One of the most historically important statements to have been made in the past ten years in the State of Israel made headlines in the Israeli media on Friday for a single day. It elicited a few reactions and a few brief analyses — and disappeared. The statement was ascribed to (and was not subsequently denied by) the outgoing Mossad director, Meir Dagan.Dagan, a suspicious super-cautious individual who routinely prefers to err on the side of pessimism, was quoted as having said: “Iran will not have nuclear military capability at least until 2015.” The reason cited for this: technical difficulties and malfunctions, which have stymied Tehran’s efforts to get its military nuclear program off the ground. For the sake of accuracy, and the Mossad relies on accuracy, the above-cited “technical difficulties and malfunctions” have already caused that initiative a few years’ worth of setbacks.For more than a decade, Israel has been living under the thickening cloud of the Iranian nuclear bomb. The military, economic and even the social agendas in Israel have been directly influenced by it. The election of Netanyahu as prime minister (and Barak’s joining the coalition) were explained by the need to place at the head of the state and the security establishment people who would be capable of leading the people and the army in this decisive year in dealing with Iran. From time to time, in light of the foolish things that the two of them have done, public opinion was asked to be forgiving of them because of the weight of the Iranian threat that lay on their shoulders.That was the case up until Friday, January 7, 2011. On that day, the world order was changed. The Iranian nuclear threat died. It keeled over. Because, if the director of the State of Israel’s Mossad is prepared to risk saying that Iran won’t have even a single nuclear bomb “at least until 2015,” that means that Iran is not going to have a nuclear bomb. Period.
and, from "The Nation" ....
Netanyahu: Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran
January 12, 2011
Despite recent assessments from Israeli intelligence that Iran’s nuclear program has slowed down and that Iran won’t be able to produce a weapon before 2015, a fact confirmed by Secretary of State Clinton this week, Benjamin Netanyahu is still pushing for war:
“You have to ratchet up the pressure and ... I don't think that this pressure will be sufficient to have this regime change course without a credible military option that is put before them by the international community led by the United States.”
Various news accounts have reported that Netanyahu is upset with the remarks by top Israeli military and intelligence officials, including outgoing Mossad chief Meir Dagan, that have downplayed the Iranian threat. Like the 2007 U.S. intelligence estimate, which happily short-circuited a push by Vice President Cheney and his allies to bomb Iran, the recent Israeli intelligence comments have taken the wind of the sails of the hawks. Netanyahu, who’s build his entire reign around the idea of distracting Washington from the Palestine crisis by hyping the Iran threat, isn’t happy.
Netanyahu praised the sanctions effort against Iran, between he insisted that it’s not enough:
“There is no question that all these things have caused hardship but they have not in any way altered Iran’s determination to pursue its nuclear program. They are determined to move ahead despite every difficulty, every obstacle, every setback, to create nuclear weapons.”
Talks between the United States and Iran, along with other members of the so-called P5+1, resume January 20 in Turkey. Thanks to the Israeli comments, and echoes from Clinton, they’ll proceed under a much calmer atmosphere.
Various news accounts have reported that Netanyahu is upset with the remarks by top Israeli military and intelligence officials, including outgoing Mossad chief Meir Dagan, that have downplayed the Iranian threat. Like the 2007 U.S. intelligence estimate, which happily short-circuited a push by Vice President Cheney and his allies to bomb Iran, the recent Israeli intelligence comments have taken the wind of the sails of the hawks. Netanyahu, who’s build his entire reign around the idea of distracting Washington from the Palestine crisis by hyping the Iran threat, isn’t happy.
Netanyahu praised the sanctions effort against Iran, between he insisted that it’s not enough:
“There is no question that all these things have caused hardship but they have not in any way altered Iran’s determination to pursue its nuclear program. They are determined to move ahead despite every difficulty, every obstacle, every setback, to create nuclear weapons.”
Talks between the United States and Iran, along with other members of the so-called P5+1, resume January 20 in Turkey. Thanks to the Israeli comments, and echoes from Clinton, they’ll proceed under a much calmer atmosphere.
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My Note:"The Nation's" report seems to think PM Netanyahu tried to get Washington to focus on Iran in order to distract talks about the Palestinian crisis.
What crisis? The Palestinians do not have capability of developing a nuclear bomb; nor are they announcing to the world that Israel must be wiped off the map (once nuclear capability is a reality); and the Palestinians are content to remain a non-existent state as long as they collect billions of dollars of support from America, the UN, and whoever else is sucked into their propaganda.
Obama's administration for over two years has made the Palestinian issue a "crisis" and it has become an obsession of this administration. The cost has been heavy, for it has done much to undermine the very legitimacy of the State of Israel; also, it has caused the Arabs Palestinians and surrounding Arab countries to become bolder in its efforts to erase Israel off the map, piece by piece, acre by acre, with world sympathy ... while Israel struggles to survive the constant bombings from the Gaza Strip under the leadership of Hamas Palestinians.
I have no idea whether Iran's capabilities to obtain the bomb are in the distant future, or within a year, due to conflicting reports. Is that the issue? Or, is the issue the fact that Iran's leaders mock the West and Israel, consider the United States to be its enemy along side Israel, and eventually, if not stopped ... Iran will succeed in obtaining the bomb.My question is: "Has Israel's urgency to stop Iran become less, since the viral worm attacked Iran's plants and if so, the computer virus does not change the goal of Iran's leaders, so what message does this send out if the world should become less concerned about Iran?" ... Ignoring a madman bent on wiping out an entire country will only bide time for Iran's leaders to see their goals become a reality.
What I do find strange is the fact that not much attention has been given to the recent remark by outgoing Mossad director, Meir Dagan.
