Israel’s test on Wednesday of a new missile able to reach Iran, and the International Atomic Energy Agency’s forthcoming report that exposes the military dimension to Iran’s nuclear program have renewed speculation that Israel’s patience with Obama’s diplomatic efforts to counter Iran’s nuclear program has run out.

Against the backdrop of the crisis, the White House seeks to double down on diplomacy. "What we're focused on is a diplomatic strategy which...increases the pressure on the Iranians, through financial pressure, through economic sanctions, through diplomatic isolation," explained deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes.


The truth is that while the White House may believe it has still more time for robust diplomacy, but after years of threatening biting sanctions, neither Iran nor Israel believe Obama to be credible.

Add to that differing threat assessments, calculations and the ticking clock of Iranian nuclear developments and there is much that will get in the way of U.S. diplomatic efforts.

The United States, the Europe Union, and Israel may all share concerns regarding Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, but each has remarkably different threat assessments.

For the United States, a nuclear weapons capable Islamic Republic is strategically untenable: A nuclear Iran would set off a cascade of proliferation while Iranian authorities, secure behind their own nuclear deterrent, might launch a terrorist campaign unseen in the region since the 1980s.

For the European Union, Iranian acquisition of nuclear weapons would signal a defeat for Europe’s multilateral philosophy: The Iranian nuclear portfolio, after all, was the first issue outside European borders on which the European Union took the lead. European diplomats wanted to show that they could resolve the Iran crisis through quiet dialogue and with the assistance of international organizations such as the United Nations.

European officials know their failure will be the death knell for the internationalist approach and will provide red meat for Americans who believe that unilateralism is the only effective way to handle rogue regimes.

For Israel, however, the Iranian threat is existential. Israeli officials do not forget that Iranian officials have repeatedly suggested not only that Iran seeks to build a nuclear bomb, but also may use it.

On December 14, 2001, former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani observed, “The use of an atomic bomb against Israel would totally destroy Israel, while the same against the Islamic world would only cause damage.”

On February 14, 2005, Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer Kharrazi, secretary-general of Iranian Hezbollah, declared, "We are able to produce atomic bombs and we will do that,” adding, “The U.S. is not more than a barking dog."

Then, three months later, Gholam Reza Hasani, a confidante of the Supreme Leader, declared possession of nuclear weapons to be one of Iran’s top goals.

Finally, in February 2006, Rooz, an Iranian website close to Iran’s reformist camp, quoted a Qom theologian as saying it was only "natural" for Iran to possess nuclear weapons.

While some American professors say that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s promise to “wipe Israel off the map” was a mistranslation from Persian, they ignore that the Iranian presidency used the phrase in its own English translations, and repeated it on more than two dozen occasions.

The Iranian plot to kill the Saudi ambassador in Washington only adds to Israel’s concern. After all, while Iran experts dismiss the plot as a rogue action, Israeli officials note that the presence of rogue elements within Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) does not bring comfort, especially since it would be the IRGC that would have custody of any Iranian nuclear weapons.

Many military analysts question Israel’s capability to strike unilaterally at Iran’s nuclear facility. Certainly, a strike would be messy and its success uncertain: Iran is much larger than either Iraq or Syria, where Israeli warplanes previously struck at nuclear facilities. Even if Israel went in with surprise, Israeli bombers could not fly out with surprise once they had dropped their bombs. This mandates a wider campaign—one which would target anti-aircraft batteries, command-and-control centers, and perhaps missile batteries and arms caches in third countries through which Iran might retaliate.

Still, analytical concerns that Israel does not have enough bunker-buster bombs to destroy facilities buried deep under mountains are misplaced: Israel needn’t demolish those facilities; it only needs to destroy their entrances.

Likewise, hand-wringing about "unknown" nuclear facilities is misplaced. Should the IRGC rush to defend what previously analysts believed to be merely random mountains, Western intelligence agencies would reap a windfall.

A military strike, however, would not be clean. As I said earlier, it would be messy. There would be collateral damage. Iranians may oppose their leadership, but they are fiercely nationalistic and will rally around the flag. -- I will sell the Brooklyn Bridge to anyone who argues Iranians would welcome bombing. Iran will retaliate.

The tragedy, here, is that this crisis could have been avoided.

While President Obama blamed the Bush administration for the failure of diplomacy, the truth was that Iran’s leadership was never sincere.

On October 24, the Iranian newspaper Etemaad published an interview with Hassan Rowhani, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator from 2003 to 2005, a period when reformists controlled the presidency. Rowhani admitted that he used diplomacy to run down the nuclear clock. “Two goals become our priority,” he declared, “The first goal was to safeguard the national security, and the second goal was to support and help the nuclear achievements.”

After bragging about how Iran used his period of negotiation to expand its enrichment and heavy water capability, Rowhani explained “The reason for inviting the three European foreign ministers to Tehran…was to make Europe oppose the United States so that the issue was not submitted to the Security Council.”

