro said this week American military plans to strikeIran were "ready" and the option was "fully available". The central role Iran plays in Netanyahu's deliberations isreflected in the huge map of the Middle East hanging by the door ofhis office. Israel lies on one edge, with Iran taking pride ofplace in the centre. Experts say that within a few months, much of Iran's nuclearprogram will have been moved deep underground beneath the Fordowmountain, making a successful military strike much more difficult. LOCKDOWN As the deadline for a decision draws nearer, the publicpronouncements of Israel's top officials and military have changed.After hawkish warnings about a possible strike earlier this year,their language of late has been more guarded and clues to theirintentions more difficult to discern. "The top of the government has gone into lockdown," one officialsaid. "Nobody is saying anything publicly. That in itself tells youa lot about where things stand." Last week Netanyahu pulled off a spectacular political surprise,creating a coalition of national unity and delaying elections whicheveryone believed were inevitable. The maneuver also led tospeculation that the Israeli leader wanted a broad, stronggovernment to lead a military campaign. The inclusion of the Iranian-born former Israeli chief of staff andveteran soldier, Gen. Shaul Mofaz, in the coalition, fuelled thatspeculation - even though both Mofaz and Netanyahu deny that Iranwas mentioned in the coalition negotiations. "I think they have made a decision to attack," said one seniorIsraeli figure with close ties to the leadership. "It is going tohappen. The window of opportunity is before the U.S. presidentialelection in November. This way they will bounce the Americans intosupporting them." Those close to Netanyahu are more cautious, saying no assumptionsshould be made about an attack on Iran - an attack with suchpotentially devastating consequences across the volatile MiddleEast that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas even went so far asto predict in an interview with Reuters last week that it would be"the end of the world". Israelis particularly fear retaliation from Iran's proxy militias -the Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon and the Hamas fightersin the Gaza Strip. Both are believed to possess large arsenals ofrockets which could hit major Israeli towns and cities. Hezbollah's deputy leader Sheikh Naim Qassem told Reuters inFebruary that an Israeli attack on Iran would set the whole MiddleEast ablaze "with no limit to the fires". "Gone are the days whenIsrael decides to strike, and the people are silent," he said. The Israeli Prime Minister and his key allies repeat for publicconsumption the mantra that economic sanctions against Iran must begiven time to work and that now is not the time to speak aboutmilitary options. Top officials explain the new coalition on purely domestic grounds,saying it was needed to tackle the thorny and divisive issue ofpressing Orthodox Jews into military service - in other words, thatits formation has much more to do with the agenda inside Israelthan abroad. BURIED NUCLEAR STATES Diplomats are divided. "I think the Iran thing is a red herring,"said one senior Western envoy. "This is 98 percent about domesticpolitics". Others are less convinced. Mofaz himself refuses to speak about military action against Iran,even in the theoretical. A military veteran with almost 40 years' operational experience,whose office in the Israeli parliament displays a poster of Israeliwarplanes flying low over the Auschwitz concentration camp, hescoffs at the idea that his Iranian descent gives him specialinfluence on an Iran attack decision. He derides the idea anyserious official in the know would talk to visiting journalistsabout such a sensitive military subject. But behind the carefully evasive language of top officials, basicfacts are clear. Time is running out. Iran's nuclear program -regarded by Netanyahu as an existential threat to the state ofIsrael - will soon be buried deep enough underground to render anIsraeli attack impossible. The Jewish state's options arenarrowing. "I think they've gone into lockdown mode now," the senior Westerndiplomat said. "Whatever happens next, whatever they decide, wewill not find out until it happens." There are indeed those who see in Israeli posturing over Iran onlybluff intended to press world powers into harsher sanctions andavoid war. Some military experts openly doubt how much damageIsrael could inflict. The risk of a fiasco is big. Perhaps the strongest clue as to Israel's real intentions is to befound in Netanyahu's private office, behind his desk. Officials saythe Israeli premier was strongly influenced by his father, who diedlast month at the age of 102. Benzion Netanyahu was a distinguished scholar of Jewish history andhis strong sense of the past lives on in Benjamin, who laments tovisitors that "most people's sense of history goes back tobreakfast time". On a shelf behind Netanyahu's desk, along with pictures of hisfamily, is a photograph of Winston Churchill. Netanyahu admires theBritish wartime premier because he saw the true dangers posed byNazi Germany to the world at a time when many other politiciansargued for appeasing Hitler. The parallels with modern-day Iran are obvious and Netanyahu isexplicit about the dangers he believes are posed by militant Islam:as he puts it, its convulsive power, its cult of death and itsideological zeal. But Churchill, although eloquent on the dangers posed by the riseof Nazi Germany during the 1930s, ultimately failed to preventHitler's ascent to power, the world war he unleashed or theHolocaust in which six million Jews were murdered. Netanyahu, those who know him say, is determined to avoid goingdown in history as the man who did not shirk his opportunity tostop Iran going nuclear. (Additional reporting by Samia Nakhoul andCrispian Balmer; editing by Ralph Boulton) (Created by Michael Stott). The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as Folding Rolling Rack , Wire Security Cages Manufacturer, and more. For more , please visit Folding Rolling Carts today!
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