U.S. 'Convinced' Israel Set to Pounce on Iran

Panetta Heads to Middle East as Iran Dominates Israel Talks

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta heads today to the Middle East where tensions are rising over the democratic transition in Egypt, turmoil in Syria and Iran’s suspected advances toward nuclear weapons.

His trip to Tunisia, Egypt, Israel and Jordan has a security agenda, including new concerns about Syrian chemical weapons, along with election-season political stakes. Panetta is scheduled to arrive in Israel on the heels of a visit by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who has appealed to Jewish voters by attacking President Barack Obama as lacking sufficient commitment to Israel’s security.

One public source of tension between the Obama administration and Israeli leaders involves the urgency of military strikes against Iran’s nuclear sites. While the U.S. and Israel both say they suspect Iran is covertly seeking nuclear-weapons capabilities through uranium enrichment and other activities, the two allies have disagreed openly about how much time to give economic sanctions and negotiations to persuade Iran to give up much its nuclear program.

With a lack of progress in the negotiations, “the clocks in Washington and Tel Aviv are out of sync” on the timing for military action, said David Makovsky, a Middle East specialist at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. The Obama administration’s strategy is to see if Iran backs down as international sanctions increasingly hurt its economy, saying there is time for military action as a last alternative.

[link to www.businessweek.com]

Netanyahu said at AIPAC that it won't be another year. Months at best...

U.S. presented PM with contingency plan for Iran strike

The U.S. national security adviser has shared with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the United States' contingency plans for a possible attack on Iran.

According to a senior American official, National Security Advisor Tom Donilon briefed Netanyahu on the plans during Donilon's visit to Israel two weeks ago. According to the official, who requested anonymity, Netanyahu hosted Donilon at a three-hour dinner. For part of the time, Israel's national security adviser, Yaakov Amidror, was on hand.

Donilon sought to make clear that the United States is seriously preparing for the possibility that negotiations will reach a dead end and military action will become necessary. He said reports of such preparations were not just a way to assuage Israel's concerns.

Donilon's talks in Jerusalem were the most significant so far between American and Israeli officials here in recent weeks. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Deputy Secretary of State William Burns have been in Israel as well.

According to the American official, Donilon shared information on U.S. weaponry and military capabilities for dealing with Iran's nuclear facilities, including those deep underground.

But another U.S. official involved in the talks with Israel said that "based on the intelligence we have, we think there is still time for diplomacy, and the time for a military operation against Iran has not yet come."

A spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council, Tommy Vietor, declined to comment on the details of a private conversation between Netanyahu and Donilon.

In any case, the secretary of the U.S. Air Force, Michael Donley, told the Capitol Hill Club last week that the force's new bunker buster bombs were ready for use if needed. In recent months, the bombs have undergone technical improvements.

The bombs, each weighing 15 tons, would be intended for fortified bunkers deep underground where chemical or nuclear weapons are stored. This would include the uranium enrichment facility deep inside the mountains near the Iranian city of Qom.

The United States has told Israel several times that the existence of such weapons means Iran will never reach the point where its nuclear facilities are immune to attack.

American attempts to allay Israeli concerns will continue this week with the arrival Tuesday of Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. On Wednesday he will meet with Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and senior security and intelligence officials.

The United States and its allies continue to ratchet up the economic and diplomatic pressure on Tehran, but it seems these efforts have yet to bear fruit. Despite U.S. efforts, the diplomatic channel vis-a-vis Iran seems at an impasse.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has been informed of the lack of progress in talks with the Iranians at a meeting with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton. Ashton is holding talks in Brussels with Iran as the representative of the six powers: the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany.

The day before Ashton's meeting with Lieberman, her deputy, Helga Schmid, met in Istanbul with Iran's deputy chief of negotiations, Ali Bagheri. According to a senior Israeli official, when Lieberman and his associates asked Schmid how the meeting ended, they were told there was nothing new.

Lieberman told Ashton that the stalled talks proved that the time had come to move from talk to action to stop Iran. Ashton, who is to meet in the coming days with the head of Iran's negotiating team, Saeed Jalili, told Lieberman she had not given up on diplomatic efforts.

