Listening to Israel’s political leaders, it sounds like the country might be at war by the time this piece goes to press. The government is counting on profound levels of fear in Israel to buoy its policies. Indeed, in January a survey of mine showed that Jewish respondents chose nuclear Iran as the top threat to the future of the Jewish state. Fully 70% of the Jewish population does not trust American assurances and its diplomatic approach, according to the August Peace Index survey, by the Israel Democracy Institute and Tel Aviv University. In that poll, a 56% majority doesn’t…

Why has Stanley Fischer, the Bank of Israel Governor, been filling his foreign currency reserves with billions of dollars? What do people do when they fear danger from natural disasters or war on the horizon? They stock up. Canned goods, batteries, water - the usual. But what do central banks do? The exact same thing. They stock up on foreign currency. In fact, Stanley Fischer, the governor of the Bank of Israel, has been stocking up so much in the past few years, that Israel is now one of the top five countries in the world when it comes to…

The public doesn't know it, but ex-Mossad chief Meir Dagan and his opposition to war with Iran have company Retired army general Nathan Sharony, head of the Council for Peace and Security, which includes over 1,000 former high-ranking security officials with dovish views, says the positions of ex-Mossad chief Meir Dagan and ex-army intelligence head Shlomo Gazit against an attack on Iran are "acceptable" to him. Retired army colonel Yiftah Shapir, the leading expert on missile warfare at the Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS), Israel's premier security think tank, says he "does not think the price we will have to pay [for an attack on Iran] is worth the benefit." He argues that the most Israel can do is delay Iran's…

Barak/Netanyahu - they are "one hand" - are presenting an Israeli attack as an inevitability. It seems the die has been cast - Netanyahu and Barak have decided to bomb Iran in a matter of months, as Ronen Bergman concluded in the New York Times Magazine - and now it's time to close ranks around the decision. This is my impression from the continual news stories about Israel's plans for Iran over the last couple of days. The clearest sign came from former IDF chief Gabi Ashekenazi, who apparently defected from Meir Dagan's antiwar camp. "When the moment comes, I don't know if we won't be alone, and for this reason Israel…

The IAEA report on Iran's alleged nuclear program was surrounded by a media frenzy in Israel supporting an attack. By Neve Gordon Skimming the newspapers as I rushed to get my children ready for school, I suddenly understood that Israel might actually be preparing for a military attack against Iran. "[United States Secretary of Defence Leon] Panetta Demanded Commitment to Coordinate Action in Iran" read one headline, and "A Bomb at Arm's Length" read another. Feeding this hype were a series of military events that had been planned months in advance yet mysteriously coincided with the publication of the International…

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak likes to imagine himself in different positions. And I don’t mean that in a kinky way. Yesterday he told Charlie Rose that if he were Iranian he’d probably want the bomb, too. In 1998, as many of you recall, Barak told Haartez journalist Gideon Levy that if he had been born Palestinian, he would have joined a terror organization, too. So, who will Barak imagine to be next? Mexican? Korean? An Ozzie? Or maybe, he’d like to be something or someone totally different? Maybe he’d like to be Madonna? Or Eddie Murhpy? Or a piece of…

In recent weeks discussion has grown about the possibility of an Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear facilities. Israeli media, politicians, and American officials have all spoken publicly about the advisability and ramifications of such a strike. Does this signal a real possibility for such an attack, or simply political posturing? Watch +972 Magazine's Larry Derfner debate Elliot Jager, Contributing Editor at Jewish Ideas Daily, on Bloggingheads.tv.