attack on iran

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu in the cabinet, Nov. 18, 2012 (Photo: Kobi Gideon / GPO)

Who needs anti-Semites when we’ve got Bibi?

This time it’s true: Israel really is trying to manipulate the U.S. into going to war. Who can disagree any longer that Israel is out to push America into war – and is putting on quite a show of it, too? The Obama administration is trying to neutralize Iran’s nuclear program diplomatically, and Bibi…

By Larry Derfner November 20, 2013

Israel rejects U.S. nuclear non-proliferation initiative

Israeli exceptionalism continues. Iran is not allowed to go nuclear but it is perfectly okay for Israel to remain nuclear: that’s the message Israel sends the world as it opposes a U.S.-backed conference about a nuclear-free Middle East. Here’s what I wrote in March about the issue in The New York Times’ Room for Debate: Might…

By Mya Guarnieri Jaradat September 20, 2012

Shas spiritual leader Ovadia Yosef (Wkimeida Commons CC BY SA 3.0)

Shas spiritual leader may have paved way for attack on Iran

Last week, Benjamin Netanyahu sent National Security Council head Yaakov Amidror to the spiritual leader of Shas, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. Apparently, this was done to convince the rabbi of the need to attack Iran. According to Haaretz political analyst Yossi Verter, Shas ministers Eli Yishai and Ariel Attias, “both members of the security cabinet, are…

By Ami Kaufman August 26, 2012

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‘Anonymous decision maker’ advocating war with Iran is Ehud Barak

The top stories in all Israeli dailies this weekend discuss a coming strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Thirty-seven percent of Israelis think President Obama would stop Iran from developing a bomb, while only 29 percent doubt it. The front page headlines in all major daily papers in Israel deal with the increased likelihood of a…

By Noam Sheizaf August 10, 2012

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

Are we rational? How biases could make war with Iran a possibility

What are the some of cognitive biases that are influencing the recent bellicose rhetoric emanating from Jerusalem and Tehran? By Roi Ben-Yehuda It is said that wars begin in the minds of men. Considering the people charged with running Israel and Iran today, this is indeed a frightening prospect. But it’s also a chilling insight…

By +972 Magazine March 19, 2012

Five comments on the (troubling) situation

What does the appointment of Home Front Defense Minister Matan Vilna’i to ambassador of China really mean? Why is Yair Lapid whining? Which is the most interesting political teaming-up so far? What is one of the main goals of the war on Iran campaign? And what do we know of Netanyahu’s crime solving abilities? Ni…

By Ami Kaufman February 13, 2012

Israel likely to bomb Iran this year – NY Times Magazine

Israel appears set on attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities this year, writes Ronen Bergman, intelligence expert for Yediot Aharonot, in the cover story of the New York Times Magazine. He bases his prediction on interviews with many top security people, mainly Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who sat with him for several long discussions in Barak’s Tel Aviv penthouse. Bergman wrote that…

By Larry Derfner January 25, 2012

Apocalypse Soon: The aftermath of an attack on Iran

Consensus opinion now seems to be that Israel will attack Iran. So it might be worth thinking about what sort of war might follow. It might also be worth thinking about how such a war would end. In the last month or so, there seems to have been a shift in perception about Israel’s plans for…

By Larry Derfner November 27, 2011

PLAY the Ehud Barak Game: “If I were ____, I would surely ____”

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak likes to imagine himself in different positions. And I don’t mean that in a kinky way. Yesterday he told Charlie Rose that if he were Iranian he’d probably want the bomb, too. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJxfF5NjZdM&feature=channel_video_title[/youtube] In 1998, as many of you recall, Barak told Haartez journalist Gideon Levy that if he had been…

By Ami Kaufman November 17, 2011

President Obama (photo: Wikimedia Commons)

The “Obama Doctrine:” A blessing or a curse for the conflict?

The end of the Gaddafi regime in Libya proved that U.S. President Barack Obama’s doctrine of “leading from behind” was a success. But the Obama Doctrine is not only a new approach to war – it extends to foreign policy on the whole, and therefore has already begun to affect the Israeli-Palestinian conflict When U.S.…

By Ami Kaufman October 26, 2011

American F-15 (photo: wikimedia commons)

Do the D.C. bomb plot and Schalit deal spell “war with Iran”?

On the same day that a plot to kill a Saudi envoy in Washington was exposed, news of the Schalit deal was also top news. Both stories may have a common issue in the background – Tehran Yesterday, as I looked at the New York Times homepage, I didn’t know there might have been a…

By Ami Kaufman October 12, 2011