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Prime Minister Netanyahu addressing the Iranian threat at Knesset plenum
Photo: Gil Yohanan

Israel’s great deception?

Op-ed: Are Bibi’s and Barak’s plans for Iran strike only meant to elicit global cooperation against Iran?

It’s still hard to believe (although everything is possible around here) that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak will be ordering our Air Force jets to take off and head to Iran without America’s blessing. For every good reason to hit the road, there are five good reasons why not to do it.

 

Netanyahu and Barak, separately and together, must therefore come up with a worthy substitute for a strike that would eliminate Iran’s nuclear option. For the time being, the State of Israel can of course settle for a global boycott on Iran and/or a strike by America’s great army. Both options would be good for us.

 

In order to prompt the world to impose a boycott and/or to prompt America to strike, political leaders must create a situation whereby “Israel is crazy” and “Israel is going to strike.” This is what Bibi and Barak have been doing, apparently, in the last few years. They embarked on real preparations for an Iran strike that were spotted by those who need to know among Western and Arab intelligence agencies.

 

Israel’s “hold me back” approach, with a real option for an Israeli strike, went up a notch this weekend, with the banking boycott going into effect and Iran being disconnected from the SWIFT global payment system. The Iranians will indeed do everything to circumvent it in order to mitigate their situation, yet it will likely become worse. The world is indeed imposing tough sanctions on them.

 

The second outcome of the strategic deception show is as follows: US President Barack Obama, who did not want to hear about another war on top of Iraq and Afghanistan, is apparently mulling the option of utilizing US aircraft to strike Iran’s nuclear sites. This possibility is also an achievement for Israel’s “hold me back” approach.

 

Best show in town?

Only Bibi and Barak know whether they intended to or are still seriously planning to strike Iran using Israel’s Air Force, or whether they put on “the best show in town.” If this is indeed a show, then, first of all, this is completely legitimate in politics, and second of all, they should be careful not to fall in love with this play.

 

We should hope that nobody accept for Netanyahu and Barak knows the truth, and hence, everyone – both in Israel and abroad – is sticking to guessing thus far. Should Iran collapse economically (an almost unthinkable possibility) or be attacked by the Americans, Bibi and Barak will enter the annals of history as the parties responsible for one of the greatest strategic deceptions ever, just like Sadat’s and Assad’s great deception in the Yom Kippur War.

 

On the other hand, if this isn’t a successful show, but rather, genuine preparation for an Israeli strike, Bibi and Barak still deserve much praise for prompting the world to cooperate with us. All that would be left then is to pray for great success.

 

And what if the undersigned is also being fooled by Bibi and Barak’s show? Firstly, it could certainly happen. Secondly, at least I shall be in good company, with Obama, Sarkozy, Ahmadinejad and the entire world. And when that world goes up in flames, who would even remember the words printed here today?

 

 


פרסום ראשון: 03.18.12, 19:00
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