Obama entered office asking Iran to unclench its fist, and said the United States would not take no for an answer.

Obama may believe his national security successes—killing Usama Bin Laden, Anwar al-Awlaki, and Muammar Qaddafi—immunize him from dealing substantively with Iran until after the 2012 election, but the rest of the world is not willing to operate according to Washington’s political calendar.

Israeli unilateral strikes will be messy and cause immense bloodshed, but Israeli leaders may calculate this to be the least bad option when faced with genocidal leaders on the verge of nuclear weapons capability. Israel believes it faces an existential threat and absent a credible sign that Obama understands that, it will take matters into its own hands.

Michael Rubin is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a senior lecturer at the Naval Postgraduate School.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/11/03/will-israel-pull-trigger-and-send-iran-ultimate-message/#ixzz1ci3Rao82

This article is dead on(except for any credit for Qadaffi's death going to Obama, that one is on the people of Libya, I find Obama's lack of leadership and experience in that incident disgusting we should have handled and captured Qadaffi and turned him over to the ICC).

If Israel hit's Iran all $hit will hit the fan, im guessing as close to world war three as we will get(if not going into a full blown world war).

The sad thing is this could have ALL been prevented if we handled Iran when President Bush wanted to but we were c$ck blocked by you guessed it the likes of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Ted Kennedy, Joe Biden and the rest of the looney left. We have the resources to pull something like that off, Israel doesn't, they are surrounded by countries that want to wipe them off the map when they are just trying to coexist.

We can thank Obama for another fine mess were in and if Israel does make Iran glow in the dark, Obama and the rest of the Democrats hold the blame since they didn't let business get handled before it got this far and are not handling it now.

Salehi: Iran Ready to Push Back Enemy Attacks
TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Foreign Minister Ali AkbarSalehi on Thursday responded to reports claiming Israel is planning a military attack against his country, stating Tehran is"ready for war" with Israel.
"We have been hearing threats from Israel for eight years. Our nation is a united nation…such threats are not new to us," Salehi told Turkey's Hurriyet Daily.
Salehi further warned that if any country wouldattempt an attack, Iran would not hesitate to retaliate.
"We are very sure of ourselves. We can defendour country," Salehi claimed.
Salehi's statements come a day after Iran's chief of staff said Israel would be severely punished for any attack on Iranian soil.
"We would make them regret such a mistake and would severely punish them," General Hassan Firouzabadi said on Wednesday.
"In case of an attack by the Zionist regime, the United States would also be hit," he added.
Britain is also stepping up its preparations for a military strike on Iran, The Guardian newspaperreported on Wednesday. According to its report, London is increasingly concerned over Tehran's nuclear progress and is preparing to deploy Royal Navy ships in the coming months to assist a possible American strike on Iran.
The paper cited senior British officials as saying they believed Iran had regained the technological capabilitiesthat a cyber-attack damaged last year. Iran said the Stuxnet worm infected personal computers of employees at Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant, but not the plant's main systems. The New York Times reported last January that the worm was a joint Israeli-American effort to undermine Iran's nuclearprogram.
The United States and its Zionist ally accuse Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon, while they havenever presented any corroborative document to substantiate their allegations. Both Washington and Tel Aviv possess advanced weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear warheads.
Iran vehemently denies the charges, insisting that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only. Tehran stresses thatthe country has always pursued a civilian path toprovide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry.
Speculation that Israel could bomb Iran mounted since a big Israeli air drill three yearsago. In the first week of June, 2008, 100 Israeli F-16 and F-15 fighters reportedly took part in an exercise over the eastern Mediterranean and Greece, which was interpreted as a dress rehearsal for a possible attack on Iran's nuclear installations.
Iran has, in return, warned that it would target Israel and its worldwide interests in case it comes under attack by the Tel Aviv.
The United States has also always stressed that military action is a main option for the White House to deter Iran's progress in the field of nuclear technology.
Iran has warned it could close the strategic Strait of Hormoz if it became the target of a military attack over its nuclear program.
Strait of Hormoz, the entrance to the strategic Persian Gulf waterway, isa major oil shipping route.

Iran's naval power has even been acknowledged by foes. Ina Sep. 11, 2008 report, the Washington Institute for the Near East Policy also said that in the two decades since the Iraqi imposed war on Iran, theIslamic Republic has excelled in naval capabilities and is able towage unique asymmetricwarfare against larger naval forces.
According to the report, Iran's Navy has been transformed into a highlymotivated, well-equipped, and well-financed force and is effectively in control ofthe world's oil lifeline, the Strait of Hormuz.
The study says that if Washington takes military action against the Islamic Republic, the scale of Iran's response would likely be proportional to the scale of the damage inflicted on Iranian assets.
The Islamic Republic's topmilitary officials have repeatedly warned that in case of an attack by either the US or Israel, the country would target32 American bases in the Middle East and close the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
An estimated 40 percent of the world's oil supply passes through the waterway.
A recent study by a fellowat Harvard's Olin Institutefor Strategic Studies, Caitlin Talmadge, warnedthat Iran could use minesas well as missiles to block the strait, and that"it could take many weeks, even months, to restore the full flow of commerce, and more time still for the oil markets to be convinced that stability had returned".

