Joel C. Rosenberg’s Blog(Jerusalem, Israel) — The plan is set. The air force has trained. Everything is in place. Should Prime Minister Netanyahu order a full scale attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, the Israeli Defense Forces are ready to go into battle. They are ready to do so alone, without American or other allied support. And Israel will succeed.
This was the message of Netanyahu’s outgoing national security advisor Yaakov Amidror in recent days, and it has Mideast analysts buzzing.
Amidror, a devout Orthodox Jew and long-experienced intelligence analyst, rarely gives interviews and doesn’t do spin. When he starts speaking publicly about a possible Israeli preemptive strike and says, “We are not bluffing,” heads start turning and ears prick up.
Personally, I believe Netanyahu recruited Amidror to help Israel prepare for this moment.
Readers of this blog may recall that almost precisely three years ago — before Amidror was named national security advisor (February 2011) — he spoke at a conference in Washington, D.C. and said he fully expected a war with Iran.
Now consider Amidror’s latest statements, given just as he is stepping down from government service after several intense and grueling years in the inner circle.
“An Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear installations would halt Iran’s ability to produce nuclear weapons ‘for a very long time,’ said Yaakov Amidror who stepped down as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s national security adviser last week,” reported Haaretz, picking up a “rare interview” Amidror gave to British newspaper the Financial Times.
Key excerpts from the interview:
- Amidror said Netanyahu “is ready to take such decisions” but “the situation will be the determining factor for any prime minister. The situation will dictate actions.”
- He also said the Israeli air force has conducted in recent years “very long-range flights . . . all around the world” as part of preparations for a possible military confrontation with Iran. “From here to Iran, it is 2,000km, and you have to be familiar with such destinations,” Amidror said. “All those who have radar cover of the Middle East know what we are doing.”
- He added: “We are not the United States of America, of course, and believe it or not they have more capabilities than us. But we have enough to stop the Iranians for a very long time.”
- The former national security adviser, who was until recently Netanyahu’s top aide on security matters, was asked if Israel has the capability to hit Iran’s subterranean nuclear sites. “Including everything,” he answered. “We are not bluffing. We are very serious – preparing ourselves for the possibility that Israel will have to defend itself by itself.”
- Amidror addressed the possibility an Israeli strike would trigger a response by Hezbollah, such as the firing of thousands of missiles toward Israel. In that case, Amidror said Israel would have to go on a ground assault into Lebanon and enter urban areas to stop the fire.
What we would love to see is Obama saying on TV “OK Israel, you do that BUT… you do that alone and if you get your butts kicked, don’t come cribbing to us”
Because if you look at it realistically, America if they really were going to go for Iran, they would have done so long ago but now with a rather pissed off Putin on the prowl, America really doesn’t want to end up toe to toe with the Russians and the Chinese and if Putin was willing to go to war over Syria, you can rest assured he would probably go nuclear over Iran, China actually said as much a few years back “Any attempt to interfere with our oil supply will be seen as an act of war”…
I say let Iran and Israel duke it out and keep us out of it, Israel only makes these threats because it thinks the US will pull its butt out of the fire.
If israhell were to be removed the world would be a better planet As long as they are there and their tentacles too ,their will be no peace! If there is a Satan ,they are his children,murdering killing elitist monsters for the most part. That’s the government I’m referring to ,the people live under the same BS that we do.Any citizen that lives in this country and still believes that their voice is listened to at all is in denial or simply delusional! Same thing goes for belief in a corrupted voting system.Major offices are selected with money and air time and the MSM tells the sheep who is and who is not electable!