Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities

U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu at their joint press conference in Jerusalem (photo: Koby Gidon / Government Press Office)

Obama’s handling of Syria crisis revives Bibi’s hopes of bombing Iran

And this time, it’s hard to see who will be able to stop him. Netanyahu hasn’t said anything publicly, but the consensus here is that the lesson he’s taking from Obama’s refusal to bomb Syria straight away, and instead to turn to Congress for approval, is that the U.S. president can’t be trusted to keep…

By Larry Derfner September 1, 2013

Israeli and American flags (photo: flickr / hoyasmeg CC BY 2.0)

If Israel wants to end the race, let it get rid of its nukes

Iran didn’t start the Mideast nuclear arms race – Israel did. Nearly all the frightening forecasts of what life would be like with a nuclear Iran strike me as being hollow. I’m not worried about Iran nuking Israel – because the Iranians don’t want to commit suicide. I’m not worried about Iran giving nukes to…

By Larry Derfner September 9, 2012

Mad dogs? Binyamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak (photo: Israel Defense Forces)

Don’t believe Bibi: 1981 strike only sped up Iraqi nuclear program

With Netanyahu and Barak desperate to sell their case for an attack on Iran, they’ve been repeating the urban legend that Israel’s 1981 bombing of Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor stopped Saddam’s nuclear ambitions permanently. Since we are getting down to crunch time, I am reposting below an excerpt from my March 2 post, ‘The myth of Osirak and the march to Iran.’ Like all Israelis, I…

By Larry Derfner August 3, 2012

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IAF fighter jet during an exercise [illustrative ] (photo: IDF Spokesperson / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

It’s over – there will be no Israeli attack on Iran

This week the Israeli military/intellgence establishment, backed by the U.S., has come out forcefully against war, isolating Netanyahu. He needs the cabinet’s support to attack, and there’s no way he’ll get it. It’s not often that the story out of Israel, and out of America’s relationship with Israel, is good, but the story that’s emerged over the last few days…

By Larry Derfner August 1, 2012

Netanyahu lacks votes from ‘inner cabinet’ to bomb Iran

Israel’s top-selling newspaper reports that Netanyahu hasn’t convinced inner council to back war; his latest attempt to rig the game has only hurt him more. Yedioth Ahronoth is reporting some very good and surprising news on the Iran front: Prime Minister Netanyahu doesn’t have a majority in the inner council of his government for an attack. In the eight-minister “octet,” an unofficial…

By Larry Derfner July 24, 2012

The cost of Israeli recklessness: Six dead in Burgas

When Israel assassinated Hezbollah’s Imad Mughniyeh and five Iranian nuclear scientists, it was picking a fight, and the payback – or part of it – was Wednesday’s bus bombing. It says something about Israeli society’s fear of facing hard truths when the only public figure who dares to state the obvious about the Burgas attack is Dr.…

By Larry Derfner July 20, 2012

The ‘drift toward war’ with Iran

Nuclear talks fail; hot summer ahead. What’s missing is courage. Even the New York Times is now reporting that what we’ve got with Iran is a “drift toward war.” The nuclear talks in Moscow ended yesterday, the NYT wrote, with “little visible progress toward a compromise that would stop the drift toward war.” The “little visible progress” was an agreement…

By Larry Derfner June 20, 2012