Oh Angels and Ministers of mercy protect us . . from the americans !

Thought you meant.....................



















Brussels!

Hehe well yeah,them too ! :)

And any other large power with the effrontery to dictate to smaller groups how they should conduct themselves ! :)

Israel attack Iran...only if AIPAC allows it.

Find myself agreeing with u again Optom ! Altho which country is the tail an which is the dog ? :)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/julian-borger-global-security-blog/2011/jun/08/iran-blogging

'The day after Iran's first nuclear test is a normal day'

A bizarre article on a Revolutionary Guard website breaks a taboo by anticipating the impact of an Iranian bomb


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/02/uk-military-iran-attack-nuclear

UK military steps up plans for Iran attack amid fresh nuclear fears

British officials consider contingency options to back up a possible US action as fears mount over Tehran's capability.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/02/us-heading-war-iran-obama


Is the US heading for war with Iran?

With an election coming and the economy struggling, conflict may not appeal to Obama, but the drumbeat is getting louder

Well Israel is armed to the hilt and feels that it can do what it likes in that part of the world. Iran would be stupid not to get some balance of power and no greater deterrent than nuclear.

The Israeli government would have significant support at home for an Israeli military strike against Iran's nuclear program, according to a poll published Thursday.
The poll was released following reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to persuade Cabinet ministers to authorize such a strike and after Israel successfully tested a missile thought capableof carrying a nuclear warhead to Iran.
Forty-one percent of those questioned by the Dialog polling institute said they would back an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, which many Israelis believe were built to produce bombs.
A similar number — 39 percent — oppose such an attack, which would be fraught with logisticaldifficulties and risk a deadly Iranian counterstrike and regional mayhem. Twenty percent were undecided.
The survey, published in the Haaretz daily, surveyed 495 people and had a margin of error of 4.6 percent. Although thepoll appears to reflect a divided nation, the fact that four out of 10 Israelis support a strike isstartling, given the implications for Israel. OnWednesday, Iran's military chief threatened a fierce retaliation against Israel should it attack Iranian nuclear installations.

The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad, which traded deadly fire with Israel at the weekend in Gaza, does not expect a subsequent truce to last long and has at least 8,000 fighters ready for war, a spokesman said.
Islamic Jihad is the second largest armed group in Gaza, after Hamas, which rules the tiny Mediterranean enclave. The two share a commitment to the destruction of Israel and both are classified as terrorist groups by most Western governments.

Hamas were elected by the Palestinian people under International Supervision and therefore are a legitimate government. Because it doesn't suit the backroom boys they are demonized.

Israel V Islamic Jihad = Nuclear V AK47

Obama Tells Allies U.S. Will Attack Iran By Fall 2012
President prepared to use war as re-election campaign tool
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
Friday, November 4, 2011
Barack Obama has told America’s allies that the United States will attack Iran before fall 2012 unless Tehran halts its nuclear program, a time frame that suggests Obama is willing to use war as a re-election campaign tool to rally the population around his leadership.
A subscriber-only report by DebkaFile, the Israeli intelligence outfit which has been proven accurate in the past, reveals that shortly after the end of NATO operations in Libya at thestart of this week, “President Barack Obamawent on line to America’ssenior allies, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Israel and Saudi Arabia, with notice of his plan to attack Iran no later than September-October 2012 – unless Tehran halted itsnuclear weaponization programs.”
According to the report, the window of opportunity for an attackbefore Iran moves the bulk of its nuclear processing underground is quickly evaporating.
Obama’s directive contributed to the flurry of reports this week about NATO powers putting their Iran war contingency plans on standby.
“Obama’s announcement was not perceived as a general directive to US allies, but a guideline to blow the dust off the contingency plans for a strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities which stayed locked in bottom drawers for three years,” states the report, adding that “Obama’s announcement spurred Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Israel into girding their navies, air forces, ballistic units and anti-missile defense systems for the challenges ahead.”
http://www.infowars.com/obama-tells-allies-u-s-will-attack-iran-by-fall-2012/

legitimate government of terrorists? hahahaha...i guess you can be on the terrorist list and "official" government at the same time...

Yes

Yep. Iran and Hamas are the official govts of terrorists.
Hezbollah is too and Libya used to be a few weeks ago.

Don't know if Israel is going to attack Iran but somebody
is going to do it because they continue to pursue nuclear
weapons capability while preserving one of the worlds
worst theocratic fascist dictatorships.

They are going down as part of the Arab Spring.

The difference is 8 years ago we had a President who handled business and had Israel's back and made countries think twice about messing with them, now he have a coward who hides under his desk all day and will throw Israel under the bus the first chance he gets.

Israel needs to be armed to the teeth, every country the surrounds them wants to wipe the off the ap because of their religion.