On being of many minds on striking Iran

A few quotes to consider:

Israel should launch a pre-emptive strike to prevent arch-foe Iran from going nuclear, a former head of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency said on Monday. "I am of the opinion that, since there is an ongoing war, since the threat is permanent, since the intention of the enemy in this case is to annihilate you, the right doctrine is one of pre-emption and not of retaliation," Ex-Mossad Chief Shabtai Shavit told a conference.

--From Newsmax, Tuesday, 22 Jun 2010

Senior Israeli officials often say that “all options are on the table” in respect to Iran’s nuclear program, yet former Mossad Director Meir Dagan presented a different thesis Friday. While Israel must not accept nuclear weapons in Iran’s hands, he said, “An aerial strike on the reactors is a dumb idea that has no benefit.” Dagan made the comments during a forum discussion at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University.

--From The Yeshiva World, Saturday, May 7th, 2011

Israel won’t withstand war in wake of strike on Iran, ex-Mossad chief says. Speaking at Tel Aviv conference, Meir Dagan says use of force should be Israel’s last option, adding that the IDF could not stop Tehran’s nuclear program, only delay it.

--From DETIR, Wednesday, 5 October 2011

A senior U.S. administration official flies to Tel Aviv to pressure the Israeli government not to launch a preemptive strike against Iran, despite the rapidly growing nuclear threat posed by the Ayatollah and the mullahs and the increasing possibility that Iran could unleash a Second Holocaust. "Under no circumstances can the president tolerate an Israeli first strike against Iran," warns the U.S. official. "I am here as a personal representative of the President of the United States to make it unequivocally clear that our government wholly, completely, and utterly opposes a preemptive strike by the State of Israel on the Islamic Republic of Iran."

Fact or fiction? The answer is both. The paragraph above comes from p. 173 of my forthcoming political thriller, "The Tehran Initiative." But this scenario is no longer fiction. Earlier this week, a senior U.S. official flew to Israel to apply this very same pressure, and do so in a surprisingly high profile manner. "U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta visited Israel Monday with a clear message from his boss in Washington: The United States opposes any Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear facilities," reported the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. "The United States, he said, is 'very concerned, and we will work together to do whatever is necessary" to keep Iran from posing "a threat to this region.' But doing so 'depends on the countries working together,' he added. He repeated the word 'together' several times in this context."

--From Joel Rosenberg's blog