The Israeli official said Ashton said she had to persevere in the talks so she could show Europeans that she had done everything possible before abandoning the diplomatic track.

[link to www.haaretz.com]

Bullshit, they just spent $70 BILLION to buy their restraint.

It should hold them back for a while.

It's the eventualities that have some analysts and experts, along with FORMER intelligence officials worried.

Ultimately where goes Israel, so goes the USA.

Once they go there, it will be the beginning of the descent into the abyss of no return.

Thread: Welcome to the beginning of the end

Good luck.

Interesting.

Historical money whoring from both countries.

I hope israel gets smoked from all sides if they do.

Well, duh...Obuma just handed over 70 Million for military use...duh !

Canada may be next- Defend your allies or else

I am not scared of the boogeyman. Iran is no threat to israel.

Iran has sanctions on the strait.

With Iran making trade agreements with all these countries to use the strait, it would be easy to transport nuclear arms/Chemical weapons.


I predicted Israel and Syria.

I tell you now, listen to my words when I say Iran has big moves in the future.

$70 million, not billion...slight difference. $70 million doesn't buy much military hardware.

Too many zeros....It was 70 million not billion

Then why does Israel want to attack? Obviously they feel a threat

Whatever Israel thinks it can do, I can't stop them. If they are determined to take their 6 million country against 70,000,000 Iranians, then so be it. I don't think it will end well, but the Us has no business in the fight.

what would happen if Israel attacked Iran and the US didn't help Israel with any kind of direct intervention. continue to supply weapons i'm sure, but no troops, no targeting Iran with cruise missiles, etc.

would Obama be impeached ?

his boss would not be happy

its coming....buy oil futures...or miss the opportunity of the century. the handwriting is on the wall.

I'm sure that Iran is even now busily heavily fortifying the nuclear installations with more concrete poured over them. If they add another few metres of protection this could mean the bunker busters would fail wouldnt it?

Also Iran will be building up its SAM sites and training it's interceptor pilots on Israeli aircraft tactics.

If they have any sense this is what they'd be doing anyway....

Israel will create world war 3, Israel will be completely destroyed and the world will be split totally again after 250,000 years.


long time ago when the lands connected, India and Africa Europe were a single land. 3 million tribes were located on each side of the planet. the Whites, the Blacks and Browns and yellows.

Long time ago, War between Brown and Yellows brought total nuclear war between tribes in Asia. the whites from Europe never should've given technology to them. now nuclear war is again upon us.

long time ago, the white race to stop their war. destroyed parts of Asia. after thousands of years we have discovered nuclear weapons again. our fate sadly is repeating and can not be stopped again.

the whites this time have technology to sink countries into the ocean I'm afraid this will lead to big discovery trouble for everybody in the near future.

those Aliens are the trouble makers by giving us these advanced mathematics and knowledge to share between enemies

This propaganda is so stupid only a GLPer would believe it.

War hysteria is the only tool Bibi Netanyahoo has left to keep himself in power. But it isn't working anymore.

The only newspaper that's carrying the story of the Beeb's rapid fall into oblivion is Haaretz, and they want you to give them your golden shekles to read it.

Netanyahu: His own worst enemy
Nothing, it seemed, could stop the Prime Minister from winning a second term, other than that joker who always wrecks things for him: Benjamin Netanyahu.
[link to www.haaretz.com]

The West is collapsing and this is a dangerous gambit.
WW3, or submit to NATO.
All or nothing

Its about the "String of Pearls:", China's oil lifeline.
It about weakening the big players in the east.

OR, the USA saving the world from dictators...

Hate to have to tell ya, but the US has been propping up dictators all over the world for the last 100 years.

it sure as hell doesn't, probably mostly for electronic equipment of some kinda either radar, jamming devices, intel gathering stuff.

It's the smell of war in the air, this after the "wired.com" article on the completion of the newly upgraded bunker buster bombs...why spend the money for nothing. Follow the money, its clear. Shock and awe soon?